Traverse of Pointe Lachenal and some epic snow slope action

After sitting around Chamonix for 4 days with the worst sunburn I have experienced in my life (even with living in the middle east for 12 years or so) we finally managed to get up into the mountains today. My right arm is still rather elephant like, but oh well what to do.

We decided on the Traverse of Pointe Lachenal, graded AD, which is the 3 wee summits you can see from the midi. The descent down the snow slope leaving the station was much more straight forward today as I am now used to the exposure! We left the station around 9am, and reached the first 'summit' just after 10am.

Here are some nice photos of us en route:

scary snow slope

Keith in action on the snow slope (chamonix in the distance)

what a happy couple!

Summit number 1

We moved together right up until the last chimney which Keith then led. Most of the climbing before the chimney is fairly straight forward and there is one wee exposed walk along a rocky ridge, and one abseil into a couloir.

plane flying overhead :)

rocky ridge crossing

the drop

Keith waiting to abseil

abseil in action

It was pretty busy by the time we got to the chimney pitch, so we opted to climb what looked like a slightly harder variation to the left to bypass two teams. It seems the chimney can be quite loose. Keith received a brain sized block of snow ice to the helmet, and I would have been wiped out by a guides two clients kicking off loose rock if we had opted for the normal route!

Keith on the chimney pitch

Janey about to top out

enjoying the view at the 3rd and last summit of the route

Then came the interesting descent and it was time to rope up mountaineering style again....

As there are seracs that need to be avoided, you have to cut down a very steep slope. Today this slope consisted of rock solid ice with a dusting of snow/neve! This ice was so hard that there were minimal decent axe or crampon placements to be had.

I set off in front, and down came Keith, only to slip from 3 metres above me, shouting 'Fuck! Sorry!' on his way past, knowing that if I couldnt self arrest I was going with him! Luckily I managed to though, and Keith also managed to just as the rope came snug! A total slide of 13+ metres! Epic!

before!

after! (note the ice patches left and right of rope)

But not to worry, other than a few cuts and grazes to Keiths hands it is all good, and rather amusing in hindsight.

seracs

We got back to the midi station just after 3pm, the walk back being a long and tiring drag, just as the bad weather was coming in.

A cloud covered Aiguille du Midi

Awesome day out!

Janey and Keith

Amazing day and route on the Aiguille du Midi

24th May 2012 - Climbing at the Aiguille du Midi

Some awesome weather was to be had today in Chamonix, so we headed up the Aiguille du Midi on the first lift to go and climb Cosmiques Arete/Ridge or whatever you want to call it, a lovely II AD.

Leaving the station was rather scary for me - steep icy snow slope and haven't been walking in crampons for months, so took us a while to reach the Vallee Blanche basin, but what amazing views!!

scary snow slope leaving the station (if you slip you will end up in chamonix haha)

awesome views

on approach to the route

We arrived at the base of the route for Keith to feel the need to strip off down to his boxers as he was so hot! Haha. Off came his powerstretch baselayer bottoms, much to the enjoyment of the two french lads behind us. As much as he would like me to I'm not going to post the disturbing photo!

base of route

Once that faff was over and done with, and I sunbathed for a while, we headed up the start of the route. Moved together for the majority of the way but Keith led the 'crux' pitch.

starting snow slopes

further along the route

Keith at the top of horrid abseil number one

abseil in progress

The abseils were interesting for the second person as they were quite traversey. Keith although unlucky for having to go first was lucky enough to get to clip a bolt on the wall just before the big traverse to keep him semi steady. I on the otherhand had to remove the clip and was left off balance on a knife edge drop. Immediately after the first ab we had the second. This consisted of an off camber granite chimney system, not so pleasant.

More photos of the route:

more snow slope, more pretty views

part of the route

Mont Blanc

Keith leading the crux pitch

At the top of the crux we had a look at the time and it was 4.40pm (last lift down is at 5.30pm)! Having decided at the start of the route we were going to climb nice and slow, stand around and enjoy the views, we didn't quite intend on being anywhere near this slow! So we had to climb the final section of the route super fast, I was just throwing myself at holds and axe placements, for once not even thinking about the exposure or fear of falling off! We made it to the ladder up to the station at 5.20pm, with one of the lift staff hurrying us along. The ladder climbing made us feel rather sick, literally a metal ladder up to the terrace with a drop on either side, lovely!

