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 discussion, in my limited French, with a gentleman lamenting the course of BREXIT. I have now had a number of such discussions on mountain hikes in France, all of which have demonstrated to me how worried ordinary people are at the current situation, and concerns for the peace, safety and security of all on our continent.

We reached the lake, my wife, as usual, far ahead of me. A further ascent, northwards now, brought us to a col on the ridge at 2315m. From here the trail turned north-east up the ridge, becoming much more rugged, but nowhere difficult. We were clearly now on volcanic rock – hard resistant basalts and gabbros, forming a marked contrast to the limestone peaks to the south. To avoid the serrated ridge crest, the trail wove a route around the south slope of the mountain to regain the crest a little short of the summit.

As a reasonably prominent peak, the view was good. To the north, the massif baulk of Mont Chaberton (3131m) blocked the view north-east to the Mont Blanc massif. However, the high peaks of the Massif des Écins to the north-west dominated the prospect, lowering with thunder-clouds. La Meije, at 3983m the second highest in the massif, was clearly recognisable. The dramatic peaks of the Queyras (see at https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massif_du_Queyras) filled the foreground and horizon to the south. The summit area had a number of useful viewfinders placed around its edges to interpret the views.

By the time we left the summit, we had it to ourselves. A greyer band of cloud, streaming in from the south-east, made leaving wise. I was concerned it might herald the onset of a thunderstorm.

We descended steeply down the east ridge, over a minor top, to a col at 2519m, only 500 metres away from the peak of Grand Charvia (2648m) on the Italian frontier. We turned south on a slippery path of scree, to descend past a series of small shallow lakes, the largest Lac Noir at 2226m. In alpine pastures now, the trail continued down by a stream in the Ravine de la Grande Sagne to the tumbling ruins of a large farm at les Fraches. A further rather boggy stretch brought us down to the hamlet of la Chau, with its typical Briançonnais architecture, to the road. A short hike south-east, and we reached the car. There had been no thunderstorm, the clouds had melted, and the sun was shining again.