A whale of a summer!

Time for a quick round up of the summer so far...

After a round of weddings in early June I retired to the North Sea for some money earning activities supervising people dangling off ropes as usual. An amazingly calm spell for 10 days was very unusual, but did give us a great sighting of this 30' Minke Whale, which came for a warm-up in the warmer water around the platform risers:



Back out in France it was time to tend the veg patch and get fit again for some mountain activities... A few evenings cragging at a local 'secret' venue got the arms working again, then a phonecall from Dom saw us head off to the South Face of the 3400m Aiguille du St Esprit in the heart of the Vanoise range. The Pilier D.Blanc is a 400m line of TD rock-climbing, and as a very sparsely bolted route (more on this later) gets very little traffic...

North Face of Bellecote looking somewhat 'dry':



Dom on the walk-in just after a close-up Lammergeier spotting, and just before the herd of Ibex. The route takes the pillar just right of Dom:



According to our sources 2 new pitches had been added to this route on the bottom buttress, with a handful of bolts, and the same team had added one or two bolts to complement the rest of the route. So of I set on the first pitches, with the odd shiny bolt well-spaced (10m) on the very compact rock... Having hit the ledge where the original route started all signs of life disappeared, and eventualy after much searching we launched straight up into the unknown. Several 40m runouts later, featuring some quite delicate climbing on unprotectable rock, and we finally picked up another bolt... Dom launches out into the blankness:



More weirdness followd, with bolts right next to a perfect 'gear-eating' crack followed by boltless blank slab climbing, and eventually we topped out on the pillar at the top of the hard climbing:




Of course the route hadn't finished with us yet, and the 150m of 'easy 2/3 grade climbing' on the hand'drawn topo turned out to be on the loosest choss known to man - much excitement and clenching of buttocks!



Eventually we emerged on to the summit ridge, and followed the knife edge of this to the summit for a welcome sit-down, before attacking the 45 degree scree descent to the Grand Col. On the descent, Aiguille Rouge (Les Arcs) behind:



After a day of rest I then met up with Stew and Sam up in Val D'Isere to cycle the Col de L'Iseran. I don't think we quite matched the pace of the Tour riders, but a good climb with great views over into the Maurienne from the summit of what is the 2nd highest road Col in the French Alps.

Stew & Sam on the Col:



Summer skiing anyone? The Le Fornet Glacier looking rather sorry for itself:



On the Col:



A quick descent & a grand café later, and Stew & Sam set off homewards. I was still feeling rather lively, and so to make the most of being over, decided on a quick blast round the Roc de Toviere via ferrata. This gets billed as the 'fiercest' in France, though in reality apart from one short section with little for the feet it is a path most of the way...!
"Who would cross the bridge of death must answer me these questions 3..." People on the 40m monkey bridge:



Determined to take as much off the guidebook time as possible I hammered round with only a few hold-ups for slower folks, and made it car to car in 2 hrs 10 compared to the guidebook time of 5 hours! Great views from the top over to the Dome de la Sache & Mont Pourri:



Finally on Saturday Ginny & I made for Annecy and the fantastic 'ZIgzag' route on the Mt Baron. This gives 8 pitches of climbing up to 5c on beautiful limestone overlooking the lake itself, and is generally followed by a cooling dip in the lake - heaven!

View from the picnic spot at the belay of pitch 5:

Mont Blanc North Face

Having just had 2 weeks in the UK I was keen for one last ski adventure for the winter, so on Wednesday Will, Ross & I set off up the Midi with a big day in mind. The days goal was the West Face of Mont Blanc - a Stefano de Benedetti descent from 1980 (?) with only a handful of known repetitions.

Mt Blanc West Face:



The face has had a couple of descents this spring, and with good fresh info from Andreas and Tobias we were confident the face was in good condition (there are very few good observation points for this side of Mont Blanc - maybe from Courchevel with very powerful binoculars..!).

An early start on the Midi cable car saw us at the bottom of the Mt Blanc du Tacul putting skins on at 9.20. A few big slots to avoid on the way up, not to mention a couple of menacing seracs...Not a place to hang about.

Big slot on the Tacul:



On the North face of the Tacul:



Heading across to the North Face/shoulder of the Mt Maudit, again you pass right under some rather worrying seracs:



Will & Ross at 4300m approx at the Col de la Brenva:



As we climbed higher the wind was picking up and we started to wonder whether the West face would be softening or not.. As it happened the Italian side of the mountain was cloudy, so with poor visibility and possibly no 'springing up' of the snow we adjusted our plans and dropped down the North Face.

Ross at 4500m:



Ross again, before the 'interesting' bit through the big (BIG) seracs on the face:



The bottom of the North Face from about 4000m:



And a slighter larger view:



The route continues down to join the (ex) standard ski route from the Grands Mulets, which for the last few winters has not been a viable option - very broken glacier + lots of big menacing seracs. (It had certainly deteriorated since the last time I was here (2005?), with a short rappel needed to cross a serac/crevasse on the way down:



Eventually we dropped out of the nice chalky snow we had been skiing down into slushy sticky snow, with a nice layer of Sahara sand thrown in to add some colour. Looking down at the Jonction - amazingly we only had to take skis off once to get through here:



Looking back up through sand-coloured penitents:



Finally a long traverse (half on foot half on skis) got us back to the Midi mid-station 5 minutes before the last bin down - perfect timing!
Judging by conditions I think it may be time to hang the skis up for the year and focus on sunny rock, but who knows??!!

Filming...

