Ice Climbing Ecrins 2012

 

The 22nd annual Ice Climbing Ecrins event was a terrific success, thanks to good ice conditions, sunshine, and the motivated climbers who attended.

 

Good ice conditions

The Freissinières and Fournel valleys hosted more than 300 ice climbers, some who came to participate in the various workshops offered by the FFCAM, and others who simply came to take advantage of the easy access to these remarkable ice climbing areas. In spite of mild temperatures in early winter, a cold snap arrived several days before the event, fattening up the ice and providing excellent conditions for the climbers to enjoy.

The ICE Expo, a meeting place

The ICE Expo offered a friendly, comfortable place for climbers to gather. Open to everyone, the Expo fully lived up to expectations. Thanks to the numerous brands present, experts and novices alike could test and buy gear, sharpen their ice screws, crampons, and picks, and have their climbing shoes and mountaineering boots resoled. Concerts and films also provided entertainment. The ICE Expo also had the honour of hosting world-renowned alpinists and ice climbers Will Gadd, Tim Emmet, and Olivier Favresse.

The competitions

And the icing on the cake: the dry tooling and big air competitions. The dry tooling competitors swarmed the new area in the Fournel valley, which was bolted especially for the event. Meanwhile, the freestylers showed off their best tricks on the course built by Team Ridair.

On Saturday night, a big crowd showed up to watch the climbers and freestylers give their all at the competition finals. And the evening was topped off by a fireworks display fully worthy of the show put on by the talented finalists.

 

         

Dry Tooling Results:                                                Big Air Results:

Women:                                                                      1.Guillaume Sbrava

1.Marjorie Juarez                                                         2. Faure Paul Eric

2. Sylvie Drouillat                                                       3. Damien Serca

3. Audrey Noraz

 

Men:

1. Etienne Grillot

2. Jeff Mercier

3. Benjamin Guigonnet

 

 

 

 

@ Mardi 8th of November 2011

 

A few news from the Pays des Ecrins…

The actual weather let us believe that ice conditions will be good.

Since a few days, icefalls are filling with water and temperatures grow colder.

Fournel and Freissinieres valleys will hopefully give us some nice icefalls this winter.