Mountaineering notebook - Skyline de la Meije
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Time to read 2 min
Pilou, member of the Lagoped Family , shares with us the story of two beautiful days of mountaineering in La Grave carried out at the end of July 2024. A long-planned sequence with Benjamin Ribeyre, guide in La Grave.
A look back at a great adventure shared with Benjamin Ribeyre on July 26 and 27 in La Grave!
Leaving from the top of the Meije glacier cable car at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, we traveled “the Meije Skyline” connecting Pic de la Grave to Pointe Gravelotte , climbing all the peaks listed on the map.
This is a project that we had had for some time now and everyone's availability and the weather had pushed us to postpone this trip already planned for last summer .
This year we blocked off 5 days to be almost sure to have a good enough weather window.
So we left on Thursday afternoon to sleep at the Pugnat cabin at the top of the cable car.
We had planned 2 or even 3 days of adventure, so enough to spend 2 nights independently on the ridges .
First night at the Pugnat cabin and view of the Meije!
For a good part of the crossing we already knew the route, which allowed us to go quite quickly, but there were still two unknown parts. The first is the route to the summits of the square glacier (little finger, big finger and peak of the square glacier) which we usually bypass when crossing the classic Meije.
To climb the little finger, we took the last lengths of the “horror of the belly” route , which was the technically hardest lengths (6b and A1).
The continuation to the peak of the square glacier and the descent to the breach of the square glacier went rather well in very little used terrain.
Sunrise at the top of the pavement, the Meije and the ridges in the background
The second big question was the route linking Pic Gaspard, Piaget Tower, Pointe Piaget, Pointe des Pichettes, Pointe Nerot and Pointe Gravelotte .
There we had some guides but relatively little detailed information.
We had to turn around 10m below the top of the ante-peak of the Piaget Tower in some really dangerous rock.
We therefore abseiled around the point then took the south ridge of Pointe Piaget .
Connecting the rest of the points again was a little laborious but ultimately without any problems!
In little or no frequented terrain under Piaget Point
The descent after Pointe Gravelotte was still interesting in chamois ledges up to the path under the Alpe refuge .
Great adventure so home, it was great to walk home from the top of the cable car via the ridges!
In numbers
23 peaks
between 3387m and 3983m altitude
27h08 and 22 seconds out of bivouac from Pugnat cabin to Arsine bridge
We hope that this mountaineering notebook will make you want to discover the wonders of La Meije alongside the Lagoped Family.
Pilou Cret
Pilou is one of the young hopefuls of the Lagoped Family. At only 25 years old, he is preparing to become a guide and participated in the writing of a mountain film: La Grave BB.