Autumn in Val ď Isère 06
by Trevor Allen
We were enjoying a weeks holiday in the Savoie area of France, staying in a chalet in a small, little-known hamlet called Notre Dame de Bellecombe. Our week, so far had consisted of a few easy via ferrata’ s and a days bolted climbing on the nearby, ‘Rock of Aravis’ cliffs.
It was October and the weather had so far been kind to us and as we were getting near to the end of the holiday we decided to try one of the harder via ferrata’s that were described in our ‘French Via Ferrata’ guide book. The nearest via ferrata, was situated in Val ď Isère, the famous ski resort, which was over an hours drive away. The length of the drive seemed to be worthwhile for what was supposed to be one of the two hardest via ferrata’s in the French alps. The via ferrata, ‘Les Roc de Tovière’, was one of the three routes given the top ferrata grade of ED, and as we had climbed one of the others last year, (La Rock à Agathe), we weren’t overawed by the toughness of the grade. ‘After all, we thought, we were climbers weren’t we!!!’ So, following a very eventful drive along particularly, precipitous roads, adorned with great unprotected drops into oblivion, we finally crept into a sleepy looking, out of season, Val ď Isère. It only took ten minutes to locate the start of the route, so we had time for a quick coffee before re-parking besides the familiar, route marker board, which was only six feet from the ferrata’s actual starting off point. The route consisted of four, cable bridges, one of which was 41 metres long, very steep rock and a couple of difficult traverses, where rock shoes would have been a considerable help. The guide book warned, ‘that if in doubt, now was the time to hire a guide, because this is not a route for the inexperienced’. We took all this with a pinch of salt, because after all, ‘We were climbers’.
At the other side we set out, up the 60 metre slab, passed the impressive, overlapping section in the middle to the top. At the top, we thought the route was nearly finished and that all the difficulties were over. What a mistake that was!!! Because I was only thinking about the great slab and the long suspension bridge, I’ d forgotten the length of the route and hence it took me by surprise to realise that there was still a significant quantity of footage left to climb.
The route was deceptively long, in fact the longest ferrata that we had ever climbed, (1400meteres in length). After the lengthy, suspension bridge, the route beyond became evermore unyielding. It was very exposed. It was strenuous, as each series of moves were climbed, it was quickly followed by another and then another, with never a place to pause or to rest. There were difficult traverses on rock that overhung the road that was a thousand feet below. These were followed by two vertical corners before finally, we reached the long scramble that wound its way up, following the always present steel cable to its end, and the trig point located at the Roc de Tovière’s summit. On reaching the top I knew that for the first time on a ferrata, I was glad that the climbing was finally over. I had found the whole route much harder than I had envisaged from the comforts of our French chalet. From the 2360 metre summit, it seemed to take only a short time to find a path that took us back down to the car and a welcome drink.
For those uninitiated in the delights of the Via Ferrata. Some routes are little more than a delightful mountain walk. Others, so I have now found out, take as much effort, nerve and skill as a very long climb, graded somewhere about severe or hard severe, as was this one. The French ferrata’s, are steel cable sports routes. Some of which are on mountains up to 7000 ft. Others are on low lying crags. Yet whichever you choose, believe me, when I say that, they are extremely enjoyable.