We’ve come to Chamonix for the weekend for a quick fix of Alpine Rock adventure.
Plan A (Pointe Percee) and plan B (Aiguille de Praz Torrent) had to be postponed due to the large amounts of snow still covering the ground. Plan C(i) (Plilier Sud Ouest) and Plan C(ii) (Barbarine) were abandoned due to lack of enthusiasm. So a quick browse through the guidebook gave us plan D: Into the Wild up the beautiful Vallon de Berard.
We have visited Vallon de Berard a few times, climbing and skiing, but we hadn’t been to this climb before. From the parking, near Le Buet, you walk just under 1.5 hours up the valley to get the the bottom of the route. Today the air was beautifully clear and fresh, there were lots of meadow flowers, the river was very full, and, in places, snow was still down to the path.
Fortunately, the route is on the sunny side of the valley so there was no snow to prevent access. As we reached the small cairn that identified the path to take us to the bottom of the route, we looked up and saw a couple of teams already en-route. We also saw a group of bouquetin just hanging around. We were sure they would run away as soon as the climbers approached, but they seemed quite contented to hang out and watch the goings on… probably wondering why we needed ropes to tackle the steep slopes!
Anyway, by the time we got to the bottom of the route, the teams ahead had cleared the way. There are two routes: Into the Wild and L’ Indien. There pretty much the same grade so we chose Into the Wild.
The route was great, and soon another team were quickly following us. This was obviously a popular place, but it was all very amiable. An easy abseil off brought us back to our bags, a late lunch and some shared chocolate courtesy of a Swiss team.
Looks fab , but I’m amazed 😯 at how much snow there still is about. Maybe you could have got the skis out ❓
On our way up we did pass one man on his way down, with skis and boots on his back. He looked very fit, he was probably in training for something – no lycra though! 🙂