UKC

Hello,

My guidebook is too well tessellated within my bag to risk unpacking it now! Can anyone with a guide, or off the top of their head, tell me roughly how many quickdraws one would need on the single and multipitch climbs?

Also route suggestions wouldn't go a miss. I think we are only staying there for a few days but I had my eye on La Snoopy.

Cheers,

David

In reply to David Kirsfelds:

Carried 14 and never placed all on any of the routes I did

In reply to David Kirsfelds:

I was there a few weeks ago and I seemed to remember 14/15 seemed good. I may have linked a few pitches though.

In reply to David Kirsfelds: 14 should be OK, although I have done a route there where I used 16.
Here are some route suggestions:
Snoopy direct, f6b,absolute class route much better than Snoopy.
La vie devant soi, 6b+, probably the best route in the valley around this grade. The 6b+ pitch is soft for the grade.
Soleil Glacial, f6b, 500m route at the top of the valley, real mountain feel to it.

In reply to David Kirsfelds: La nocturne is another good route, f6a+, but you will need some wires and cams on this.
I carry a set of wires on all the routes.

In reply to Martin Haworth: Cheers, thanks for that! I'm pretty maxed out on weight at the moment so I'll try and get my friends to bring some more... You can always rent I assume?

David

In reply to David Kirsfelds: Ulikely you can rent but the campsite is friendly so shouldn't be a problem to borrow. Bolting is very good and the climbing not too taxing so skipping the odd bolt should not be an issue. I would think 12 would do most pitches.

Worst comes to worse you can buy in the valley.

In reply to David Kirsfelds:

Bit of a hijack, but can you get away with a single rope (70m) on some of the multipitch routes? I just read you need a 100m rope (or doubles I guess?), but is it possible to get away without?

Cheers, and enjoy your trip!

In reply to RickGrundy:

Yes, you can get away with it - we just got back and while a single 70m rope will limit you somewhat in terms of which routes you can do (most are equipped for 40-50m abseil descents), there are a few routes that you can walk off. We did "Explosion des Calcaneums", a great route that you can walk down from in 20-25 mins on the Tete de la Draye path.

Also, you can walk off the top of the "Fissure" buttress fairly easily (apart from one sketchy bit, which has an in-situ rope and wire to hold on to).

Climbing on a single rope will be fine if you take plenty of long draws/extenders to reduce drag, as some pitches tend to wander around a bit.

All in all, if you're just climbing in Ailefroide itself take 2x50m half ropes. If -like us - you are planning to do some sport climbing down the valley (NB - Mont Dauphin is great!) then take the longest single rope you own.

We also climbed Visite Obligatoire on the Aiguille Dibona (about 2 hours drive from Ailefroide) - amazing and easily done on single rope.

In reply to 1234None:


I've just came back from Ailefroide, and half of the cable on the walk off from the Fissure is missing. Well, it was my first time in Ailefroide but my partners assured me that it was missing!

It's not too bad as far as sketchy walk-offs go, but we had some direct belaying antics going on as two of us didn't feel 100% happy. It's only one short section though - after that it's an easy walk down through the trees.

In reply to tehmarks:

Yes - that section was missing when we were there too, but it's not too bad to scramble across. There is still cable where it is most needed.