The omens just kept coming. First it was the train we missed by a scant minutes, then our expired tram passes. Maybe being out for just a simple day had our guard down, but the route we started climbing didn’t match the guidebook description and we didn’t know where we were.
Well, we could see the Index chair lift, and could easily bail to it. So what if the climb wasn’t what we were looking for, the climbing itself seemed reasonable and my pitch two connected with a line of bolts that was obviously on some route.
Some friendly climbers on a neighboring route told me the name of their climb, that still didn’t help me figure out where we were (turns out we were climbing the wrong part of the Gilière). Our makeshift route (portions of Mani pulite and Nez rouge – I think) was quite fun and not knowing what was coming kept the adventure high.
Not knowing when we’d hit the walk-off, I “led” a class 2, grass hike for my final pitch. All part of the adventure. Feeling like it was time to listen to all the omens, but it still being too early to call it a day, we hiked to the base of the Index (a formation we were at least familiar with) and repeated the first two pitches of Voie Brunat-Perroux, reversing the order we’d previously led them.
Complete photo album
