Back in the Groove

Our house - back left - catching a bit of sun

 Colin had almost four weeks climbing with us, we got a heap of stuff done despite some mixed weather, but soon enough his time was up and we packed him off north with a car load of food and a following wind.

We spent a few more days at Avrieux getting use to the peace and quiet (did I mention Colin had a horrendous hacking, every few minutes for the whole of his month-long stay) and doing a few routes to keep ticking over. 

Then we move around to the opposite side of the Ecrins to Venosc in the deep-incised valley running up to La Berarde. It is a stunning part of the world, amongst the high peaks but the valley doesn't get much sun in the winter and the climbing turned out to be a bit random. We enjoyed our stay there but were happy to move on again to the Vercors. 

St Christophe

The next stop was in the hills above Grenoble, a nice pad and some pleasant routes on a clutch of minor crags, then it was on to Buis-les-Baronnies in Provence. It is a few years since we have been here (and c40 since my first visit). It was 5C warmer down in the lowlands and the climbing in the area is great, I think we may be here for a while.