La Grave and a significant col

To complete the alpine part of the trip, we nipped to La Grave. We should have been here weeks ago but the Bourg d’Oisans thunderstorm was the beginning of some unsettled weather and we had decided to go south.

La Grave sits under La Meije, right under it. At 3,982m it’s the same height as the Eiger but you can camp literally below it.

The problem then is this causes neck-ache. I have never looked up to such a high point for so long, from such a position. The glaciers are strung along the north faces of these peaks and in some places seracs are visible, appearing to be ready to crash down.

Now this isn’t the Khumbu icefall but it’s pretty good. With binoculars, several burgschrunds are also visible under the faces. It’s amazing.

To complete the picture, the river flows alongside the campsite and this is flowing so fast, with such a volume of freezing water, that it is scary. It’s flowing quicker than a human could run and it’s no place in which to cool a bottle of rosé. I really didn’t try.

It is a place to return to. There’s two or three successive lifts of cable cars (small ones that go up in groups of four) and these can take you way up / ultimately over 3,000m, although there would be little walking up there at the moment - too much snow.

We had no time for that though as it was a turnaround day and we intended to begin a slow drive to home.

However, there’s the small point of the clean air zone at Grenoble which, unlike most, also encompasses the major roads that link the surrounding regions. We realised that we just can’t drive through and so we couldn’t drive west, back to Bourg d’Oisans, as that route would eventually take us through Grenoble and that would be tempting fate.

Ironically there’s been a vote in the French parliament which will remove the compulsion for cities and other regions to create and run clean air zones. Some will no doubt be removed but that won’t help us.

So we have the excuse to turn east and then north in order to cross two more cols. These are Lauterets and then the famous Galibier. We turn up Lauterets which isn’t far and not too much of a climb but near the top, we see a blue Transit campervan heading down towards La Grave. It could be non other than friends from Buxton. We know they are somewhere in these mountains but it’s quite a coincidence to see them driving past us. A quick WhatsApp confirms but I’m upset to hear that although I saw them, they didn’t see us in our distinctive vehicle. 😮

It’s a beautiful day and the bikers and cyclists are already ahead of us. Lauterets is a busy road, linking the Oisans with Italy but Galibier is in another league. It is high, narrow and very, very twisty but most of all it offers the passengers considerable exposure!

There’s very little room at the top; the cyclists take over the road as they pose for a photo and the views are great. I cheekily park on the side and somehow tucked in enough and so we can get out and mingle.

I hear a couple of young British cyclists speaking and I feel able to go and congratulate them on the climb up. They are travelling in the same direction as us and are maybe more aware of the huge descent that awaits them.

I also feel able to point out Mt Blanc because I’m sure they hadn’t noticed. In fact I don’t really think many people up there were looking to that horizon. Yet again the mountain rises high above the rest and the chaps were really happy to have it pointed out.

So down we started and this time we are eventually going to descend over 2,000m to the Maurienne valley. Col du Galibier is at 2,642m making it one of the very highest and it’s a long way down from there.

That’s just the first few hundred metres.

The descent lasts for a very long time and the cyclists choosing to climb this side have a very strenuous few hours.