Mountaineering notebook - Skyline de la Meije
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Time to read 2 min
Pilou, member of the Lagoped Family, we share the story of two beautiful days of mountaineering at La Grave carried out at the end of July 2024. A sequence planned for a long time with Benjamin Ribeyre, guide at La Grave.
Looking back on a great adventure shared with Benjamin Ribeyre on July 26 and 27 at La Grave!
Leaving from the top of the Meije glaciers cable car at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, we traveled the “Skyline of the Meije” by linking the Pic de la Grave to the Pointe Gravelotte, climbing all the summits listed on the map.
This is a project we had been planning for some time, and everyone’s availability and the weather had pushed us to postpone this trip already planned last summer.
This year we blocked out 5 days to be almost sure to have a good enough weather window.
So we set off Thursday afternoon to sleep at the Pugnat hut at the top of the cable car.
We had planned 2 to 3 days of adventure, so enough to spend 2 nights self-sufficient on the ridges.
First night at the Pugnat hut with a view of the Meije!
For a good part of the traverse, we already knew the route, which allowed us to move quite quickly, but there were still two unknown sections. The first is the route over the summits of the Carré Glacier (little finger, big finger, and Carré Glacier peak), which is usually bypassed during the classic Meije traverse.
To climb the little finger, we took the last pitches of the route “the horror of the belly,” which were the most technically difficult pitches (6b and A1).
The continuation to Pic du Glacier Carré and the descent to the Glacier Carré breach went quite well in very little frequented terrain.
Sunrise at the summit of Le Pavé, La Meije and the ridges in the background
The second big question was the route linking Pic Gaspard, Tour Piaget, Pointe Piaget, Pointe des Pichettes, Pointe Nerot, and Pointe Gravelotte.
There we had some guides but quite little detailed information.
We had to turn back 10m below the summit of the antecime of Tour Piaget on really dangerous rock.
We therefore bypassed the peak by abseiling then took the south ridge of Pointe Piaget.
Connecting the remaining peaks was a bit tricky but ultimately without issues!
In little or rarely frequented terrain below Pointe Piaget
The descent after Pointe Gravelotte was still interesting on chamois ledges down to the trail below the Alpe refuge.
A wonderful adventure at home, it was great to walk back home from the cable car summit via the ridges!
By the numbers
23 summits
between 3387m and 3983m altitude
27h08 and 22 seconds excluding bivouac from the Pugnat hut to the Arsine bridge
We hope this mountaineering journal will inspire you to discover the wonders of La Meije alongside the Lagoped Family.
Pilou Cret
Pilou is one of the young talents of the Lagoped Family. At only 25 years old, he is about to become a guide and participated in writing a mountain film: La Grave BB.