Here I am in Chamonix - with a little over 2 weeks left here I'm already starting to feel like I'll be gone before I know it. Unlike like my last visit here, the weather gods have been a little kinder and I have already been 'out in the hills' a few times.
From Marseille, I returned to the same campsite as last time, a cheaper alternative seeing as I have a car and all the equipment necessary. The next day I got straight into finding partners at the mountain office in town. Although initially concerned that I might have some trouble and end up doing a whole lot of not much, by the end of the day I'd partnered up with Stefan, a Kiwi, to climb the next day, as well as organised some climbing further down the track with Aidan, over here from the UK.
The next day I found myself back on the Aiguille du Midi cable car, this time only going to the halfway station, to climb the Arete du Papillon. The climbing was entirely on rock, and was a fantastic route that involved plenty of steeper, technical sections combined with typical ridge traversing over and around all sorts of interesting features.
Two days later Aidan and I headed up to Albert Premier hut. Our plans of climbing that day were thwarted by bad weather, and we spent the afternoon in the hut. Luckily the weather had caused a few cancellations at the hut - so we didn't have to bivi as planned. After an early start the next morning, we were back at the hut and straight to bed after the weather turned us around. We spent the day around the hut - not as dull as it sounds! The following morning (at 3am) the sky was finally clear as we headed out the door. Within half an hour a light snow started falling, but we persisted, optimistic about the forecast. The weather cleared for 5 minutes just at the right time, so that we could actually see our route - the Table Couloir (AD-) up Aiguille du Tour.
The couloir was great fun to climb, and even in the cold and low visibility, still beautiful. The sun greeted us as we reached the col, and with the recent snowfall the vista was unlike anything I've ever seen, jagged bits of golden granite covered in a pristine white sprinkling of snow and ice. The following traverse to the summit was very enjoyable, and the descent down the Swiss side very quick and easy. We then proceeded back down to the Valley - for pizza and beer.
After meeting another UK climber the following morning, Mike, we got the train up to Montenvers and walked into the Envers des Aiguilles hut. The Envers area is well known for its rock routes, and the crowd at the hut were easily distinguishable as a 'bunch of climbers' as opposed to 'I'm acclimitising for Mt Blanc' (the typical customer at Albert 1er). The next day we headed out and climbed L'opium du peuple (TD, 6a), an 11 pitch route that headed up a sub peak of Aiguille de Blatiere. The weather was perfect - not a cloud in the sky and no wind at all. The climbing was brilliant as well. The Alpes are famous for their golden granite - and I think this climb was a pretty good display of its form. It was a spectacular day, and we headed back down to Chamonix (in the rain) the next day, happy chaps.
And now I'm back in Cham, sitting out a spell of bad weather. I've checked into a gite (hostel) this time, and am glad of it. Having a fridge is such a luxury, and it's easier to meet other people and be social - as opposed to camping by myself. This evening I had dinner with a group of 10 Korean's here to climb Mont Blanc. One of the group is a 'famous mountain singer', and when a little string instrument was brought and and he was finally pursuaded to sing for us, it turned out
he truly had a beautiful voice.
From Marseille, I returned to the same campsite as last time, a cheaper alternative seeing as I have a car and all the equipment necessary. The next day I got straight into finding partners at the mountain office in town. Although initially concerned that I might have some trouble and end up doing a whole lot of not much, by the end of the day I'd partnered up with Stefan, a Kiwi, to climb the next day, as well as organised some climbing further down the track with Aidan, over here from the UK.
The next day I found myself back on the Aiguille du Midi cable car, this time only going to the halfway station, to climb the Arete du Papillon. The climbing was entirely on rock, and was a fantastic route that involved plenty of steeper, technical sections combined with typical ridge traversing over and around all sorts of interesting features.
Two days later Aidan and I headed up to Albert Premier hut. Our plans of climbing that day were thwarted by bad weather, and we spent the afternoon in the hut. Luckily the weather had caused a few cancellations at the hut - so we didn't have to bivi as planned. After an early start the next morning, we were back at the hut and straight to bed after the weather turned us around. We spent the day around the hut - not as dull as it sounds! The following morning (at 3am) the sky was finally clear as we headed out the door. Within half an hour a light snow started falling, but we persisted, optimistic about the forecast. The weather cleared for 5 minutes just at the right time, so that we could actually see our route - the Table Couloir (AD-) up Aiguille du Tour.
The couloir was great fun to climb, and even in the cold and low visibility, still beautiful. The sun greeted us as we reached the col, and with the recent snowfall the vista was unlike anything I've ever seen, jagged bits of golden granite covered in a pristine white sprinkling of snow and ice. The following traverse to the summit was very enjoyable, and the descent down the Swiss side very quick and easy. We then proceeded back down to the Valley - for pizza and beer.
After meeting another UK climber the following morning, Mike, we got the train up to Montenvers and walked into the Envers des Aiguilles hut. The Envers area is well known for its rock routes, and the crowd at the hut were easily distinguishable as a 'bunch of climbers' as opposed to 'I'm acclimitising for Mt Blanc' (the typical customer at Albert 1er). The next day we headed out and climbed L'opium du peuple (TD, 6a), an 11 pitch route that headed up a sub peak of Aiguille de Blatiere. The weather was perfect - not a cloud in the sky and no wind at all. The climbing was brilliant as well. The Alpes are famous for their golden granite - and I think this climb was a pretty good display of its form. It was a spectacular day, and we headed back down to Chamonix (in the rain) the next day, happy chaps.
And now I'm back in Cham, sitting out a spell of bad weather. I've checked into a gite (hostel) this time, and am glad of it. Having a fridge is such a luxury, and it's easier to meet other people and be social - as opposed to camping by myself. This evening I had dinner with a group of 10 Korean's here to climb Mont Blanc. One of the group is a 'famous mountain singer', and when a little string instrument was brought and and he was finally pursuaded to sing for us, it turned out
he truly had a beautiful voice.
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