Aiguille du Midi

 

23rd May 2012 - Voie Caline, a big boots route with nice views

Yesterday, as the weather had been stormy the night before, we decided to let the snow settle and climb a route up the valley to near enough Montenevers. This consisted of 19 pitches of bolted rock with some awesome views of the Chamonix valley. The route was very seepy in places, but a nice day out all the same.

Here are a few photos:

pitch 5 or 6

one of the top pitches

Keith approaching my belay at the top of pitch 18

touristy photo on the way back to the bus stop

Tomorrow is a rest day as our feet cannot take any more walking, nor can we deal with any more early starts!

Janey and Keith :)

Janey's Birthday - Climbing in Aiguille Rouges

Since the forecast wasnt looking too great today we decided to get the bus up to Argentiere and walk in to the lower sector of the Aiguille Rouges, and what a trek it was.

We missed the bus we were aiming to get this morning by two minutes, watched it pull away, nightmare. The silly French bus timetables claimed there was a service every 15minutes, which clearly didnt actually run on a sunday, so we ended up waiting for an hour until the next bus came along! However, eventually got on that and made it to Argentiere, to be faced with quite a trek in the heat. Its pretty hot here at the moment. It almost wasn't worth saving the 30quid on renting a car for the day haha (the bus was free).

When arriving at the face of Chezerys, it appeared a lot of the rock was rather wet (as in streams/waterfalls running down some of the routes). We chose to climb Voie blanche D+ (150m) which felt harder than the guidebook described - it was slab climbing and I cannot slab climb. We also took the harder variation start for the first pitch. Nice route though, although 4th pitch a little on the damp side.

awesome view from the bottom of the crag - weather was nothing like forecast told us?!

Route finding

more views

Keith on P1

Keith at P3/4 belay

 We abseiled off (scary as usual) and descended back to Argentiere rapidly in fear that we would miss our bus once again! Saw lots of chamois'/ibex's (we do not know the difference), but sadly no marmottes like the guidebook suggested we may.

getting rather close on the path back down :)

Keith then took me out for a lovely birthday dinner consisting of duck, bottle of red wine and a cheese selection to finish. YUM.

nom nom

Think we will have a chilled day tomorrow as our legs are knackered and we could do with a lie in. Weather looks pretty minging anyway! Maybe I will spend more of Keith's money in the nice shops here :)

Janey/Keith

Ben Ledi in the rain, then off to Chamonix

The torrential rain on Thursday led to me, wee Lilly and Debbie going for a walk up Ben Ledi. This picture of Lil is too cute so it deserves a blog post!

Me and Lilly at the summit. Rain in poor puppys eyes!

We are now in Chamonix and looking forward to getting out climbing near Argentiere tomorrow as the forecast isn't looking good for any high mountain stuff.

Pretty views when having lunch in town today:

Will update soon if we get anything exciting done.

Janey

Two weekends of ridge walks/scrambles

So since we have been quite lazy with the blog the last wee while, feel it is time to update. Here is what we have been up to for the past two weekends:

 

Bivi in the Grey Corries

Last saturday after the weather forecast predicting snow and hail showers our plan to do Cuillin Ridge was cancelled, so we headed up to Fort William and decided to do the Grey Corrie Circuit to log a walking day. Plodded in along the old tram way, which was rather boggy and unpleasant, but at least the sun was out. Upon reaching the dam we saw what we thought was a wild wolf chasing the farmers heavily pregnant sheep down the hill. Turns out this was someones husky, so a very angry Keith was straight on the phone to the police. We chased the husky back up the hill (turns out there was two of them) but no owner in sight. The poor sheepsie had been forced into the pool of the dam, and sadly Keith scared her trying to hook her antler with a piece of cord to guide her out the water. However she managed to swim to the other side of the dam and climb out into the forest. What a stressful start to the trip. 

We continued on up the hillside and found ourselves a nice wee dry, flatish bivi spot near the start of the ridge we were going to walk the next day. 

getting roasty toasty in my winter bag

moonrise :)

We made some fruity tea, had pasta for dinner and by the time we got into our bags it had hit zero degrees and was getting colder. We woke up a couple of times in the night to the snow falling out our faces, which continued through until about 8.30/9am the following morning. 

wakey wakey

frozen nalgene :(

We pushed on with our walk, although contemplated just heading back to the car and going to mcdonalds several times. Once we reached the summit of the first munro top the weather started to clear and it turned out to be a lovely day :)

Morning snow and whiteout. Janey not impressed.

