Friday we woke early to perfect weather conditions to do this splendid ridge walk.
So by 7.30am we were on our way in the car to Col de l’Encrenaz, to start our circular walk.
It started with a slow uphill climb to Col Ratti, giving us fantastic views of Mont Blanc as we made our way up.
Suddenly the route changed and the scrambling began, there would be no return from this point so we had to make a decision to go on or not.
There was a very encouraging sign attached to a rock it read " Danger…very dangerous route not fitted with safety devices you walk here at your own risk "
So off we went on our way, it took us a good half hour of scrambling up rocks to get to where the ridge started.
At this point there was a white cross so we stopped for a rest before carrying on over the ridge.
What a ridge it was too, no room for error either as it was quite a drop off both sides.
The weather was certainly on our side as if it had been windy or wet this would have been almost impossible to do.
The Scramble down was not as tough but still had a few scary moments.
There have been a few deaths on this mountain walk but we all escaped to tell the story…. would we do it again…… maybe not !
But it was the best walk of the holiday……and we can now see why its called the rock of hell !
I did this ridge summer of this year with some friends. Before we went up we were reading some accounts and we started to get quite worried about it. We were quite enthusiastic about it but there were some points where we were quite scared. One particular point had us scrambling down an almost sheer face with the only handholds being clods of dirt.
We stopped on each of the peaks for a snack and a rest. On the last one we were all feeling pretty scared. One of our party informed us “Apparently, we still have the worst bit to come.”
Luckily, the bit he seemed to be talking about had had a chain installed on it to help people up and down. This made a terrifying decent a merely frightening one.
At the end we were all really glad we’d done it, but it’s definitely a walk you only do once.
Just completed the Roc d’enfer walk with my 9 year old boy(already a good climber) . We went from La cheverie in the vallee verte. The ridge was definitely scary in places and perfect weather is an absolute must. You need to be very very careful especially on some decents. Good fun but need a year to recover.
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That ridge looks rather scary, I couldn’t have done it. I am so glad you enjoyed it though 🙂
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This must of been so exhilarating….and if your are a walker brilliant..well done.
:S nutters haha.