mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...
in the
Massif des Écrins
The mountains of the Massif des Écrins (; Écrins Massif) form the core of Écrins National Park in Hautes-Alpes and Isère in the French Alps.French
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
. It dominates the valleys of Valgaudemar, Valjouffrey, and Vénéon in the heart of
Écrins National Park
Écrins National Park (french: parc national des Écrins, ; oc, parc Nacional dels Escrinhs) is a French national park located in the southeastern part of France in the Dauphiné Alps south of Grenoble and north of Gap, shared between the dep ...
.
__NOTOC__
The mountain has two or three summits: the Epaulé Sud (3,514 m), which can be considered a shoulder, the Sommet Centrale (3,558 m) and the Sommet Nord (3,564 m). Before the ascents it was unclear which of the main summits was the higher one.
Climbing
The first successful ascent of the mountain was made on July 8, 1875, by Gabriel ("Gaber") and Josef Spechtenhauser, from
Schnals
Schnals (; it, Senales ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the autonomous province of South Tyrol in northern Italy, located about northwest of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Austria. The municipality includes large parts of the Schnalst ...
in Tyrol, guiding the British gentlemen Richard Pendlebury and Arthur Cust. Cust had to give up below the summit, but the Spechtenhausers brought Pendlebury to the central peak, since sometimes called ''Cime Pendlebury'', where they had to turn around swiftly because of a lightning storm, which made the descent very adventurous. The following summer Christian and Ulrich Almer and W.A.B. Coolidge got stuck where Cust had turned around in 1875, but on 29 Jun 1877 the same party repeated the ascent of the central summit and proceeded in 55 minutes through the gap to the north summit (hence ''Cime Coolidge''). Three more parties reached the south summit via the same route in 1877 and 1879, before
Pierre Gaspard
Pierre Gaspard (born 6 December 1959) is a Belgian physicist and professor at the ''Interdisciplinary Center for Nonlinear Phenomena and Complex Systems'' and the ''Service de Physique Non-Linéaire and Mécanique Statistique'' of the Universit ...
(father), Christophe Roderon and Arthur Cust reached the north summit via a new route, from the north over the ''Glacier des Sellettes'', on August 8, 1880. Cust's measurements from the north summit showed it to be about 10 feet higher than the central peak.
The great classical routes of the Olan are difficult, and the poor quality of the rock makes the climbing quite dangerous. Routes on the north-west side, from the Font-Turbat refuge, include: north ridge (AD), Couzy-Desmaison (ED), Devies-Gervasutti (TD), and the Candau ridge (D) On the south-west face is the 'Pilier Nounours' (Teddy Bear pillar, TD), a modern route that was well equipped with bolts by J-M. Cambon.
Geology
The Olan is made of a
granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
base, with a
gneiss
Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures an ...
"hat" (see photos on .
Huts
* Refuge de Font-Turbat (north side)
* Refuge de l'Olan (south side)