A few more pictures of pretty views and sun:

view of Aonach Mor on the right, and Ben Nevis in the middle/behind

finishing the ridge

view of the ridge we walked

The munros we did were 'Stob Choire Claurigh' and 'Stob Coire an Laoigh' as well as several 'munro tops', and of course afterwards we made what may be becoming a fairly regular post hill day trip to Mcdonalds.

Three days later Keith received a phone call from the owner of the two huskies. Turns out they had escaped from his house the night before we saw them and he had been searching the hills for 4-5days. Even after notifying Fort William police station on the Friday, it somehow still took them three days to pass on Keith's contact details or let him know they were seen, ridiculous. Anyway he has now found his huskies, so a happy ending, just not for the poor pregnant sheep that has probably lost her baby lambs!

Aonach Eagach Ridge

Yesterday, we took Keith's dad and our friend Debbie up Aonach Eagach ridge, a grade 2/3 scramble depending on the guidebook you read. We had quite fancied doing this ridge for a while, and with an ok looking forecast the plan went ahead. 

The morning started off with a complete epic on Debbie's behalf. It seems her brain cells, or should i say 'cell' (singular) does not function in the mornings. She arrived at 7.18am (only 3minutes late, an all time record for the girl) as we were due to pick Keith's dad (John) up from Corstorphine at 7.30. She knocks on the door, heres me thinking everything is fine and dandy whilst finishing off my toast and comes out with 'ive locked my keys in my car'. Now, not only had she locked her car keys in her car which could be sorted later, she has also locked her bag and walking boots and everything else she needs INSIDE the car. good one!! 

So after a trip back to Debbie's house and her mother searching her tip of a room high and low, the spare key is found! So we set off. 

The path is very straight forward heading up to Am Bodach, and after this the fun begins. We had beaming sunshine and no winds for the first 1.5hours of the day, but of course, as soon as we start scrambling in comes the snow/rain showers, and the visibilty drops to about 20metres. Everyone scrambled down and along to the summit of the first munro - 'Meall Dearg' with no problems though as it starts of fairly easy. 

Keith guiding his dad down the first descent of the ridge

As we are standing around for a wee rest we notice a guy coming down the first descent of the ridge, looking very sketchy, with nothing but what he is wearing, trainers on his feet and walking poles. He arrives and asks me 'how long does this ridge go on for?', so I tell him that is about 4kms long, with much more scrambling than he has just done and that there is no safe descent until the end, he replied telling me that that was ok. After telling him to turn around and go back the way he came he refused to listen (I think he was worried about climbing back up what he had down climbed) and he continued to follow us.

5 minutes later I decided to use what Keith calls 'the tone'... I asked if he had a map or compass - no of course he didnt. I told him to turn around, he kept dismissing that as well. So I then told him I thought he was being a right idiot and putting himself in a dangerous situation....what does he do.... 'I know its stupid, don't worry about me, I'll be fine.'  Me: 'I'm not worrying about you, I just do not want to see mountain rescue being called out for no reason as you're unprepared and clueless'. 

Anyway, after me having a wee bit of a go he continued to follow us for a while and then was never to be seen again. Must have eventually realised he needed to turn back. Unbelievable. No wonder there are so many fatalities in the hill side!

The Team

Debbie descending :)

Janey and Debbie

en route

When we reached what I think is called 'red chimney' the rock was completely drenched with all the rain and snow we had been experiencing, that we decided it was time to rope up. I climbed up the chinmey and set up a direct belay off an awesome spike to bring John and Debbie up on. Climbing wasn't very hard mind you, but we didn't want to risk then having a wee slip on our watch :) 

a grim and wet looking red chinmey

More ridge photos:

Upon reaching the summit of the second munro, 'Sgor nam Fiannaidh' and what is essentially the end of the ridge, Keith ran down the loose scree slope to the main road in order to hitch back to the car and pick the rest of us up from Glen Coe village. I guided the others down a much better, although longer path to meet up with him and the car.

Keith must just have one of those faces, the third car stopped for him!! It was an old couple and the man made his wife get in the back of their 3 door car so Keith could travel in sheer comfort along the road! He always manages to hitch so easily....I cannot see why, it's not like he's attractive or anything haha.

With today's weather and wet rock me and Keith feel that the ridge was more like a grade 3 scramble/moderate climb than some sources suggestions of a grade 2. Felt rather spicy in the wet, and Debs and John did very well in the conditions :) It was actually quite a bit more full on than we were expecting. Awesome though.

Aonach Eagach Ridge

Janey