Cime St Robert

Peak: Cime St Robert (2919m/9577ft)
Area: Mercantour Alps, France
Routes: South Ridge (uII), South Flank (uI+)
This was something of a bonus peak, squeezed in before the real meat of a solo three-day Alpine trip (itself squeezed in before our family holiday in Provence). I flew into Nice on Thursday evening, and drove straight to St Martin Vesubie in the hire car. Drove up to the Madone this morning, and headed straight for this peak - which is such an obvious and shapely objective from the hut and chapel. I'd done Gelas, the big one, years ago in 1994 and so had delayed my ascent of this, its close neighbour. It was the ideal choice today, though: short and sharp. I jogged the initial path up towards the Pas des Ladres, before breaking off towards the Col de Fenestre and then again to the little Gelas path across a side valley before contouring the hillside. St Robert looms ever larger at this point, and the route inevitably becomes hard to follow as soon as the Gelas path is left. I headed up some little valleys trying to find the ominously-named Lac Mort below the peak. It soon became clear that snow was going to be a problem: far more than in previous years, and me with no axe. After crossing a large snowfield, iron hard neve at this time in the morning (still before 8), I crested a ridge to see Lac Mort below - chocked with ice and snow, making a superb foreground to the view of Mont Ponset (climbed July 06). What I took to be the normal access gully was choked with snow, so I took shallower snow slopes (using my ski pole as an improvised axe) to gain a scree gully further right. Tediously up this to a rock wall, skirted on slabs above a bergshrund, to a much bigger slope. Typical Maritime Alps terrain - big unstable clapiers, awkward route-finding. Eventually I worked out a way to gain the upper scree that is so obvious from the madone in safety, taking a steeper snowfield at its narrowest point to gain a dirty gully and then the scree. From here, the route was obvious and simple - presumably because I'd finally gained the voie normale above the usual access gully. The scree led to the obvious SE ridge which gave good scrambling before becoming rather exposed. I traversed right into the gully of the normal route, which also gave enjoyable and atmospheric scrambling to the small summit. Around 90 mins from the madone, half the guidebook time. Cloud was already spilling in to the Italian valleys and the sky was milky white. But the views were good - Monte Viso, Matto, Argentera all impressed, as did the very close Gelas. Pleasing to see the Grand Capelet looking so dominant, after last year's ascent, and the Matterhorn was also visible on the horizon. I was pushed for time, so made a rapid and simple descent (marred by the loss of a sleeved top in the gully) back to the Madone. Got in the car and, after buying provisions, drove over the Col St Martin down the Tinee valley and, eventually, St Etienne de Tinee. Began the walk-in to the Rabuons hut immediately. This is possibly the longest hut walk in the Maritime Alps, so it wasn't ideal that I had already done a 3000m peak that day! Still, the path was superbly engineered through the trees with ever-expanding views over the galaxy of grassy peaks between Pelat, Col de Bonette and Mont Mounier. Emerged from the treeline after a couple of hours of hard, hot work, to be rewarded by the truly stunning Chemin de l'energie. This is an incredible Tolkienesque level path cut into the mountain side for a now-defunct project. A superbly enjoyable walk along it, increasingly exposed but always just a ramble, led to the final rise to the wonderfully positioned Refuge de Rabuons. I passed a splendid evening at the hut as the only guest. It got pretty cold as I ambled around the superb glacial lake, watching the sun set over Pelat and the colours gradually drain from the peaks. Both tomorrow's objectives - Corborant and Tenibre - are hidden from the hut, but the Tete des Chalanchas and the Grand Cimon de Rabuons were equally impressive sights.