Ecrin 2023: The importance of having an Andrew on your rack

As I said in the last post, this trip was when I really started to identify as a climber and it begin to occupy more and more of my life. Over 19 days, a friend I’ll call Andrew (because that’s his name) and I climbed 8 alpine* routes and on our off days went bouldering, sport climbing, or via ferrata-ing. 

*routes given alpine grades, most were glorified sport climbs though that doesn’t make them any less fun or non adventurous for a first alpine trip. 

The background for both my physical and mental state for this trip is that I had spent the previous two months travelling around Central Asia, Türkiye, and Georgia. Whilst backpacking is a great experience it is undoubtedly awful for your physical state, especially when you get various bouts of food poisoning. The lack of climbing also isn’t great for your mental game, this is compounded when you break up with your long term girlfriend. 

Enter Andrew, everyone should have an Andrew on their rack. Not only a stronger climber but the main reason why I think our climbing partnership works so well is that we’re good friends first and foremost, and with that comes a lot of plain honesty. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I was pouring my heart out every night, blessedly quite the opposite. All that was required was me saying what had happened over the previous couple of months and that I probably wouldn’t be doing much leading, he accepted it and that was that. 

With all that out the way here are a few climbs from our time there. All the good photos below were taken by Andrew. 

Arete de Cineastes

My first alpine route and as such it will always hold a special place in my heart. We had done some moving together practise in North Wales at the start of the summer holidays so had some idea of how to do it but looking back our time could have been cut in half and probably been a fair safer as well.

Andrew, we’re in the alps!

Le Communard

An absolutely stunning route, 20 pitches of sustained 5/5+ climbing on a remote feeling mountain. But, because it’s the alps, pretty well bolted. I have two key memories from this route. The first, when I tried to lead the easy 4c pitch only to fluff it completely. I managed to not see most of the bolts on the pitch, instead relying on some pretty poor gear, and make a meal out of pretty easy moves. The second happened when seconding the crux traverse. Incredible climbing with bags of exposure also means that a fall leaves you hanging in space. This was the only time whilst climbing that my brain decided to make me think of my ex.

Andrew leading the crux pitch

Higher up the route, learning the meaning of exposure.
C. Andrew Bonner 

Navigating snow patches off the summit. 
C. Andrew Bonner 

Soleil Trompeur 

Another great, long, sustained route with a good amount of exposure. We had taken the train to the Ecrin, leaving us to hitchhike up and down the valley. This had worked fine for the other routes, even for alpine starts, but as we were getting close to the end of the trip we were obviously pretty tired so had slept through all the cars going up early. The extended walk in meant we only started climbing at 10:00 and whilst the climbing was great, due to our late start, we decided to miss the easy finish as the descent is to abseil back down the route. Despite a stuck rope we got down to the Pre de Madame Carle at a reasonable time but that day was obviously our unlucky day for hitchhiking, resulting in a long, sad walk back to the campsite. 

Barre de Ecrin North Face 

Before the trip I had been researching what to expect for alpine conditions and came to the conclusion there would be loads of snow everywhere. This wasn’t the case, partly cause the Ecrin is generally less snowy than areas like chamonix, partly cause of climate change, but mostly cause it was September. I had been excited for snowy things after doing some Scottish winter and this was the only route that was in. The walk in to the hut went well and it was our first time on a glacier, at the hut we talked to some Belgians who acted like they knew what there were doing. In the morning, following them across the glacier and getting lost, it was clear they did not. And frankly, we should’ve known better than to trust people from a country flatter than the UK. We only reached the base of the route by 6am so turned the afterburners on (well Andrew did, I just panted hard and tried not to slow him down too much) and reached the final traverse before getting to the summit ridge by 7am. At this point we were by ourselves on the mountain, some clouds had moved in earlier than expected and everyone else had bailed… europeans should really climb in Scotland. Or maybe we shouldn’t apply Scottish weather to alps, because it started raining above the summit and became a wee bit windy. We waited at ~3800m until 7:30 but the weather only got worse (it was meant to be clear until 12). The rain had softened the snow bridges, giving us good practise at glacier rope work but the worst that happened was a single leg breaking through a bridge at a time, and when we got to the bottom a serac collapse was a bit too close for comfort. However we were back at the hut by 9, and the weather was clear by 11. So at 12 we decided to head back out to give the south ridge of Pointe Louise a go. I had got really cold in the rain (I didn’t really know what a waterproof was and all my clothes were still wet) which resulted in me seemingly forgetting how to climb. We ran away from our second climb of the day and this time went all the way back down to the valley. 

On the walk in. The Barre de Ecrin in the background, the route starts bottom right and takes a diagonal line up and left before cutting back to the right side of the ridge, which is followed to the summit. 

Oooh big crevasse. 
C. Andrew Bonner 

Arete Sud on Les Bans

This was one the final alpine route of the trip and just a joyous romp where we were fit and moving efficiently. We spent the day walking into the Les Bans hut from the Ailefroide campsite (again problems hitchhiking), also in torrential rain which made some river crossings quite spicy. At the hut a French man told us the climbing was three grades harder than the guidebook says, chossy, and be too wet to climb. I would highly recommend ignoring silly French men (this one seemed to be trying to impress his gf) as the climbing was easy, solid, dry, and most importantly really enjoyable. Doing 500m of fairly sustained and exposed climbing in 3 long pitches is a memory that will stay with me for a long time. The walk back was equally long but thankfully in nice sunshine. Although when we happened across an umbrella Andrew still decided to stash it in case it rained. 

Arete de la Bruyeres

With Le Meije out, due to rockfall destroying the approach, we decided to venture slightly further afield in search of easy alpine terrain. We took the bus from Vallorcine to Briancion and hitchhiked from there to the trailhead, walked up and stashed our bivi gear by the lake. We had decided to take bivi gear due to a completely pessimistic estimation of: a day for the hitchhike and approach, a day for the route, and a day to return. Starting the route at 11am and finishing by 2pm broke those expectations by some bit. The route was technically easy but had great positions throughout, an obvious indicator to fun. Although the extremely polished first pitch did remind me why I hate limestone. 

On the ridge 

One of the many downclimbs off the pinnacles. 
C. Andrew Bonner 

Coming down we decided that since we had brought all our bivi kit, and had yet to do one, we might as well indulge ourselves. Lying down in the afternoon sun without a cloud in the sky, relaxing with a trip well down I felt content. A few hours later I started to feel something wet on my face. I heard Andrew zip his bag up, I cinched mine up around my face. It continued. I turned my headtorch on and so the first snows of the season falling around us with no indication that they were stopping. I tossed and turned trying to find the position of least suffering until the light bulb went off. The umbrella! Andrew had never unpacked it and I had laughed at how silly he was when we found stashing the kit earlier; but now it was to be my saviour. I dug through his bag and opened it up to cover my head, sleeping soundly after that. Waking up only briefly once later when a fox tried to steal one our bags. 

Waking up to a cold morning, happy underneath the umbrella 

Heading down and hoping our boots would thaw out quickly. 
C. Andrew Bonner