Supercramp, Alpe d'Huez

Alpe d'Huez with its sunshine was just too appealing compared to the bitter cold of the La Grave valley!
This time we climbed Supercramp taking the ramp that forms the start of Supercramp direct but continuing on and across to the belay at the top of Supercramp's first pitch. The ice above was steep especially the last few metres but the sun had softened the ice making it easy to whack in the axes and the crampon points just stuck in the ice.

The water was dripping off the icicles above as I climbed the first pitch but I soon dried out in the sun on the belay. On the top pitch it was a bit wet just below the final steep section where bridging out to the left seemed the best way to get over the bulge and the icicles to bridge against were surprisingly solid. They didn't look it!