Claire Chazal

Firm snow and ice steps made the first section of the route pretty quick!

Sadly I once again didn't top out another route.... This time it was Claire Chazal on the Grands Montets ridge. I wouldn't have blogged about this but I think the lesson that I learned will be useful for other people! Basically: take bigger cams than you think for granite mixed climbing!

Dave heading up mixed ground on Claire Chazal.

Pretty happy to be back mixed climbing at last!

Having climbed most of the way up the crux pitch, I realised that our wild country size 2.5 cam, was nowhere near big enough for either of the cracks that protect the last section. Looking down, my last (and only) bit of gear seemed a very long way away. I wasn't completely certain I could climb the last few metres without barndoor-ing off and didn't fancy the 20+ metre fall that would come with it. Somehow I managed to downclimb the icy groove that I had been quite proud of climbing up! Dave wasn't too enamoured with the pitch either so we decided to abseil back down to the bags. Waiting for us at the bottom were our bigger cams, which we had chosen to leave behind. Ooops!

Heading up towards the thin icy groove, thanks Dave for the photos and patient belaying!

Two very different alpine days - the Rébuffat and Gabbarou-Albinoni

Psyched frenchman...

Sometimes all you need in life is a super psyched Frenchman... When Arthur rocked up from Grenoble saying that he wanted to climb the Rébuffat rock route on the South face of the Midi, I had my doubts. I had so many doubts that I insisted we take along crampons, technical axes and a full set of screws as well as rock and ski gear, just in case we had to come up with another objective. It just seemed very unlikely that we could actually go granite climbing at 3800m in March! Even though several Vallée Blanchers declared that we would definitely get frostbite, we chose to ignore them and have a look at the Rébuffat anyway. As we were gearing up, Arthur said he was glad I was British as none of his french friends would have followed him!

The route looked good from the bottom with only a few patches of snow about. Choosing to leave our skis midway between the start of the route and the abseil descent (I have climbed the Rébuffat once previously in 2012) and then stomp up the snow was probably a bit of an error. The slope turned out to be pretty well consolidated icy neve which wasn't very pleasant in rock shoes or trainers. Traversing a final snowy ledge saw us onto the actual rock and life got a lot more fun!

Some snow negotiation...

Other than a few more snowy ledges the rock was clear, dry and warm in the sunshine. Although I was wearing ski pants and two synthetic belay jackets, we weren't anywhere near getting frostbite PHEW! The ski down the normal route on the Vallée Blanche was fairly horrific, but Arthur and I had a good walky pointy session and got a good look at what routes may still be in.

Looking down from my shady pitch to our skis.

I was wearing a lot of clothing!

The start of the rock climbing season made me realise how pitifully little mixed alpine climbing I've done this winter. As Sam felt similarly we decided to remedy this by go having a look at the Gabarrou-Albinoni on the East Face of the Tacul. From the bottom, the steep climbing didn't look particularly fat but we decided to go and have a look anyway.

Getting over the massive bergschrund was a little bit intimidating, it's huge! Very undercut and pretty wide with just a tiny balanced snow bridge to tip-toe across. Most of the initial couloir was uneventful, except for the one slightly steeper ice step where I suddenly got pelted with spindrift avalanches. This was then followed by quite a lot of ice and rock too! This is the main problem with being on an east face in the morning.

My psyche just about lasted until the bombardment stopped and I could continue upwards. Still expecting to get taken out by a massive rock I was surprised to see a bright orange helmet bouncing down towards me... Somehow I managed to catch it as it went past without letting go of both axes and peeling off into the great beyond. Definitely the highlight of my day, although the French climber who dropped it probably felt differently!

Once on the steeper climbing, the ice stopped being quite so soggy. Even though we were dodging loose rocks quite a bit we still thought the route was a goer. Looking up the next steep pitch, I realised that I had used up my bravery for the day in the spindrift avalanches earlier on. Thinly iced rock is not one of my favourite things to climb so I handed my lead over to Sam. Sadly on the 'thick' ice a few metres off the belay his tools were still bouncing off the rock underneath, so we both decided to call it a day and descend. The abolokov thread halfway up this pitch probably should have been a bit of a sign!

Sam questing up some steeper ice

The top few pitches of steeper climbing were pretty thin when you got to them!

