Voie de l'eperon (aka S. Peguy), right variant in 5b (short section, most of it in 4+). With Lionel. Beautiful weather for alpine climbing. I am not much of a rock climber but this was a nice outing. This is normally a very quiet place but on that day a guide from La grave showed up with his daughter, so there were 4 of us total on the route. The lower section is actually the hardest one. There are pitons and spits at regular intervals, a few friends and slings will do the trick. Quite a few ledges along the way with relays allow for some relaxed breaks. We climbed with our alpine boots while the others were in their rock climbing shoes. Nice views of the surrounding peaks, the buffere hut, the Nevache valley and the Serre Chevalier valley.

The route is roughly as follows: Climb in red, descent in blue. We actually arrived from the left side.

The pictures are here:
http://www.japanpeuf.com/20110831/thumb.html

Sample pic from that link:

The area is interesting also from an historical stanpoint with old blockhauses dotting the area along with rusty barbed wire. Also there used to be a few copper mines around and some of the old hauling equipment can be found.

The face we climbed is in quartzite and the rock is of good quality.

All in all, although I was hesitant at first due to my mangled left hand and a tendinitis of both achilles I was glad I went for it. My achilles tendons were not super happy by the end of the day but it was worth it.