Benjamin Ribeyre, his compagnon Erin Smart and Cyril Dupeyré went to have a look along the side of the Meijette ridge overlooking the Tabuchet glacier. This itinerary contains a hidden gem on the Meije. Ribeyre’s eye for finding seemingly impossible lines strikes again!
Please excuse the untranslatable play on words in the title (Butdontthrow stones), it won’t happen again.. The story of this line- whether it’s a first descent or not- was once again the fruit of simple observation.
Erin and I went for dinner at a friend’s house in the hamlet of Hières. From our house to the hamlet, the road follows a contouring curve revealing the entire landscape from the Râteau Glacier to the Tabuchet Glacier. While we were driving, I nonchalantly allowed my gaze to drift around the landscape that I thought I knew by heart…
“Pull over for a second..” The car slowed down and strained my eyes to activate the lynx eye zoom function! I had never noticed the line of snow coming from just under the summit of the Meijette ridge. A nice barbecue, interesting discussions about future projects and we returned home. The next day I went back to take a look from the road with binoculars and a camera. On the computer, I enlarged the photos. I launched Google Earth, the aerial images of the IGN. Conclusion: it must go!
Breakdown of the facts:
A bit of portaging (about an hour), a really frozen Tabuchet glacier (couteaux required), a really narrow start to the descent but with really good snow, a little rappel to get out (not much snow missing for it to be OK) and a big descent on the Tabuchet in excellent spring snow. Then a great apero to finish off a great day !
We don’t know if it was a first descent but the main thing is to find lines without trawling through books. Some feeling, a bit of technique and a lot of good humour!
