Adrian's Photoblog

Peter on the Cime Ouest
Originally uploaded by Adeeh2

It's difficult to believe that all this grand mountain country of the Maritime Alps exists only 1 and a half hours drive from Nice, and this 4 day tour with Peter of 7 passes and 3 summits was really special. After parking in the Vallon de Gordelasque we did a large clockwise traverse to the Refuge Madone de Fenestre, from where we did some summits to the northwest. On day 3 we did a classic traverse of 3 passes to the Ref Merveilles before a beautiful walk back over the Cime du Diable to the car. Apart from the bustling refuges, it was very quiet walking during the day...another feature of this less well known part of the Alps.

A long wet winter had resulted in massive snow volumes and there were extensive snowfields on our walks - with large periods on snow or rock...and paths very often buried. This added additional interest in route finding.
It was good to pass through the Vallee des Merveilles where I went with Dee, Sophie and Izzy in 2006.

The full set of photos is here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adeeh2/sets/72157621391332165/

# posted by Adrian @ 9:04 PM