Summer alpine Ecrins trip - July 7th to 15th

Splendid. I am psyched. When would the advance guard be arriving? I’m eyeing up the sleeper train from Paris to Briançon and may be able to make it a couple of days before the Saturday.

I’ll look into this too…might be better if several persons try and get the same or similar train?

I was thinking of taking the eurostar maybe on Wed or Thu afternoon (4 or 5th) for £45 and then the sleeper train same eve. But not settled on dates yet as I might want to catch up with a friend in Paris before or after Ecrins.

We plan to be there on the 5 th

Hi, I’m keen on a mix of climbing, hiking, whatever.
Probably can go for a long weekend over 5/6th to 10/11th ish.

I looked into travel logistics…
Train - seems expensive, but let me know if anyone has found something reasonable.
Flying - still cheap. If we will be on the west side, then Turin is much more favourable than Grenoble. Also Turin has more flights, and car hire from Turin airport is half that in Grenoble.
There is a train from Turin to Oulx, and then a bus from Oulx to Briancon, both quite cheap.
There is a coach to Lyon that takes 15 hours - cheap but long.

On the subject of cars - will these be needed, or is there plenty of stuff to do within walking distance/easy public transport?

Hi all,

Great to see the planning progressing, and without wishing to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm, time for a post on a slightly more serious note.

Khalid and I had a chat and thought it a good idea to provide a bit more detail about the meet, and in particular be upfront about how it is run so as to avoid any misunderstandings later.

Just like the Scottish Winter Trip, everyone will have different levels of experience and different route aspirations. Usually that translates into people pairing up or forming groups for specific objectives, so helpful to have routes or peaks in mind and start the discussion about what you want to do. I see some of that on this thread already which is great.
You’ll be responsible for your own and your partner’s safety, so please be honest about your technical ability, experience and fitness levels. Some routes are suitable for gaining experience on with more experienced and willing partners, but none of us are guides. If you are starting out, you’ll need to find someone with similar goals and pick your routes carefully, and of course the option is there to hire a guide/go on a course, and gain experience that way.

That doesn’t mean we won’t be doing our best to make sure everyone is included and has a great trip, and the more people we get along, the easier it will be to team up for routes.

Finally, it’s also a reminder that there is plenty of time brush up on and learn new alpine skills. Depending on the route these could include cramponing technique, taking coils, moving together safely, glacier travel, crevasse rescue, navigation, doing a multi-pitch abseil quickly and efficiently, to name a few.

@Max_A I know there’s still lots of time before July, but will there be a spreadsheet similar to the Scottish trip for objectives/experience/travel plans etc. so we can see what everyone has in mind? I’ve never been to Ecrins so would love to get some beta :slight_smile:

@krisk Train travel is just my personal preference, mainly for environmental reasons. I know it’s more expensive but not by a huge amount taking into account the luggage fee, getting to and from the airport etc.

Thanks @Max_A - fwiw, I’m really aiming to just go rock climbing, mostly single and multi pitch sport, and will be available for belays accordingly. If everyone else wants to go and do some alpinism on one or more of the days, I’ll go bouldering, unless a team is happy to take a beginner into the higher regions…

I am keen to learn alpine skills, though, so if I do go down a bit early I’ll definitely look into options for doing a course - from past experience, it’s the most efficient (in time, if not money) and safest way to go than trying to pick it up on the job.

@Tutu and @MattGee - happy to take either or neither of you. Not bothered about sharing the driving really; will probably take the ferry and then hammer it down to the Alps in one go.

p.s. I’m also happy to be gear donkey and take things down in the Kangoo, as I’ll be reconfiguring to sleep just one and leave more room for e.g. my own gear and my road bike, etc. Could save people some money re bags on planes etc.

Old school British Alpinism, all the gear in a big van!

MattGee https://chat.nlmc.co.uk/u/mattgee NLMC Member
April 25

Old school British Alpinism, all the gear in a big van!

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In Reply To
PaulSagar https://chat.nlmc.co.uk/u/paulsagar NLMC Member
April 25
p.s. I’m also happy to be gear donkey and take things down in the Kangoo,
as I’ll be reconfiguring to sleep just one and leave more room for e.g. my
own gear and my road bike, etc. Could save people some money re bags on
planes etc.

A big van? Luxury. We used to dream of having a big van. Hitching was the
only way.

AVisit Topic

With the back door wide open :smiley: (just read this in One Day As A Tiger…)

Will there be a spreadsheet? I didn’t see the Scotland one, sounds like Khalid territory :wink:

What is this: slight_ smile? It’s a complete mystery to us older members.

Someone who worked for Bonington querying spreadsheets…???

Not spreadsheets. I understand them. It’s slight_smile I don’t understand

Forgive my New Member ignorance…who worked for Bonington?

That would be me. I did 14 years working on his lecture tour every autumn: driving around the country, setting up the audio visual equipment in theatres, selling books and posters n the interval and grabbing some climbing when we had the chance.

Wow Richard how fascinating! I’m working my way through lots of climbing histories/biographies and Chris’ latest book is waiting to be read too.

Depending on what technology you read this thread on, the sl1ght_smile will appear as a facile little cartoon face, otherwise know as an emoji. It basically negates the need for our children to to write in grammatically correct sentences.

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