"Wednesday 8th August 2018. An ascent of le Chenaillet 2650m/496m, near Briançon, Cottian Alps, France. 11.0km, with 800m of ascent. 4hrs 55mins. Le Chenaillet, close to the Italian frontier, is the highest mountain in a ring of peaks lying east of the city of Briançon. Although surrounded by higher peaks, this massif is of special interest due to its geology. It is composed of volcanic rocks, while those in the vicinity are mainly of metamorphic and sedimentary types. The massif is the rim of a collapsed caldera of a volcano, once situated in the sea that divided the African and European tectonic plates. For more information, see at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Chenaillet. A short car journey on a day of blue skies and high clouds from our gîte in le Laus, via the village of Cervières, brought my wife and me to the hamlet of la Chau, at 1900m, on the southern flank of le Chenaillet. Here a geological trail sets off from a car park north-east up the side of the valley of Peyre Moutte to the small reedy Lac des Sarailles. We did not have the trail to ourselves, as other hikers were ascending and descending the mountain. In the course of our ascent I had a long ..." — marktrengove • Aug 8, 2018