It’s not a scoop, but it jumped out at me during this immersion in a place that has nothing to offer but its ice. No trails, no view that carries, no wall that climbs. No game, no crystals. Not a moped, not a bistro. Nothing but ice. And avalanches over it when the conditions are not suitable, 99% of the time.
Nothing slams, nothing shines. It’s a modest ice but one that must be deserved. ©Ulysse Lefebvre
The climb was good even if the waterfall of the Oiseau gorges, located in the middle of an immense and austere ravine, has no lightness but its name. We are far from the magnitude of the Fer à Cheval circus, the history of Gavarnie or the plethora of scintillating lines of the Argentière basin.
In this northern side of Chamechaude, in Chartreuse (France), nothing slams, nothing shines. It is a modest ice but one that must be deserved, in the middle of englacious blocks and placed on a torrent, earth as hard as stone, trees across. The ice waterfall is the art of interfering with the ephemeral and intimate, that of the mountain of course. A bit of ours too.
the ice disturbs the ego
Because ice climbing is not a profitable practice. Given the ratio of time, distance, and climbing height, it’s difficult to use it to fill an existential void. No ‘ice climbing’ activity on Strava. Ice is an affront to the logic of permanent visibility and instant recognition. In other words, ice disturbs the ego.
It is also neither «scalable» as the ambitious say, nor «copy-paste» as the lazy ones lacking imagination seek. A line never quite looks the same from one year to another. Worse: in the same season, footprints significantly change the difficulty and prevent comparison. It is up to the suitors to always question themselves, to scratch their heads to understand the method of ascension.
it freezes when you’re at work,
it melts when you’re on weekends
Ice doesn’t fit on schedules, it freezes when you’re at work, it melts when you’re on weekends. And when you find the time, you still need to be in shape, have a bit of training, a lot of experience especially. It is all the more difficult to acquire as the good moments of practice are counted.
So yes, ice climbing is an elitist, demanding, uncomfortable, expensive practice. It excludes by nature. It opposes the fantasy of an accessible, fluid, and controlled world. It also does not nourish the meritocratic illusion that every well-directed effort necessarily leads to success. It reminds, honest and cruel, that some things depend on factors that escape us. Yes we can, or not.
©UL
ice excludes comfort
that of the bodies
but also that of the promises
Besides, on the security side, that’s here one draws the line. Certainly, one places pins to ensure him or herself and his or her companion, but the adage says that in ice climbing, one must not fall. Even if the pin holds, crampons and ice axes still threaten the falling body.
Is it necessary to talk about the cold? Pieces of ice that fall on you endlessly? Drips that cover you with a layer of frost? Yummy. Ice excludes comfort, that of the bodies, but also that of the promises one would have the weakness to listen to.
At a time when we’re trying to bring almost everything possible into the straight path of the commercial sector, through competition, achievement or any form of storytelling, ice climbing remains one of the most elusive elements. Ephemeral in essence, it is a space of resistance that continues to exist, under the imposing shadow of the stalactites. A sublime provocation.