yet another Ecrins walk: Vallon des Etages

One treat following hard on the heels of another, I am just back from 24 hours in the Ecrins with Juan.
After a torpid Saturday, we finally decided early evening to head for the hills, ignoring all storm warnings (so many predictions of rain these last months have proved false). In a sense we were proved right - Vaulnaveys remained dry. But the Venéon valley was another matter. As we weighed up possible bivvying options near the Cascade de la Pisse, the heavens opened and we were instantly soaked. Bedding down in dripping vegetation, not knowing when the predicted "clear night" was going to start, had limited appeal.
So we went for Plan B: a dorm bed at the renowned hotel-café-bunkhouse, "La Cordée", in St Christophe (where Juan slept with his head away from the wall so as to have more air in the event of an attack - ?!?).

After supper there was a bonus: a screening of Bernard Boyer's 1991 film, "Le voyage vertical", a beautifully filmed account of some of his many Ecrins ascents interwoven with a commentary on the farming communities on the verge of disappearing, even at that time. We experienced a mixture of envy (the bird's eye perspective you get as a mountaineer is beyond all wonderful) and relief (that our walks involve none of the risk and difficulty of technical climbs).

Sunday dawned fair. We had a glorious breakfast on the edge of the carpark at Les Etages...

....then walked up the Vallon des Etages towards the glacier of the same name. An exquisite route, packing in all the Ecrins elements into a handful of km: a delightful woodland approach:

a river:



a glacier (deceptive - what looked like a glacial "molehill" from afar was impressive close to):



soaring peaks all around (you can just pick out the Dibona needle in this shot):

- and juicy blueberry bushes lining the path. And, because there is no refuge up this valley, on this Sunday in full French holiday period we saw just six people all day.