the birm*

Same plateau, different epic / pushing a bike through snow is no slower than pushing skis through grass…

RC and I had talked about it all winter and what with soaring temperatures, it was now or never (at least not this season).

We loaded up the car with skis, food and sleeping bags and drove to Le Chazelet. There was no more snow at low level, but we were pretty sure they’d be some on the Plateau d’Emparis. Marc came with us for the first leg of the epic (hiking up to the snow in telemark boots with packs and skis on the back).

The snow was soupy and heavy, but fun (at least once we hit the down part towards the bivouac spot, just near where I’d pushed the bike across the said plateau in May ’07…). The night was cold but our winter bags and the close proximity kept us cosy and toasty all night (the full moon woke me up, as I thought it was daytime, due to the light on the snow!).

We headed towards the Pic du Mas de la Grave (3030m), past dozens of waking marmots, dumped our packs at the large cairn and headed up the peak with minimal gear. We finished on foot due to steepness and thin snow. The storm clouds and 12pm time made us descend before the summit (at the “anti-summit” at 2979m) only a few hundred yards from the peak’s top. The descent was fun in heavy-soupy snow (but the tele turns were traded for alpine ones, due to the tired legs). After a quick bite of saucisson at the packs, we donned the skis again and began the descent towards the valley.

The quality of the snow (I set off a few avalanches), flatness of the terrain and up-and-down travelling that needed to be done, convinced us of walking back out with skis on our backs. We descended to the river, but after about a km worth of walking along it decide to head back up the hill to a crest, as it was too swollen to cross (not dangerously, just would have meant having wet shoes for a couple of hours).

After another half hour of skinning we put the skis back on the packs for good and finished with pure hiking (still in heavy, bulky tele boots) in a beautiful rain storm. Getting to the car and trading ski boots for running shoes was an incredible feeling!

24hrs car to car, 12 hrs of stoppage (sleep and eat), 6 of skiing, 6 of walking. Note for next time, we’ll either do it while still in winter and ski it, or wait til summer and hike it…