Témoignage

Stage international - Cascade de glace à Guillestre

Le 27/03/2023 par Biard Christian

Un rapide compte rendu de ce Nème stage de glace, stage attendu par beaucoup chaque année. Cela fait plus de 20 ans que ça dure (avec des fois un stage aux vacances de Noël), et depuis quelques années ce stage/rassemblement frôle le nombre de 70 participants, capacité max que je me donne.

Petit historique .. pourquoi autant ? …

Ĺe premier stage cascade était du CAF Toulouse un Noël 2001 pour les jeunes de 10 à 18, époque des  -20 degrés et surtout des jeunes motivés .. avec même 2 stages par an, Noël et février. Ensuite à partir de 2005, les jeunes et cadres du groupe espoir alpinisme Midi Pyrénéen sont venus, 30 participants.

Puis pour optimiser la présence des guides, mise en place de la formation initiateur glace, ce qui me permettait d’avoir des cadres pour les jeunes, et des cobayes pour les cadres (quoique avec certains jeunes on ne sait pas trop qui est qui). Nous étions alors vers 2010, une grosse cinquantaine en comptant le second groupe espoir alpinisme Midi Pyrénées de Éric Gérardin.

A partir de Noël 2011, étant membre de la commission jeunes UIAA pour la FFCAM, je propose ce stage. Les  jeunes étrangers viennent alors de partout, Inde, Japon, Mongolie, Nepal, AFS, Iran, etc. Pour ajouter la participation des filles de l'équipe alpi féminine pyrénéenne EPAF, d’où les 71 actuels.

A ce stage 2023, 17 UIAA (4 Roumains, 4 Croates, 4 Lituaniens, 1 Belge, 3 Espagnols, 1 Britannique), 7 jeunes école aventure Toulouse, 17 adultes en formation initiateurs cascade de glace (plus les jeunes des g,roupes espoirs)  l’EPAF et les 2 équipes mixtes espoir aquitaine ..

Les Pyrénées et l’Europe occupent les Hautes Alpes, avec la participation de 12 cadres et 4 guides dont Christophe Moulin le local et Conseiller Technique Alpinisme de la FFCAM. Conditions moyennes, ça fond .. soleil, assez de froid ; mais le nombre de sites reste limités, surtout en terme de grandes voies .. ceillac, aiguilles, Les Ores, Crevoux, Cervieres, un peu freissinieres .. .,

Profitant de la présence des 4 guides et de nombreux instructeurs alpi il y aura plusieurs formations pendant ce rassemblement :

• 2 formations glace UVT  et Initiateur pour  18 UVT reçus et 14 inscrits initiateur(11 reçus) et 15 UVT et 20 inscrits initiateur ( 12 reçus)
• Une UFCA (30)
• Une UF Technique glace (5 jeunes)
• Et Une formation NA2 (28 ?), formation que vp de jeunes étrangers auraient voulu suivre ..comme indiqué dans les divers « report » ci après.

Voir ces CR des jeunes UIAA (merci à eux) en suivant, avec quelques idées d’amélioration. Mais pour moi l’important, enfin le crux, c’est de durer. Et tout nouveau stage organisé un an de plus, c’est progresser. Organiser ce stage, c’est plus de 1000 mails, 6 jours pleins de taf avant et quelques uns après.

Mais ce que j’en retiens surtout c’est le plaisir de guider et voir évoluer dans le Y à Ceillac (7 longueurs ; 250 m) pour la première fois de leur vie, une cordée avec Maria, roumaine, Tadas, Lituanien et Gérard, Espagnol  …ouais là on a plaisir et on oublie le taf et la fatigue.

Bibi

Le CR d’Alex stagiaire Initiateur :

Club Alpin Toulouse - Stage cascade de glace de Guillestre 19 au 25 février 2023

Le CR d’Anna, spain :

Hello Bibi, Pierre, Coralie,

I would like to take this moment to thank you for the great opportunity that it has been for me coming in the International Youth Ice Climbing Camp. I have spent great days, with amazing people and learning a lot. I came without almost no knowledge about ice climbing, and now I see myself enough confident to go in my own with more autonomy. Also, always taking care of the safety.

