Via Ferrata: Holy Shit!

[Roo]

I know that amongst seasoned climbers, via ferrata is seen in much the same way that snowblading is to a freeskier but the French have taken the 'sport' and added some really interesting twists.

Having reached the advanced age of 41, I really should have grown out of the 'how difficult can this shit be?' attitude. It never worked when teaching myself to fly a helicopter but teaching yourself to via ferrata? What could go wrong?

Anyway, me and Mrs Roo rocked up to Col du Vent via ferrata at the Cormet de Roselend in France. I sort of expected it to be a crag right next to the road, but to my considerable chagrin, it started right up there.




Can't even see my shitty courtesy car down there on the road.


Mrs Roo scuttles up the opening oblique slabs.


I had kind of envisaged it to be like climbing up a ladder. It then got distinctly more mountainy. Right-o.


On the summit ridge, we started to get a bit of cloud rolling over. They cleared just enough to see the ext stage of the route.


HOLY FUCK! I'm expected to do that?


Grizzled ole French dude edges across.


Crossing the ice field to get to the final tower.

Even getting to the bridge required edging down the cliff and grubbing along to the wires. That was not relaxing.


My strategy was to hug the wires in under my armpits. This had two problems. As the wires weren't at all taut, it made the whole bridge very narrow. This, in turn, meant I had to lean to one side to get past the wire stringers. Half way across I edged past a stringer and the whole bridge leaned 30 or 40 degrees to the left. Just as I thought that the whole thing was about to spin upside down, an electrical storm kicked off. Joy. I'm not sure anybody has ever crossed the second half of that bridge faster.


Mrs Roo was annoyingly calm as she traversed the bridge.

Found some Youtube of some other dude attempting it.


After being unable to find the exit tunnel in the whiteout, we were treated to a long walk up the snowfield and around the shoulder of the massif back to the road.



Somewhat strangely, I'm now keen to have a go at some more.

[neck beard]

Great fun

[SPREAD EAGLE]

With wife in on the adventure...You are, er, she is badass, and that looks SCARY!!!

[nihiles]

good work.

[Hicks]

Randy rope dancer Andy!

Nevermind, good work on ya both.

[Schnappi]

Capris
123

[TacocaT]

Nice pictures.

There is a nice one near Seneca Rocks in West Virginia if anyone is looking to stay closer to home http://www.nelsonrocks.org/Via_Ferrata.html

[Buttepacker]

Ay yay yay, that crossing gives me the willies. Sweet pics!

[Roo]

Few other shots:


Get it while it's hot.


Big snowfalls in the Oisans have meant tricky conditions for the Megavalanche mountain bike race in Alpe d'Huez, but the Les Deux Alpes glacier was in STELLAR nick. 3500 feet of vert available. This is about 20% of the skiable acreage.


We even got a guest appearance from Iceman.


Part of the park section


We even found some fairly steepish pitches for glacier skiing.


Up at the liaison with La Grave (3600m)


Back to the 30 degree warmth of the resort in the afternoon.

[Huck_Schmuck]

Capris
123

You know Roo had some on to.

My old man can't climb a ladder without vertigo kicking his ass. Last May he went on his nephews stag do in Honister. They all did a via ferrata there, I laughed until I saw his photos. I was pretty proud of the old man. VF can get pretty interesting, even in the Lakes. I did a route in Italy and really enjoyed it.

[hutash]

Metal cables and an electric storm...what could go wrong?


That looks like fun. I thought climbing ladders wasn't real climbing until a did something similar, but not nearly that exposed (no cable bridges) in Acadia National Park. I was sore as hell the next day.

[fivefourtwo]

We need summer skiing like that here, Jumbo??? Nice post looks like fun!

[Slaag Master]

looks like nice corrugated snow

[Game Over]

the climb down to the bridge looked fun! i would have shat myself.
love the shot of mrs. roo with the skis and flip-flops

[summit]

That's really cool!

[comish]

Nice one. We did a weekend in the Dolomiti a bunch of years back. Really cool and great fun.

We stayed in a Refugio up in the mountains and loved that upon our return the old grizzled dude asked us if we wanted some pasta and vini?

Thanks for sharing!

[Tippster]

Did you have people yelling "Out of the way, Gaper! WOOOOOO...." or was it uncrowded?

[Roo]

It was really quiet on the via ferrata. A couple of days later we did one in the Sarenne Gorge near Alpe d'Huez. That was just ridiculously beautiful. Two routes - Mrs Roo was keen on the easier one.











Very cool to watch a pair of peregrine falcons hunting up and down the gorge.


Col de la Croix de Fer


Bit of swimming at Lake Annecy


Down on the Mediterranean coast at Calanque de Port.

[MakersTeleMark]

Andy:

Fantastic, and you have a hellava Mrs. Roo, as always. Lucky bastard.

All the best, and thanks for sharing.

[Hicks]

This thread is getting better and better......

[TWINS]

Life looks really good on your side of the world Great summer stoke btw.

[WICS]

That was awesome. Thank you for sharing.



And batwings .....

[truth]

Did you happen to see Blondin?

[Roo]

I think he was up on the Plateau d'Emparis stoving a marmot's head in with a shovel.

[Helldawg]

No frontal? Lame...