After a lot of abseiling (that first couloir is long!) we got down and crossed the 'schrund without dropping ourselves or our gear in it. Shame we couldn't do the last pitches of actual climbing but good to have another good day out in the mountains.

Snatched mountain days.

Coming back to Chamonix for a long weekend of work, I didn't really plan to get out in the hills at all. Having two days of mini adventures off the Midi felt even better as they were totally unexpected!

As ever the north side of the Midi ridge is an amazing place to be! If a bit terrifying...Not so scary when you can't see the whole way to town though!

For some reason, since I first started to ski, climbing the traverse of the Midi-Plan and skiing down the glacier to the Requin hut, has been appealing. After another skiing versus climbing conversation with Dave on Saturday, this seemed like a good objective to combine both on Sunday!

As I've never actually skiied the Grand Envers variation of the Vallée Blanche before, I was pleased that the first pitch didn't feel 'that' steep. After skiing across to the Col du Plan were soon taking off skis and putting on crampons. At this point I was feeling smug about how much faster the route is in winter. Being able to ski down so much of it is so much faster than walking it! Then we started trenching through waist deep snow and time vanished into suffering. After what felt like an eternity (probably just because my heart was beating three times as fast) we got to the last steep slope before the Rognon du Plan and decided to bail.

A bit of actual climbing on the route broke the trenching monotony.

The couloir below us was inviting, trenching up more snow slopes was not. Although it looked quite steep, the Grand Envers seemed pretty close and the snow down to it looked beautifully flat and powdery. After somehow managing to put on my skis without dropping my crampons and ice axe I left the safety of my ledge, determined to put some turns in. Only the snow was absolutely terrible, refrozen and grabby with ice underneath. Definitely not powder! As I don't really understand jump turning and am somewhat of a sideslipping aficionado, I gracefully chose the latter method of descent for the first half of the couloir...

Trying to make myself turn did not go very well....

At this point I remembered that I don't understand jump turning.

Me in the top of the couloir, really wishing that I knew how to jump turn!

The 20% sunshine forecast on Tuesday seemed totally inaccurate. At 10am, Mont Blanc and the Midi were basking in sunshine. Definitely not rest-day-Mount-Everest-Foundation-presentation-writing weather after all! Instead I tagged along with Liz and Dave to do a tour off the Midi. Sadly the weather did exactly as predicted and came in from the East as we skied down. By the time we stopped to put skins on beneath the Salle à Manger it was definitely snowing, so we decided to bail and headed down the Mer de Glace. Nice to have a quick hit though before a 3.30am transfer home again!

Still pretty sunny for 20%

Liz is a professional snowboard poler! Good job really when we made her ski the not very steep Gros Rognon on a pow day...

As I forgot to get my camera out on Tuesday, the 3 photos above are courtesy of Dave.

Sunny Midi days are the best thing about Chamonix, even when it's already tracked out.

Col de la Glière

Feeling frustrated with my total lack of alpine climbing this season and having spent a brutal weekend working (admittedly with a Petit Envers lap of the Vallee Blanche in the middle of it!) I really wanted to take advantage of the forecast and get something done in the mountains. Only restriction was that I had a transfer for my flight home at 11.20am… Plenty of daylight before then but not much time after first lift up anywhere; definitely not enough time for climbing or queuing off the Midi. Then I remembered the Col de la Glière, perfect for a quick hit but would I be up and back home fast enough for my transfer?!

A few avalanches crossed the skin track on the traverse.

As soon as I got off the Cornu lift, I knew I could make it and stopped being stressed about timing. There was a skin track already in, but it only had two kickturns, managed to traverse the entire face and had 3 substantial cornice collapses across it. So of course I put in my own track on the totally unthreatened right hand side! When I finished the traverse across from the Lacs Noirs, I realized that no one else had skied down from the Col de la Glière itself. Bizarrely there was a skin track up it with a long traverse to the col. Someone else had skied off the skin track, but nowhere near the normal descent so I got fresh untracked powder the whole way down, more or less to the piste!

A high traverse gave a few more powder turns, quite a few people have skied the Pourrie if not the Col de la Gliere.

Still untracked snow just above the ski area!