 This camp has led to learn many forms of ice climbing, one pitch, many pitches and dry tooling in a great place as it is Hautes Alps. It has helped me to meet more people in love for climbing and mountaineering. All the staff were great qualified, with good abilities to teach and share their (your) knowledge. Everybody has been thoughtful, kind, and helpful at all times.

 Once again, I am sincerely grateful for this great opportunity and warm welcome.

Keep up the excellent work and for more many years this camp can be possible to exist.

 Kind regards,

Anna

Cr de Dragos Roumain en PJ ;..

CR de Mantas, Lituania :

The week at the camp was amazing!

Each day we were assigned one of the many amazing instructors, and he would responsable for you for that day. As there were max 2 people per instructor, you got plenty of attention, and other instructors also did not hesitate to give feedback. Different instructors had different styles and observations, so you learn multiple different ways to achieve the same goal and can choose the most suitable for you. It was also really cool that the instructors were not just observers - they were climbing with you, you can improve just observing their technique and asking questions.

It also was really nice that at the beginning of the camp we got reminded of basics - how to tie in, how to belay, etc. as well as some ice climbing stuff - how to hold ice-axe, how to choose where and how to strike the ice, how to put ice screw - which was really nice as it allowed to get up to speed and feel comfortable during all the camp. Then following days we got assigned a place to go, with new routes to try out, based on our performances during previous days. The conditions each day were different - from wet to hard ice, from sun to snow, and we had to adapt each day. And it is crazy how much we managed to improve during the camp - from never touching the ice, to top-roping vertical 50 meter pitches.

In general, the experience in the real mountains also was very useful, as it allowed us to indirectly learn the basics things that are not being taught - what things to pack for the day-trip, how to organize gear on the harness, what are the old habits that we should avoid, etc.

The international atmosphere also was amazing - as there were people from France, Romania, Spain, Croatia you had the opportunity to learn about different cultures and learn to cooperate in the international team, as well as make new friends for future adventures. We all lived in the same camp, so in the evenings, as everyone returned from their day climb, we were able to share our experiences from different places.

Everything felt very well organized - every evening you knew what you will be going to do the next day, you knew what people will be going with you and when you will be leaving and returning. The time also was well organized - we had enough time to arrive at the camp and return home, even travelling by car.

Some things that I think we could be improved:

There was a bit of confusion at first days - in the beginning of the briefings everyone was speaking in French, so did not understand anything and did not know what was happening. Later we figured it out, but it would be better if at the start of the camp we would be informed that at first you will discuss in French and then someone will translate it to English.

Some training that the instructors had seemed very interesting - for example the avalanche training - it would be great if the participants would also have these kinds of training.

In general, we really enjoyed the camp, and would love to stay for longer or to return to this or other camps. Thanks for organizing it!

CR de Danijel, Croatia :

First I want to thank You for organizing the camp. But I think I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Not because the camp was bad, but because of the miscommunications in our Alpine clubs and Mountain association. Truth to be told, If you have more than 5 waterfalls climbed or one or two alpine routes in winter conditions the camp would be boring and uninteresting, but that was not the point of the whole Camp because we learned during the camp that it is meant for beginners and people who never touched ice. Two of my frineds, who never climbed ice really enjoyed it a lot.

 I like the concept of the camp where people from different countries come and learn basic moving on the ice ,swinging and anchor points. One thing got me... There should be a little more talking about proper placement of the Ice screws, because I saw how people place the Ice screws ( I know that they were total beginners) in some bad spots ( Rotten ice , fragile thin ice ) but luckily no one fell and everyone went happy to their homes. 

Also, it is little confusing when everybody have a briefing at the same time, It's hard to follow what is happening in between changing from french to english and back to french. It would be better to have brifings at separate times ( But I understand that would be more tiring).

The instructors were very pleasent and comunicative and I like how they work with people and talking about anchors, climbing and gear.

 It was understandable that the conditions were horrible and it would be much better and fun to have proper winter conditions, and I am thankful that you tried your best to organize that we get as much ice as we can.  

Thank you once again for organizing and inviting us to the camp, I would recommend it to Ice climbing beginners in my Alpine club... if I was total beginner the camp would be 15/10 :)

Best regards! 
Danijel Salopek (Alpine club Željezničar, Zagreb)