Anna and I passed another important milestone in our training journey for the GHT. Five months ago we were looking for new ways to train and change our routine. Something different from the 30-60 km Trail that we do regularly and the 250km multi-day races.

We do not like non-stop races mainly because that implies running many hours in the dark without being able to enjoy the scenery that we are looking for. We also miss the friendly atmosphere that we have on the bivouac of multi-day races. That also means deep fatigue and long recovery which are an issue when we try to stay in top shape in multi-sports all year round. Five months ago I decided to participate to two non-stop races anyway, both among the toughest in their kind to get out of my comfort zone and to test myself.

The first one was the Spine Challenger, a 174km winter race in UK that I won and the second one was the Ultra Trail Mt Fuji (UTMF), even less my type of race but I finished anyway in a descent time. Anna had the same approach in participating to the STY (non-stop 84.7km) and finished 7th women out of 90.

In all these races we have ups and downs, and the Spine and UTMF were no exceptions. I had some stomach problem at the UTMF, I could not drink and eat as much as I should have and almost retire half way as I felt so weak that I could barely walk. I realized at this point that we took a risk in doing these “out of comfort races”, especially mentally because failing would have put serious doubts in our minds in our ability to succeed the GHT. In these challenges, mental is everything, so if we fail 160km, how could we do 10 times more? Yes, that’s the funny things about the UTMF, that’s exactly 10% of the GHT both in term of distance and elevation gain.

Fortunately we both succeeded. Now we have a few weeks to recover and then we will resume the intense training for another 8 weeks and rest before leaving for the Ultimate Trail. In the meantime we have tons of things to do on the logistics.

These 2 races gave us another opportunity to test the new kit and once again we have been very pleased with the results.

Philippe.

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Description: park at Pont du Loup and climb to Gourdon along the Chemin du Paradis. Continue to climb to the Col de Cavillore. Stay along the nice ridge to Colle de Rougies and then to the Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur. Then follow the GR4 to Cipières (B181, 160, 25). Go down to the D3 (24, 173, 174). Stay on the road up to the Tourounet (175) and follow the trail to St Barnabé (176, 170, 152, 153, 155). Go down to Courmes along the GR51 and then to Bramafran. Two options there; either run along the road to Pont du Loup (5km) or follow the GR 51 (several tunnels) and back down to Pont du Loup through the Chemin du Paradis.

Visit Berghaus Online Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s windproof jackets, men’s boots and more then please visit our online store.

You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Choose from a range of cutting edge waterproof jackets, fleeces, trousers & more from Berghaus.

Distance: 37 km, ascent: 2400 m / descent: 2400 m.

GPS Track recorded with Suunto Ambit: GPS Track

Description: park at Plan du Var. Climb to Levens (signpost 298, 296, 294, 293, 292). Continue up to the Mont Férion via the Col of Dragon (250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 272, 273). Descend to the Col Saint Michel (206, 443) and continue to the village of l’Imberguet (442, 441, 450), follow the road to B122a. Continue to Saint Jean la Rivière (121, 124).
Climb to Utelle (12, 111, 112, 113), continue to the signpost 114. Climb to the Sanctuaire de la Madonne d’Utelle (115, 116) and descent to the Col de la Moutète (117, 118, 105, 100). Continue down to the Chaudan (99, 98, technical and steep descent, 97). Follow the road for 1.6 km to Plan du Var.

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For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, men’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.

You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Choose from a range of cutting edge waterproof jackets, fleeces, trousers & more from Berghaus.

After 44 km ran during the week, Anna and I made a Trail/Trekking this weekend aroundSaint Etienne-de-Tinée. We wanted to go at a higher altitude than usual, even though in the Mercantour that means running on tons of rocks. We chose the Mont Tenibre (3031 m) which is one of the few 3000 meters peaks of the Alpes Maritimes. It is also a good training because the Trail started of by a straight 2000 meters of elevation gain in just 11 km.

Climbing toward Tenibre, Rabuons lake behind (© Philippe Gatta)

After the Mont Tenibre, we made a loop to the Breche Borgonio (2904 m) and continued to the Lake of Vens, then we climbed the Crete des Babarottes before coming back to Saint Etienne-de-Tinée.

Anna in the first forest toward Rabuons lake (© Philippe Gatta)

Overall this Trail is technical, very rocky and because of the altitude and numerous scree is more a trekking than a trail running, so be prepared. It is very scenic though as it crosses 15 lakes, including Rabuons and Vens which are some of the nicest lakes in the Mercantour.

Philippe on the Chemin de l’Energie (© Anna Gatta)

Distance: 28 km, ascent: 2600 m / descent: 2600 m.

Anna on the Chemin de l’Energie (© Philippe Gatta)

GPS Track recorded with Suunto Ambit: GPS Track

Philippe with Tenibre in the background (© Anna Gatta)

Description: start at Saint Etienne-de-Tinée and climb to the Refuge and Lake of Rabuons (100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105). Continue to the top of Mont tenibre (106, 107). Descend on Southwest face toward the Lake Des Varicles and at around 2500 m, turn right toward the Lake de Tenibre (very rocky, no clear trail). Climb up to the Breche Borgonio (scree) and then descend to the Lake and Refuge of Vens (25). Continue to the lowest lake (27, 26) and then climb up to the Crete des Babarottes. Descend on the other side, to Clai Haute (113, 114). Turn left and soon take a small trail in the forest to the Fournels (109). A steep descent leads back to Saint Etienne-de-Tinée (108, 100).

Anna running toward the Lacs de Vens (© Philippe Gatta)

Berghaus Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

We ran together and won the team category in 1h09m06s.

