Gully at the Tours du Playnet
A very beautiful, moderately sustained gully in a deep limestone setting. Topping out onto the high plateaus of the Vercors is always a delight!
With Aude.
A good cold snap after a big thaw: music to the ears of gully climbers. The weather looks fine despite a strong north wind. We set our sights on a gully in the beautiful eastern cliffs of the Vercors, hoping to find a bit of sun and, why not, some ice.
A pleasant approach from Saint Andéol, a small village nestled at the foot of the cliffs. Mountaineering in the countryside! We soon find snowy ground, fortunately well refrozen, which makes walking easier. The climb goes straight up to the cliffs. A short traverse across the slope, where we watch about ten chamois.
The gully is well filled with snow, which smooths out the first difficulties and lets us move quickly up to a slightly overhanging step of a few metres above a small cave, fortunately well supplied with ice.
Regular spindrift keeps filling our hoods. The atmosphere is superb in this deep cleft in the heart of the limestone cliffs. Next comes another small icy step before we reach the object of our visit: a beautiful cave that we exit via a thin smear of ice and a memorable bridging move. Somewhat committing, this passage is nevertheless pleasant to climb, with good protection halfway up.
Topping out this pitch opens up the view over the whole gully and its magnificent atmosphere.
All that remains is to cross the cornice, very easy this time, to come out onto the vastness of the Vercors high plateaux nature reserve.
We keep the rope on a little longer for fear of falling into a sinkhole. Aude actually puts her foot through a snow bridge. The wind spares us a little and the sun urges us to enjoy the place. The landscape is lunar.
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