Grand Perron traverse (09.08.2017)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Emosson dam car park |
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| Characteristic | Climbing |
| Duration | 6h 45min |
| Map |
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| Ascents | Grand Perron (2,674m) | 09.08.2017 |
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After a day of rain and only having done a quick and easy via ferrata at Nax on Tuesday, the weather forecast for Wednesday looked more promising with the last of the rain and fog supposed to clear in the morning. There was even a chance of seeing sunshine later in the day! However, since bad weather was forecasted again on both Thursday and Friday it seemed like the best option would be to do a day trip. We also made a plan to switch our rest day from Saturday to Thursday so we could make the most of the good weather which was forecasted to be coming at the start of the weekend. With this in mind Sami suggested either doing some rock climbing in the valley or the Grand Perron traverse. Both Linda and I agreed that a high level ridge traverse would be a far more interesting option than valley rock climbing! The risk of afternoon thunderstorms on Wednesday meant that we needed to start the traverse early to make sure we were off the mountain by early afternoon, so it was decided that we’d leave Evolene at 6am and make the 1.5 hr drive across to the Emosson dam to allow enough time to complete the route.
On Wednesday morning we woke up to thick, damp fog and a somewhat unoptimistic guide. ‘It’s not looking good….’ was Sami’s first opinion on the current weather as we drove from the apartment in Evolene in the dark . Still, we decided that now we’d actually made the effort to get up early it would be worth seeing how things developed by the time we arrived at the car park by the Emosson dam. As it happened the air wasn’t quite so damp by the time we got there at just after 7.30 but it was still pretty foggy and the chances were that the ridge hadn’t yet dried up after Tuesday’s storms. Linda and I remained eager to make a start so our new plan was to walk up towards the ridge and see how conditions were. After a short while we took off to the left and followed a footpath up the mountainside which. This was pretty wet and muddy in places, but after about half an hour the fog had lifted somewhat and we could actually see both the Emosson lake and part of Grand Perron itself! We put on climbing gear before the terrain steepened up and became more scrambly in nature. Even though there were spots of sunshine by now the rock here was as slippery as soap, so we scrambled short sections and used the bolts to protect these sections until we finally got onto a more gravel-type path leading up a gully with some scrambling towards the col on the ridge. The was some fog which came and went but by the time we’d got above the vegetation line the rock was completely dry and pleasant to scramble on. It had been a good decision to get out early after all!
From the col we went along a path on the north side of the ridge before ascending up to its crest after a short distance from the col. Easy scrambling and ridge walking followed to reach the first summit on the ridge. Much of the ground between the first top and Grand Perron consisted of sections of straightforward downclimbing and traversing short exposed sections. On the sunny side of the ridge we were even rewarded with some views across to the Mont Blanc massif – even the Dent du Geant could be seen emerging above the carpet of fog! More downclimbing and 2 short abseils followed to reach the lowpoint between Grand Perron and Pointe Vouilloz. By this time a Swedish guide and his client weren’t that far behind us, which prompted Sami’s quote of the day; ‘we have to beat team Sweden!’ A pitch of easy climbing and a bit more scrambling, moving together on a short rope got us up to the top of Pointe Vouilloz with a nice but partially fog-obscured view of Grand Perron behind us. From here we downclimbed along the ridge to the start of the next 2 abseils which went straight down the northwest-facing wall of Pointe Vouilloz and finished more or less at the foot of the final climb up to Pointe de l’Ifala. The first pitch up from here included the crux move of the traverse, more or less just above the belay, which wasn’t really all that difficult since we were climbing in mountain boots. From the top of that pitch we moved together and did a short pitch here and there to traverse across and up to the summit of Pointe de l’Ifala. I’m lead to believe that on a clear day the view back across to Pointe Vouilloz and Grand Perron from here is supposed to be pretty fantastic but as luck would have it we didn’t get any view. Nevertheless we got glimpses of mountains and lakes in the distance before we started the descent down towards Lac d’Emosson again. At least it was dry and warm despite the mist. Plus we did also beat team Sweden to the top of Pointe de l’Ifala, which was also the final summit on the traverse!
The walk down was at times steep with some bits of scrambling, but there was a visible path to follow all the way down to the Breche des Perrons from where we headed down to the valley, passing a couple of small lakes and a gorge along the way. Once down in the main valley of Gorge de la Veudale we joined a footpath and followed it all the way back to the Emosson dam feeling rather satisfied with the day’s very good quality ridge traverse. I think we were all rather pleased that we didn’t let the early morning fog change our plans. But I think it would be rather fun to redo the ridge traverse in better weather, just for the views!
User comments
Some truly
Written by mortenh 05.09.2017 23:28Some truly spectacular glimpses og sharp ridges and valleys deep below through holes in the clouds. Looks like a really exciting and thrilling traverse.
Re: Some truly
Written by hmsv1 06.09.2017 09:09Yes, it was a great ridge traverse although I don't think any of the photos do it justice since I only took the camera out on the easy bits of the traverse!