Le Grand Cordeil

View N from the summit, at 2115 m

I'm very familiar with le Grand Cordeil, a 2115 m peak 10 km or so north of St Andre. I've seen it from all sorts of angles on different hikes and flown onto it many times on a paraglider. But, until today, I've never actually hiked it. It's not a technical peak, but it's very steep except for a route passing by the Cabane de Cordeil. In the summer and fall there are sheep and, more problematically, patous (big guard dogs against wolves) but the sheep moved out last weekend. So I was keen to climb it before the snow arrived and I got my chance today.

Everything went according to plan and I had lunch on the summit with excellent views in all directions. Looking north across the Thorame valley there was a snow squall on the right and clouds were playing with the summits of Cheval Blanc on the left. 

On the way down I passed the abandoned Cabane de Cordeil when I saw a hen running towards me. It had obviously been left behind accidentally by the shepherd when he moved out for the winter and it was hungry. I didn't have any suitable food for it and was a bit unsure what to do. I should probably have taken it back to St Andre and found someone to adopt it, but I'm afraid I left it there and it's not going to get through the winter.