On Tuesday I put my cameraman hat back on and headed up the Aiguille du Midi with mountain guides Andy Perkins & Si Abrahams and snowboarder Tom Wilson-North. We were up to pick up the last shots for a joint project started earlier in the winter.

After a nice wander down the Midi ridge we went of in search of good-looking crevasses

Andy & Si scouting holes:



Si 'stunt-skier' Abrahams hanging about:



Psyching up for another drop:



Beautiful colours in the crevasse walls:



Andy & Tom:



The finished project should be wrapped up by October, and previews will be available here as and when they are finished. Keep an eye on the Ridestyle Productions website for more information.

Finishing the job...

On Friday Will & I headed up the Couloir des Italiens on the Grande Casse, probably the most classic steep ski in the Vanoise region, with 700m of face mostly in the 50 degree zone.
After several hours of literally swimming our way up through 50 degrees + of powder it got to the point where we had to decide either to push on to the top & be too tired to ski, or turn around where we were and at least get some fantastic skiing on the bottom 2/3 of the face. Powder turns won the day and we had some awesome skiing (see Fridays post) but I was left with the nagging feeling of unfinished business, and with conditions staying near-perfect I wasn't surprised when Will called from a trip up the normal route on the Grande Casse with Erika to suggest a rematch for the following day, and dropped everything for the 900m skin back up to the hut.
On arriving at the col in the morning there were already 12 people climbing the couloir, and rather than have all those pairs of crampons above our heads we opted for the Moyenne Face Nord, a classic AD+ climb and 5.2 ski which would give us a good view of the face, or a good back-up plan for skiing..

Climbing the Moyenne Face Nord:



On the ridge heading for the Grande Casse summit:



Having taken in the views on the summit we dropped down the 30m to the entry and it was decision time, with this view:



Gilles was definitely not keen, Will wasn't super-psyched, but I was definitely 'feeling it' and the top funnel looked OK, with some reasonable powder for the important first few turns... 3,2,1, dropping.. off we go...

Out of the funnel and on the big wall above the serac band:



As with all these things, with good conditions and the right mindset the skiing actually felt very easy... but with utmost concentration required all the time, falling is not an option until you get to the last 150m of slope, where you might possibly stop yourself, or maybe miss the seracs running across the bottom of the face..

And finally I could relax and slide over to the col for a well-earned drink & bite to eat..



As I sat looking back up I noticed someone else had dropped through the top funnel - and sure enough 20 minutes later Will appeared with a Cheshire Cat grin... good effort that man!!

The smiles say it all:

Couloir des Italiens - Grande Casse

More info to follow, but here are the pictures from todays epic swim up the Couloir des Italiens on the Grande Casse in the company of Will..


Sunrise on Glaciers de la Vanoise:



Col de la Grande Casse:



La face du jour:



2 skiers on Petite Face Nord



Will following my 'swimming trench':



And showing his own trenching style - 50+ degrees of powder:



The big seracs up close:



Choice: Head to top & finish up knackered, or make the best of the awesome snow we've just swum up...:



First turn anyone? - The 'flat' area in the sunlight is still 45 degrees...:



Will in action:



And again:



More Will:



Hmm, nice tracks...

They think its all over...

...it is now...

Last day of the lifts in Courchevel today, so Ginny & I met up with Julien & Anna for a last blast round the 3 Valleys. At the far side of Mottaret strengthening winds and dark skies along with not particularly pleasant snow caused a quick change of plan & we skied back over towards Courchevel.
At the top of the Saulire cable car we managed to get invited to the Pisteurs end-of-season BBQ - far more tempting than the skiing ...

Anna, Julien & Ginny at the Pisteurs hut:



More snow is forecast for the next few days, so the spring touring/climbing season is shaping up well - watch this space...

Les Courtes - Swiss Route & NNE Face

With good weather continuing to hold I made a more leisurely trip back over to Chamonix on Wednesday and met up with Greg for the last lift up to the top of the Grands Montets and another 5* bivvy, complete with fine panorama.

Les Drus:



Mont Blanc:



A 6 a.m. start saw us skiing under the Droites, and skinning up to below the days target - the north face of Les Courtes. The Swiss Route gives 800m of steep snow & ice climbing, and we planned to combine this with a traverse of the summit and ski descent of the ultra-classic NNE face.

View of Les Courtes with line of Swiss Route marked:



Skinning up below the face:



Greg gearing up below the rimaye:



In spite of our early start, we still found 3 teams on the route ahead of us, of which the first 2 seemed to be moving very slowly, so after some discussion we decided to move together as much as possible, and quickly blasted by the first 2 teams. The climbing was steady, steep snow mixed with sections of good sticky ice.
Yours truly on the lower half of the face:



Greg:



Looking down at the middle snowfield, from below the upper ice section:



The second half of the face seemed to go on forever, and (as it now turns out) the start of a cold/flu combined with a direct hit to the Adams apple by a block of ice low on the face combined to make progress more difficult, but with Greg on hand for moral support I dug deep for the last ridge to the summit:





Sadly clouds stole the views while we were on top, so a 5 minute snack break was called and we descended the summit ridge to the start of the skiing (at which point the clouds miraculously cleared again).
Swapping to ski mode on 50º snow at the top of the NNE face:



The ski down was great, with compacted powder most of the way giving grippy but soft skiing...only problem was knackered legs & a 60m rope in the bag - makes for interesting times with 700m of 45-50º skiing to do..

An uneventful descent saw us blast back down the Argentiere Glacier, sadly too late for the last lift down from Lognan, meaning a further test for already screaming legs down the Pierre a Ric run, covered in big re-frozen slush-bumps...
It was a weary pair who finally made it back to the cars after a great day out: