Traverse of Les Perrons

I last crossed the enormous Emmoson Dam, on skis during the winter of 2004/5 and have a photo similar to this one in the Office at The Cottage. In the winter shot, I'm sitting on the railings, casually drinking from a thermos flask, with snow covering half the railings. Older and wiser, I had no desire to sit on the railings for the 're-creation' as behind them the drop down the face of the dam was dizzying!

As well as a famously large dam, the area is also known for the dinosaur prints that have been found in the sedimentary rocks behind the lake, so of course, there's a life size T-Rex in the car park, complete with climbing helmet!

Here's a photo of the dam wall, which gives you an indication of why I didn't fancy sitting on the railings! There used to be the largest artificial climbing wall in the world up the face, but it had to be closed as climbers would run out of steam before making it to the top and would be left hanging in space, without enough rope to lower back to the ground!

On the far side of the dam are the Perrons - the peaks which we hoped to traverse.

Before getting to the climb though, we had to put in a few hours of honest sweating and hard work, scrambling up to the base of the cliffs.

Once on the crest, it was simply a case of following the ridge. Sometimes using the rope for protection and mostly moving together.

The terrain wasn't particularly difficult - you just couldn't afford to slip.

It went on and on in a very enjoyable fashion. Without the added alpine stress of glaciers, crevasses and unstable seracs, we took our time, moving efficiently while enjoying the positions.

Amazingly, we had no other teams ahead of us, until we caught up with some Brits, with whom we turned out to have mutual friends. Thankfully, they let us pass, and we continued up steeper ground to the final summit. Looking back we could see all the three main peaks that we had traversed. It looked pretty unlikely that we'd crossed the lot in a day.

After we'd enjoyed a leisurely feed, the other teams caught us up. There was a bit of debate about the best descent. We followed a path down to the next col, which was further than the steeper gully options, but we arrived down at the lakes far before the next team, so were pleased with our choice.

On the walk out, just before rejoining the main path, we spotted a lovely little pool, so stripped off and got in. The water was baltic, having been fed from patches of snow, so we didn't put our heads under. Having got out and dried off though, we decided that Clare wouldn't count it as a bona-fida swim, so we got back in for the full, refreshing, head under experience.

We hiked the final hour feeling good as new....

While we'd been up in the mountains, there had been a crash on the Col des Montets, which had caused several parked cars to go up in flames! It being the only way home, we had a two hour queue before we made it though. We arrived back happy but shattered again....