Chamonix 2010

Our plans for Chamonix this year really didn't turn out. Mostly due to some very unsettled weather last week.

The first 2 days brought us constant rain in the valley, which fell as snow above 3500m. The rest of the week was very unsettled, with lots of cloud and high wind.

Route choice proved to be quite difficult also. Most of the ice/mixed routes were left in poor condition with recent high temperatures and blistering sun, and after the snow last week, the high rock routes were left buried.

With this in mind we got on a couple of routes in the Aiguille Rouge, spent a day bouldering in the valley and managed one high mountain route, the Midi-Plan Ridge.

With a seldom fine day forcasted, we headed up the Aiguille du Midi on the first car and beat the crowds out of the ice tunnel, down the descent ramp and onto the classic Midi- Plan ridge.

The morning was pristine but already becoming very hot. We made good time on the ridge and soon passed the narrow snow ridges and up the couloir and up to the Rognon du Plan. A couple of abseils and we were soon down on the Col Sup du Plan. A French guide was hot on our heels as we climbed the final section up onto the Plan rock summit, via a couple of final hard moves with the ledges being iced.

Once on the summit we rapped of back down to the col and made the decision to return to the Midi rather than down to the Requin hut. With the heat, it was the best decision not to tackle the Envers du Plan Glacier.

Back over the col we ascended the fixed rope, then had the long steep plod back to the Midi, again making good time where most teams slow, with no one behind us for 45 mins.

As soon as we headed down, the clouds began to engulf the Midi, where there was a team on the Frendo, which looks pretty icy up around the Rognon.

Over in the Aiguille Rouge we climbed a fantastic route, ' Crakoukass'.  A fantastic 7 pitch route which is becoming a bit of a classic seeing a lot of traffic. We thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining route, which had many different aspects including climbing up one monolith needle to another, then taking a, 'le cheval', belay on the top. The crux was climbing from the arete onto the side wall of the larger arete which leans back slightly with 100ft of air beneath the feet!

We also climbed the last few pitches of, 'La Somone' instead of walking up to Le Brevent. We climbed these moving together, 'alpine style', bit of practice!

So no Fendo spur, Forbes Arete or Jager couloir, and finally to top a week that didn't end up as planned, a broken ankle, courtesy of yours truly & the Frison Roche!!

Amazing Chamonix

Yesterday i arrived back from the Chamonix valley on the French - Suise border after a perfect weeks alpine climbing. From the day we landed, to right through the week, the weather could not have been better. We got use to waking up to perfect clear skies and minimal wind, which to our delight held all day every day, pure bliss!!

Tete Blanche North Face
After landing in Geneva, transfering to Cham and checking the latest conditions at the OHM, we sharpishly headed up the Col de Balme and made our way to the Albert 1er refuge for two nights.
On our first days climbing we headed up the very broken le Tour glacier and climbed the normal route up the Tete blanche. As this is a very short route and it was still only 8.30am we skirted high up round the col du Tour, bringing us out onto the Tete Blanche north face. From here we traversed the face to the rock rib which splits the face in half, we decided this would be the best option as the bergshrund was huge and the other half of the face looked like it had some significant rockfall. The rib then made a good mixed finnish to the route.
The next day we hoped to climb the Forbes arete on le Chardonnet, this wasnt to be as the route was apparently very icy which would have made the ridge a lenghty undertaking. Instead we climbed the Aiguille de Tour via the Col du Tour and up the normal route to the south summit. This route was very dry and care was needed not to knock loose rocks onto partys beneath!

Valle Blanche-Helbronner telepherique















Pointe Lachenal
The 3rd and 4th days out in Chamonix saw us get a few more routes in. We firstly climbed a great little route which was the Traverse of Pointe Lachenal, which is a series of three small peaks which has a good mixture of climbing.
The route starts begins by climbing a 45 degree snow slope to the first summit, then a traverse of the ridge is needed to the second summit. Here a small abseil opens up the remainder of the route. A traverse of an icy slope leads to the base of a 45m chimney which is climbed to the 3rd summit. Finally a quick decent is needed to avoid any problems with the huge seracs which loom above!!

Pointe Lachenal 1st summit














Dan on the Cosmiques Arete
Later that morning we climbed the Cosmiques ridge to pass some time. As expected it was a busy route with a lengthy wait at the abseil and the small pitch shortly afterwards.
We stayed a second night at the Cosmiques refuge which meant another decent down the ridge from the Midi station, this at the moment is tricky as a good sized crevasse has opened up right on the path of the ridge, extra care is needed here!!

On the Gouter route at dawn














Mont Blanc summit
The fourth day we arised at 1am for breakfast at the Cosmiques hut. After we ate and got the rope sorted, we got on our way on the Mont Blanc Traverse via the 3 Monts route. Dan and i made good time as we headed up Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit passing the countless teams which all attempt Mt Blanc. We reached a very cold summit in 4 hours which im pleased of as the guide allows 7 hours. We then decended the gouter route all the way down to Nid aigle to complete the full traverse in 8hours 45mins. The other rope party with us of Kev and Jeff also copmleted the route well under guidebook time, so all were happy!!



Chamonix














Chamonix
Our final 2 days in Chamonix were spent cragging at Les Gaillands, which is a beautiful accessible crag down in the valley, eating pizza and creme brule and generally relaxing! The weather looked to be becoming unsettled on the last day also, so we were very fortunate to have a great week.
Being out in Cham for the week has also inspired Dan and i, and gave us a few more amazing routes to look forward to in the future.
Le Rebuffat sw face is next!!

Cragging at Les Gaillands