La Roche Parnal (1986 m)

Is there a better way to celebrate your 6th wedding anniversary than a life threatening experience in mountains? Well, I don't know because I chose the risky way of commemoration... But from the start... I chose la Roche Parnal for our today hike because it was close and not too long and we didn't want to spend the whole day in mountains. As usual, when I saw some nice technical parts of the route I got excited and decided to go for it... Well, that was the first time I have underestimated a mountain. Hopefully my last one!

That's la Roche Parnal as seen from distance. Looks innocent!

The supposedly fun part was Col du Cable - an exposed place equipped with chains and spikes. The spikes were there to put your feet on while crossing the passage. There were a couple of problems though... Firstly, the weather was nasty. It had been raining a lot earlier and everything was wet and muddy making us slide on almost every surface. Secondly, the spikes were not evenly hammered, the distance between them was big and sometimes there were none whatsoever.

It was a rather dramatic venture to cross this passage. One false move and we would find ourselves dangling at the cable with feet down over a 10 m almost vertical slope. Our shoes kept sliding from rocks and spikes because everything was wet so we needed to watch our every step. Fortunately, noone died and it is one of those experience that once you are passed it you are able to laugh at it. Once past Col du Cable we soon reached the summit. A bit of bad luck though, because 5 minutes before reaching the top clouds came in and covered the view entirely for around half an hour.

We didn't wait till the clouds disperse and started walking down. Of course, the clouds dispersed shortly after :) On our way down we encountered lots of wild goats and a groundhog.

We kept moving on a muddy path, trying our best not to fall down. That's Radek balancing on the route.

We soon left the rocky parts behind us and continued on through fields and grazing cows back to the car. Indeed, a very good way to celebrate our anniversary!