UKC

Has anyone climbed Versant Santanique? Please can you advise me on what gear to take, and which pitches use what size. I have 2 guidebooks, one says double up of BD cams up to 3 and one 4, the other says one of each up to 1, and double up on the 2's and 3's.

Please advise

In reply to kevinroet:

Look here: http://jeffmercier.blogspot.fr/2011/04/granit-j3-la-plus-belle-journee.html

In reply to kevinroet: I did, but there is a guidebook that tells us we only need one of each up to BD cam 1 , and 2 2's and 3's. Dont really wanna take too much gear if we dont need to.

In reply to kevinroet:

Jeff is quite clear at the bottom of his write up:

Matos : 2 racks jusqu'au 3 + 1 n°4,

In reply to kevinroet: Thanks Jon, I did read his blog, and he did set the route, so my guess was that he knows what gear to take. I was unsure as to a guidebook told us differently. I was just being hopefull that someone may tell us that we need less gear. Maybe you could tell us what gear we need on each particular pitch, as you seem to know what you are talking about.

Kev

In reply to kevinroet: Whilst I understand the desire to avoid confusion caused by two different publications I don't think that expecting chapter and verse on an alpine route is really in the true spirit of alpinism. get out there and get on with it Kev.

In reply to kevinroet:

No, I'm afraid not. I was simply pointing out that his recommended rack coincided exactly with what you said one of your guidebooks said.

It also seems he climbed it by mistake...!

In reply to kevinroet: Solution is then to take all of my gear, and see what we need and dont need. And yes grid north, I'll do it in the light of alpine style, and take what we may need, and not overload. Was hoping for something more specific, as we will be trying several routes, and dont want to be taking too much gear with us. And jon, my french is a little rusty, so wasnt able to translate the whole thing. Thanks for the input guys. Havent really gotten further to when I first started...

In reply to kevinroet: Just kidding although I was also making a serious point. The only information I like to get in advance is if there is a requirement for big cams because I hate carrying the damned things if they are not needed.

In reply to kevinroet:

Not climbed Santan, but climbed the route to the right as well as lots more granite routes in the Argentiere basin.
My experience of the Argentiere basin routes are that they are not frequented as often as the Enver routes so expect the unexpected!
Well worth taking a bigger rack & to be looking at it rather than looking for the missing runner, I would definetly take the double rack!

The abseil descents are also underused so well worth checking although in this case there is a new bolted descent from the top of the mineret to the right of the route.
Enjoy.

In reply to kevinroet:

Climbed this the other day.

Take double of everything including the four, you will use them as we only came across one bolt on the route other than the belays.
Not entirely sure we were on the right line for the first pitch after consulting the old Piola hard back line drawing, but no mistaking the pitches from then onwards.
Quality.

In reply to kevinroet: Thanlks for advice, we're back in uk now. We did start climbing around there, but got onto a route called Rasta Metal, which is just to the left. managed to do the first pitch (6C-6C+), which was a bit hard as a warm up, so ended up abbing off after pitch one. Maybe next year...