I got back to the bus stop at Flégère an hour after getting off the Cornu lift so comfortably (ish) made my transfer PHEW! Although nothing like as long as my last solo ski adventure (the Aiguille d’Argentière at the end of April) it was good to get out in the hills for a little bit! May well be my last mini alpine adventure for a while as I’m spending most of the next few weeks in the UK. Hopefully climbing conditions will be amazing in the last half of March though when Chamonix quietens down again!

Glacier des Améthystes

Face shots all the way down from GM! (photo by Jack Doyle)

Finally, on Monday, the sun came out in Chamonix. As we wanted to take full advantage of it Jack, James and I headed for a days ski touring up a south facing col! As I had to make some beds before skiing we missed the quieter queuing time at GM and got fully embroiled in holiday traffic... A two hour wait before we could start skiing was a good reminder to get up earlier now! With it being the first morning of half term, holidaymakers were obviously being cautious as the Rognon glacier was still pretty untracked. The thigh deep powder provided some amazing face shots but it would have been more fun if we hadn't had to pole our way down the less steep sections...

Trench warfare.... (Jack Doyle)

Chasing the sunrise.

As we were a bit late and started skinning at midday, we had a bit of a race to get back into the sun away from the shadow of Les Droites. The temperature difference between the shade and sun was ridiculous and we were soon trying to think of ways to wear less clothes without getting sun burnt! By the time we got to the hut, there was a decent skin track up the Col du Tour Noir as well as the Col d'Argentière. James had done most of the Col d'Argentière a few weeks ago so we opted for the first col, which I hadn't done either.

Heading up (Jack Doyle)

Slowly, slowly getting there! (James Matthews)

The skin up was pretty long and brutal in the heat - maybe not the best idea for the first ski tour of the season! We got most of the way up but ran out of steam just before the final steeper section to the col itself and decided to call it a day. As only five other people had skied down the right hand bank the ski down wasn't exactly tracked out! Although the snow wasn't quite as good as coming past the Rognon it was still pretty fun, until we hit a short section near the bottom that had refrozen.

A few face plants as well as face shots.... (James Matthews)

Even though Monday was not a technically challenging day, it felt amazing to be back in the mountains at last and back in one of my favourite basins. It was even nicer to escape the holiday crowds at GM and to see more or less no one else for the whole day! Thanks to James and Jack for good banter and for letting me steal their photos (I forgot my camera and had to use my phone instead.) In spite of crashing and landing on my head a couple of times, Monday was definitely a day to remind me how good it can be to live in Chamonix!

Back into the shade and sun burn free!

(James Matthews)

Not quite an alpine route but not a bad day out!

Sometimes (quite often really...) I get scared of alpine climbing... I find my winter alpine psyche is a very fragile thing. On Wednesday, a missed top bin reservation, not being sure where the route actually started and putting in a high ski traverse above a lot of big crevasses, all took their toll on my motivation. The final straw was realising that I still haven't replaced my decrepit climbing gloves and I couldn't feel my fingers after just 5 minutes of skiing. Luckily for me, Dave was already wearing all of his spare clothing and didn't mind running away to the temptingly sunny slopes below.

Running away to the sunshine!

We then had a good old walk-pointy ski explore of the Rive Gauche ice falls. This felt slightly more adventurous than it should as we were guidebook-less and trying to remember where stuff was by memory. Turns out everyone had the same idea that day and most of the ab points had multiple sets of skis waiting for their owners. Fortunately as we finally sauntered down to the EMHM cascade the final climbing pair were just topping out so we had the ice fall to ourselves. After I pulled the ropes from our abseil I ummed and ahhed about leading the first steep pitch with only five ice screws on our rack. Then I remembered just how blunt my four ice screws were and managed to persuade Dave that he wanted to lead both of the pitches. Not that he really had much choice in the matter... Good job he's a beast and made short work of the route!

Running it out with our minimal ice climbing rack

By the time we skied down to the bottom of the Pierre a Ric I felt like I had had an alpine day out! Skiing for the first time of the season with a climbing bag is always a shock to the thighs. Although we only did a short route in the end, we skied further than we would have done if we had gone up Claire Chazal. Dave also has a report of our lovely day out here, who says you need to be scared to enjoy climbing?!