LES ROUIES PHOTOGRAPHED BY VITTORIO STELLA

VITTORIO SELLA (1859-1943)

Les Rouies (3, 589 m -11,7 75 ft)

France

Photographed in 1900

The artist

Vittorio Sella is a mountain italian climber and photographer who took his passion for mountains from his uncle, Quintino Sella, founder of the Italian Alpine Club.  He accomplished many remarkable climbs in the Alps, the first wintering in the Matterhorn and Mount Rose (1882) and the first winter crossing of Mont Blanc (1888).
He took part in various expeditions outside Italy:
- Three in the Caucasus in 1889, 1890 and 1896 where a summit still bears his name;
- The ascent of Mount Saint Elias in Alaska in 1897;
- Sikkim and Nepal in 1899;
- Possibly climb Mount Stanley in Uganda in 1906 during an expedition to the Rwenzori;
- Recognition at K2  in 1909;
- In Morocco in 1925.
During expeditions in Alaska, Uganda and Karakoram (K2), he accompanied the Duke of Abruzzi, Prince Luigi Amedeo di Savoia.
Sella continues the practice of climbing into his old age, completing his final attempt in the Matterhorn at the age of 76; a climb he had to interrupt the rise following an accident in which one of his guides injured. He died in his hometown during World War II.  His photographic collection is now managed by the Sella Foundation.
His photos mountain are still  considered today to be among the finest ever made.
Jim Curran believes that "Sella remains probably the greatest photographer of the mountain.  His name is synonymous with technical perfection and aesthetic refinement. "
The quality of the pictures of Vittorio Sella is partly explained by the use of a view camera 30 × 40 cm, despite the difficulty of the transportation of such a device, both heavy and fragile in places inaccessible; to be able to transport it safely, he had to make special pieces that can be stored in saddle bags.  His photographs have been widely distributed, either through the press or in the galleries, and were unanimously celebrated; Ansel Adams, who was able to admire thirty-one in an exhibition that was organized at Sella American Sierra Club, said they inspired him "a religious kind of sense of wonder."  Many of his pictures were taken in the mountains for the very first time in the History, which give them a much artistic, historical  but also scientific value ; for example, one could measure the decline in the Rwenzori glaciers in Central Africa.
Source:
 -  The Georgian Museum of Photography

The Mountain 
Les Rouies (3589 meters) is a mountain of Massif des Écrins (Ecrins Range) situated in Isère (France). The highest top of Les Rouies is very central to the rest of the range but rarely visible. It is the meeting point of three major lines of ridges that separate the valleys of Lavey, Gioberney and Chardon. It is towards the latter that flows mainly ice which largely cover the northeast slope of the summit, in developing the glacier of Les Rouies.
The summit itself and most of its eastern slopes consist of gneiss type Lavey strongly enough migmatized.
The glacier of Les Rouies is nowadays suspended above the glacier. It continues eastward for 3 kilometers although it is not yet powered by the serac falls from the first.
The jump between these two glaciers is reinforced by an NS band hornblende gneiss which continues south of the Pass of Les Rouies in the high slopes of the Circus of Gioberney where it chokes down (so it is likely the heart of a syncline).
Just a few decades the ice overflowed laterally to the south (side Gioberney), from the Pass of  Les Rouies towards the Circus of Lauzon, a glacier couloir which is now reduced to two ice corridor.
To the east of the Pass of Les Rouies the edge of the Peak of Vacivier is again integrally formed by gneisses of Lavey.  It is connected at right angles to Peaks du Says at the north ridge of Mount Gioberney which corresponds to a hornblende gneiss new band oriented N-S.
The western side of Rouies is formed by a steep line overlooking the upstream part of the valley of Lavey.  These steep follow at almost exactly the route of the great eastern Faille de Fétoules that stilted the Lavey gneiss its eastern chamber of several hundred meters, so these gneiss dominate there amphibolites circus and the Pointe de la Muande, extension of those of Olan, which normally constitutes the cover.  This major break, NS azimuth, the other continues south through the fault of Gazonné Peak in the Morges range, where it affects the sedimentary rocks and is also dotted with a few outcrops of Triassic: This is the evidence that this accident has worked at the "alpine" distortions (that is to say post-Hercynian).
The melting of glaciers that surround the foot of the steep western Rouies reached in the 1950s, the bedrock of the navel * * deepening of the glacier of the Lavey, now fills the Lake Rouies.
ascent
Climbing routes 
Les Rouies is a classic Ecrins Range climb. Leaving the shelter of Le Pigeonnier,  climb is done in a 4 to 5 hours up and  2 to 3 hours down.  This is a relatively long and varied climb. The passage of Les Rouies which gives access to the glacier can be tricky depending on the year. From the retreat of the glacier, the steep corridor passage can be avoided by the left; the route that we propose goes through the steep corridor and down the left slope. Conditions can change with the seasons ... the view at the top is great.
Sources:
-  Geol-Alp 
- Virtual Mountain