19th of August - France - Les mines du grand Clôt

Today offered sunshine all day long. Being a Sunday, the local church's bells kept tolling over and over and by the time we were having breakfast the bells were ringing for the third time already and kept on ringing several times before we left town. As we had put in so much effort yesterday we figured today's via ferrata would be nice and easy and kind of a resting phase, scenic route.


We decided to head to the nearest via ferrata today, just west of La Grave, a few km further down the road from our town. The ferrata is called Les mines du grand Clôt  - the mines of the great ... something.. They used to mine copper and lead there. The mine ferrata is one of the more renowned ones in the area.

The approach to the via was quite short, just up a trail for a few minutes. This via is known for its view over the massif of the Meije, the highest peak around here. Its highest point reaches 3984 m over sea level. Every time we turned around we had the massif and its glacier top in front of us.

The beginning of the via passes the entrance to the Clôt mines. The entrances were barred though, probably due to risk of things falling. The rock along the route was granite and made for some fun and interesting climbing, because there were only a few handholds along the way, meaning we had to use the rock. 

At one point we found a tunnel going into the rock and finally we had use of our headlights :D
We walked all the way into the darkness until the tunnel ended. No copper in sight. Bummer.

This climb was in no way as strenuous as yesterday's rigors, but it was VERY long! The whole via was about 2 km long. We began at an elevation of 1340 m and scrambled up along the rock face until we hit 2121 m adding up to an ascent of 793 m. Resting and relaxed via? No way!!

 

The final part of the via was mixed trail walking and scrambling and when we finally hit the top we reached a sign post pointing us towards Le Chazelet, a town through which we had to go in order to get back to the car. We had dinner on the hill above the village before starting the scramble down again.

The way back was very, VERY long!! and STEEP! We passed some others on the way down, who seemed to have some trouble due to the angle of the path. Others were going in the opposite direction, up! And most looked like retirees. Wooh... Crazy old people.

When we finally got back to the car we had been on route for 6,5 h. We drove back to La Grave, stopped at the first food store we found and bought some beer... actually we did get other things also... but priorities.. . ;)

Back at the hostel we decided to try out the restaurant, but at first we were told it was closed, then we were lectured on having to tell them in time if we want something to eat, THEN the waiter ran, more or less screaming back to the chef to see if we could order. And then we were allowed to order.
I had an auberginer sallad with some creamy cheese and Ben had an Italian sallad with pesto champignons. His looked so much better than mine... Well. next time...