Anna and I have been training on the Cime de la Palu for many years.

The Race was fun and very well organized. This race is part of a larger effort to create a Trail running resort in Saint Martin-Vésubie and the National Park of Mercantour.

Berghaus Store

For outdoor clothing from Berghaus including men’s waterproof jackets, women’s rucksacks and more then please visit our online store.
You can find a wide range of gear for climbing, hill walking, mountain biking and other activities.

Philippe in the Difficult Crack, North Face of Eiger (© Alex Chabot)

Nether less this face has attracted numerous climbers for decades. The first ascent has been made in 1938 by Anderl Heckmair, Ludwig Vörg, Heinrich Harrer and Fritz Kasparek. This route has become a legend and most sections are pieces of history: the Difficult Crack, the Hinterstoisser Traverse, the Icefields, the Death Bivy, the Ramp, Brittle Ledges, the Traverse of the Gods, the White Spider and the Exit Crack. Several routes have been opened in the north face since then but the 1938 route (top picture) is the most climbed.

North Face of Eiger: the 1938 route is #2 in blue in the center of the face (Wikimedia common)

Alex and I had several projects in mind and the 1938 route on Eiger Nordwand was one of them. As there was high pressure over the Alps this week, we decided to take 3 days off and go for it.

We didn’t know anything about the conditions in the face beside what we could see from the webcam ofKleine Scheidegg. The face looked relatively well covered with snow, at least in the first half but we couldn’t tell if it was ice, soft or hard snow. I tried to call the guides office in Grindelwald but nobody knew anything…

After a 8 hours drive and some mistakes along the way, we arrived in Grindelwald at 2:30pm, just in time to catch the latest service train to the Eigergletscher station. This station (2320m) is very close the north face and it is the standard starting point.

We planned to climb the face as fast and light as we could with one bivouac, then finish the climb the following day, get back down to Grindelwald and drive back to Nice to be at work on Friday. Well, things did not go totally as expected…

We made a bivouac Tuesday night close to the train station and woke up at 3am on Wednesday. We had the same plan as another French team so we were only 4 in the face. We left the station at 4am with 10kg pack each. The two others were in front of us and we could follow a good trail up to the shrund that we reached at 5am. We started to worry a bit about the very soft snow and the freezing level being high.

We could follow the track of the previous climbers up to the first pillar until we lost them. We thought we went too far left and climbed back looking for the correct route. We were skeptical as we didn’t find any other track in the face so we went back to the left. Believe it or not, we did this another couple of times and after 5 back and forth in the 150 meters of the face we finally found the route but we lost 1 hour and some energy.

We were expecting to cruise the first part of the route until the “difficult crack” which is the first serious pitch of the route. I finally fought 45 minutes in this pitch and left lots of energy. The snow was very soft so the crampons and ice axes were hitting the slabs underneath most of the time, turning the climb into dry tooling, very hard to protect. There was no ice, the snow was too soft to be useful and was hiding the few old pegs available.

Philippe in the Difficult Crack, North Face of Eiger (© Alex Chabot)

The conditions became even worse -dryer- after Hinterstoisser Traverse. Alex led a couple of committing pitches of dry tooling until we reached the two other French more or less stuck in the Ice Hose.

Numerous traverses in soft snow (© Alex Chabot)

After 13 hours we were just below the 2nd icefield and the sun started to shine on the top of the face. A few things became clear: we were way too slow and since the rest of the face looked even dryer there was a lot of fun ahead. With the sun shining, the rock falls were about to start. The long traverse in front of us would make a retreat more and more difficult.

Turning back is always a painful decision but this time it was probably the wisest one. We teamed-up with the two others French to abseil down around 400m. It was dark when we traversed on some ledges and reached the Stollenloch; a small door in the north face which communicates with the gallery of the train inside the mountain. We walked down in the gallery to the train station where we spent the night.

On Thursday we went back down to Grindelwald and drove back to Nice. We will come back when the route will be in better conditions…

We started by the sea in Théoule-Sur-Mer and made a loop around Pic d’Aurelle, Pic de l’Ours, lac de l’Ecureuil, Col du baladou, Les Suivières and Les Grosses Grues. As often in Esterel we got lost a few times, adding 4 km to the initial plan but enjoyed the trail anyway.

Distance: 38 km, ascent: 1550 m / descent: 1550 m.

Description: start Théoule-Sur-Mer, run along the beach toward the Pointe de l’Aiguille, climb on the Trail to the top (156m) and follow the trail going to Notre Dame d’Afrique, continue to the Col de Théoule, Col du Trayas, Col Notre Dame, Ravin de Cazal de Boeuf. Turn around Pic d’Aurelle, Col des Lenstiques, climb to Pic de l’Ours. Descend to Lake Ecureuil, then follow the GR 51 to Col du Baladou and follow the trail to Baisse de Mathieu, Col des Suvières, Baisse Violette, Baisse des Pourraques, Col des Trois Fermes, Col de la Cadière, Col du Trayas and back to Théoule.

GPS Route: download GPX route

The exercise on the treadmill is relatively short (<30min) and intense, but with the exams before and the debriefing after, I spent 2 hours at the sport center. Anyway, the good news is that everything is fine.

Here Philippe shares a video of his highlights of 2011.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Find out more about Philippe at www.philippegatta.fr

Distance: 12 km, ascent: 1250m / descent: 1250m.

Description: park as far as possible on the road to Madone de Fenestre. From the parking of the vacherie (signpost 359) go toward Combe du Ponset up to the base of the Southwest face of Ponset. The couloir starts at 2450 m and top out at 2780 m. Then climb the ridge to the top.