Mountain Lifestyle

The Mountain Lifestyle Blog

  • Le Pilier Gris, D (180m) – La Croix de Toulouse

    Le Pilier Gris, D (180m) – La Croix de Toulouse

    To take advantage of the slight dip in the temperatures, we were up and out early to try a climb about the town of Briancon. I’d heard about the Pilier Gris for a while and had previously decided that it would be too hot/busy to climb at this time of year, but with a cooler… Read more

  • Alpine Life

    Alpine Life

    We’ve spent a few days of alpine living ‘at home’ around Pelvoux, doing various bits of online work, resting, swimming and even squeezed in a couple of valley climbs between the every changing weather of recent days. High clouds early on in the day signalled a change was coming… Clare has had a very busy… Read more

  • Starting Pitches…

    Starting Pitches…

    A rather disjointed day! We managed to climb quite a few pitches of rock, but didn’t top out on a single route! Sometimes that’s the way it goes… After an early start, we were clipping the first bolts at around 07:30am. We thought we’d be climbing in the shade, but as our climb was on… Read more

  • Refuge des Bans (2083m)

    Refuge des Bans (2083m)

    Last summer, some huge floods and landslides caused all sorts of chaos in this alpine region and today we saw some of the devistation first hand on the walk up to the Refuge des Bans. For a start, the road to the car park was still closed to traffic. This could have put an end… Read more

  • Mossy Multi-Pitch Climbing

    Mossy Multi-Pitch Climbing

    We set out to climb a ‘new route’ in the valley today, only to find that it was a bit too new and still covered in moss and pine needles! Also, although the topo made it look pretty good, the climbing was mediocre and disjointed, so although it was a nice journey up the hillside,… Read more

  • La Blanche (2953m)

    La Blanche (2953m)

    You can see the peak of La Blanche, from the terrace outside our front door, where I’m writing this, so thought we ought to try and climb it. Rather helpfully, the nearby chairlift gives a good head start and for 13 euros this time, we got quickly wisked up to 2200m. We had initially planned… Read more

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