With an alarm around 05:30, it could have been considered a mountaineer’s alpine start, but this one felt far more luxurious. A wholesome breakfast in bed and a quick shower was far more agreeable that staggering around, bleary eyed in a mountain hut eating their traditional dried bread and jam. As such, we arrived feeling energised and ready at the base of the climb despite the early hour. Walking up to the base of the ridge in the shade felt nice and cool and with our light packs, we felt glad we’d made the effort. Subsequently, we were well on our way up pitch three before the sun breached the horizon.

Even in the early morning, the sunshine had a ferocity about it, causing us to climb in the shaded side of the ridge where possible. Despite this, it still felt wonderful to be up early and entire stillness of the high valley.

The climb is part bolted and partly protected traditionally, so required a bit of route finding, but being a ridge route, the general gist was easy to follow. Pitches of rocky scrambling were followed with sold steeper sections.

For speed, I linked to easy sections together. Look in close at the photo below and you can make out Clare sitting atop a pinnacle below!

It was fun climbing in a low stress environment, with the heat being the only slight concern. But this would only be more of an unpleasant hindrance rather than a danger as the day wore on.

We moved fast up and over the rocky ground, swinging leads as we went.

Two thirds of the way up, a small abseil was required in order to carry on.

Once in the gap between gendarmes, we could continue along the ridge.

Then soon enough, we reached the summit of the final tower, where an abseil down landed us back on the screes where a faint cairned path led back to the start.

The single bolt on the summit was backed up with some very faded and worn rope, so we cut it away and replaced it with some much more re-assuring fresh cord that we carried for this purpose. It was a short 8m abseil to the ground, but we continued a full 30m to get safely down the steep slopes from the breche.

It was only a two minute drive to the nearby village of Ceillac, so we returned to the Tabac, via a delicious and refreshing ice cream (first one of the trip!), for a celebratory drink, having been on the go for about 4 hours.

Feeling refreshed, accomplished and a little fatigued, we strolled the old streets back to the car, then heading down to the Guil Gorge to have a restorative swim. Even better than that, we found a rock to jump in off! Great fun!

The water felt colder than our previous visit, but it was easy to warm back up again in the 29°C heat.

By late afternoon we’d climbed, swam and were ready for a pastry on the balcony back at base. Later that evening we walked to the Fort at Mt Daulpin and enjoyed a cold drink at the Café Glacier Bleu, revelling in the warmth of being able to go out in shorts and t-shirts after sunset.

Éperon de LouLou, 200m

– 3c,4a,4c,2c,4c,3c,4b,5a*