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
