A few days ago, I met up with the Mountain Academy team for a wonderful climbing trip in the Vercors, a beautiful massif South of Grenoble.
The Mountain Academy has been set up by Jerome Blanc-Gras and Mountain Hardwear. The idea was to gathered passionated climbers from all over Europe who wants to share their passion and learn more about climbing, ice climbing and mountaineering. Among all the climbers who submitted, nine were selected to be in part of the team. And the Vercors stage was their first one.

Jerome and I had been speaking a few days before about the theme of the present week, about the climbers involved and the goal of the week. I was very excited about this stage, the idea of climbing some historical routes and sharing those climbs with the Mountain Academy climbers. I was amazed by how fast thye got to know each other. After two days living all together it felt like the knew each other since years. All of those lucky guys were really nice, full of energy, with a great motivation and lots of happiness. And the mountain guides involved, pretty much all friends of mine, made the atmosphere excellent as well.

The theme of the week was to climb the old traditional routes from the 60's. Old wood corners, old pegs plus our own protections on easy routes with sometimes a very good quality rock and some other times a very loose and scary rock...
Three big faces were choosen : Les Trois Becs, Glandasse, Archiane. For those faces, the hikes are a bit long. Actualy we had some quite long day outside from seven in the morning until nine in the evening. We were all a bit tired after a few days but nobody would have complained. The climbs we did were all great, we all enjoyed being together and sharing those perfect moments. In some ways, I felt renewed...

I can't stop thinking of Federica, Bojan, Patryk, Denyse, Aude, Flo, Sang, Isabella, Milos. I can't stop hearing Manu Ibarra accent, thinking of Neil and its englsih corrections, of Seb and his "gift" on the Leprince-Ringuet Pillar, of Luca, my Italian neighbor of Jerome and David running on the pitches. We all shared unforgettable moments, climbing, eating, sleeping, walking, smiling, speaking of the routes, of the gear, being tired of long days but happy to be there... and I just wanted to share it here....

Photos par David Ravanel

The wonderful team : Nine passionated climbers selected for the Mountain Academy from all over Europe.
During one year and half they will experience a strong human adventure while climbing, mountaineering and ice climbing


The Archiane wall... 400m of a beautiful limestone offering both old trad routes on pegs and new modern routes on bolts.
We choosed the old ones... way more fun ! ;)

The Mountain Academy crew and Jean-Pierre Frésafond

We got the chance to chat with Jean-Pierre Frésafond since he's one of the first ascensionists of several big routes with Dominique Leprince-Ringuet. He told us about his dedication to climbing and how it was at that time to open a route on a virgin face with the old school gear. How they spent three days on a route, sleeping on the aiders while it takes us four to height hours to climb it now.
Thank you and respect for opening such great lines. Seriously.

 

Hey ! Your foot is on my next hold !
Paroi Rouge, Archiane, one of the niciest pitch of the route

Aude Semay, our french climber on the Parisian route on the Trois Becs
Nice job girl !

Federica Amelio, from Italy, focused on the crux pitch of the Leprince-Ringuet pillar on Glandasse,
well coached by Neil Brodie our "Scottish - Chamoniard" guide and occasionally our english teacher

Milos Kalab, from Czech Republic, playing between the rocks on the Parisian route on the Trois Becs

Denyse Bayard, from Switzerland, on the delicate traverse of  the Parisian route on the Trois Becs.
Looking good !

Sang De Brabander, from Belgium, showing his skills on the first day

Florian Kraler, our Austrian climber. Easy riding...

Patryck Warnel, from Poland, comfortable in all types of terrain.
Even with drag ;)

Isabella Rossignoli, our spanish woman climbing on the one pitch slab on the first day

Bojan Hribernik, our energy man from Slovenia, cruising on the Paroi Rouge at Archiane

Head down pegs and loose rocks made me very suspicious ;)
Despite those little things the "Paroi rouge" was my favorite climbing

Jerome Blanc-Gras, our bandmaster
The Mountain Academy idea comes from him and Mountain Hardwear made it possible
Thanks a lot to Jerome and Mountain Hardwear for standing behind such a great venture !
The Mountain Academy is a true and wonderful human adventure. And I'm proud to be a part of it.


A big up to all the crew : climbers, mountain guides, photographer, film maker, Fred and Clarence from Mountain Hardwear.
I had a wonderful week and loved climbing with you guys ! Tons of fun and nice adventures until the next stage to you all !


Follow the Mountain Academy 2 on the MAc2 Blog and here and get involved for the MAc 3 !!! Yes you can :))
To get to know a bit more the nine participants check out their own videos here

For climbing Infos :
If you want to climb in the area you need to have Manu Ibarra's guide book (Escalade dans le Diois). Manu is the local guy who knows EVERYTHING  in the area.