2009 February, Shangri La Grave, French Alps
Shangri La Grave revisited ... to complete the mission ...
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Day 1 : Le Pylon, grade II/3+, nice to warm up on
 We arrive to see a group of French on a course |
 Danny smiles ... Scouse gets to lead 1st pitch of the trip |
 We get a quiet moment |
 Scouse at the 1st belay point |
 Danny follows up |
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 Danny & Elvis climb as one on his lead on the 2nd pitch |
 A small village across the valley ... lots of snow here :) |
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 La Grave in the lower background on the abseil down |
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 Scouse abseils down |
 Window sill cooking that night :) |
Day 2 : La Nuit Sera Fraiche, II/3+ quite delightful
 We walk down the road to Freaux ... Le Pylon is immediately above Scouse |
 a close up of Le Pylon |
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 it's been snowing since last night ... |
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 near the end of the walk in |
 Danny gets a screw in on the 1st pitch |
 Scouse near the belay |
 Strange mountain creature at the belay point |
 Scouse on 2nd pitch |
 Danny approaches the belay |
 it's still snowing :) |
 scenic view across the valley from the belay point |
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Danny abseils down 2nd pitch ... |
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Scouse abseils down 2nd pitch ... |
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Scouse abseils down 1st pitch ... |
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Danny abseils down 1st pitch ... |
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 thoroughly enjoyable day out :) |
Day 3 : practise on Le Pylon
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 what a lovely hanging belay of Pylon ... |
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Day 4 : Le Colere du Ciel, III/3+, beautiful & not to be defeated by darkness again ...
 The ice man cometh, an improvement... avoiding ice fall was tricky ... |
 Scouse with his/the 1st pitch behind him |
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 Scouse is belaying from where he got to last time |
 Danny conquers the final bulge to reach Scouse at the top |
 Danny abseils down Scouse's big vertical pitch |
 then abseils down his own watery pitch of doom |
 The lower section of Scouse's pitch |
 & then it got dark ... |
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 packing up at the base of the climb ... took 40 mins to get up there from the path ... |
 bum sliding down took minutes .. & Scouse got some big air over a 4m bluff, ouch ;) |
Colere du Ciel Height 250m 2 happy blokes |