Like you could have read in Jeroen’s article, I (Bart) went back down to Chamonix, because I was feeling ill. So I packed my bags
while Jeroen was looking for a climbing partner at the hut and I was on my way
to the train station of Montevers. I was really feeling tired and sick when I
arrived at the crowded train station. Luckily the train came quickly and I was
on my way back to Cham.
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| The Aiguille Verte looking pretty snowy on my way back to the valley |
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| Me and Jeroen at the camping, showing off our Camalot #6 ©Martin Antvorskov |
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| Frida, myself, Martin and Jeroen at the communal table in the camping. ©Judith Leegwater |
The next few days where filled with resting, reading, meeting interesting people and I went cragging once, with the friendly Swedes I’ ve met. When Jeroen returned from Envers, he settled himself in the camping and took a few days off himself. Jeroen really wanted to go back to Envers les Aiguilles, but I was still not feeling fine enough for those routes. So, Jeroen went up with Steve, a Brittish climber he had met on the camping. The same day I went to the ‘Dalles de Chézerys’ with Martin, a Danish climber I’ ve met. We climbed a three-pitch route, called Dune. That day, I felt better and Martin came with the idea of climbing Arête des Cosmiques together. A route he really wanted to climb. Although I climbed the route already twice, I agreed because I needed some acclimatization and he insisted on paying my cable car ticket. But we had to be quick, because he was leaving in the afternoon. No sooner said than done, we went up the Midi next day. We soloed, almost the whole way and downclimbed the first rappel. As usual, there were a lot of people on the route, but it wasn’t overcrowded. Although it was the third time I climbed this route, it is still a beautiful one. Nicely exposed, fun mixed climbing and different behind every corner. There was still a lot of snow, so we kept on our crampons the whole way. The climbing took us two hours and we passed a lot of rope teams. When we sumitted with the usual tourist-crazyness, we took a bite and a rest and took the lift back to Cham. In the end Martin still had time by spare to catch his bus to Aillefroide.
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| Martin, feeling strong on the approach to the Chézerys! |
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| Martin, follows the second pitch of Dune |
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| View on the Aiguillette ©Martin Antvorskov |
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| Martin downclimbs the first rappel |
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| Martin rapelling on my way-too-long-for-this-route 70m rope |
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| The classic Cosmiques photograph! |
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| Martin climbs the crux |
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| On the summit! |
In the
afternoon I went climbing in ‘Les Gaillands’ with Frieda and Josefin (the
Swedish girls) and Barry, a South-African native who currently lives in
Australia. Les gaillands is one of the most popular crags around Chamonix and
it gets hot and crowded very quick on the main wall. That’s why we climbed on
the left side of the wall. Shaded by the trees and less crowds! I made plans
with Barry to go up to the Midi for some alpine climbing.
The next
day, we took the Midi. Loaded with a tent and food to stay up for a few days.
We dropped our gear on the Col du Midi and set off for the objective of the
day; Chèré couloir on the Triangle du Tacul. When we arrived at the route,
there were already some ropeteams in the route. We decided to wait until they
were at the ridge, we hoped the ice would fall down to the sides and not trough
the couloir. When they were a little higher, we climbed the first pitch, who
was a bit sheltered from the falling ice. When we were at the safe stance, we
decided to bail, because there was still too much ice coming down. When we were
down again, we went for the Contamine-Mazeaud. The route was beautiful but it
consisted out of constantly 60-70° of blank ice with no rests, not even at the
belays! Quickly, my calves were exploding out of the back of my pants and I had
to fight the pump, pitch after pitch. Barry, who had some more experience with
ice climbing, had a much better technique and he kept the same rhythm, pitch
after pitch. Halfway up the route, we came to the conclusion that the snow
conditions were getting worse and we still had to get down, once again we had
to bail! The route still had one surprise for us, we had to rappel trough a
gigantic bergschrund! We walked back to the Col, we’ ve put up our tent and
started making dinner, for once not with freeze-dried meals, but with real
fresh food and even a bottle of wine.
Next morning, we took our tent down and went for the East-face of Pointe Lachenal to climb the classic Contamine route. The approach was easy, but there was some doubt about the right start of the route as our topo wasn’t very clear. Thank’s to Barry’s route-finding experience, we started the right route. A nice crack with a block underneath that served as a gear depot. The most pitches were relatively short, that’s why sometimes we climbed two pitches together. My lead of the second pitch consisted out of a short, but very beautiful dihedral and led to a ledge. After this plateau started a huge compact wall littered with beautiful cracks. Pitch after pitch, we were astonished by the beauty of the wall! There where surprises behind every corner! Halfway up the route we encountered a huge freestanding flake, with another flake lying on top of it and on the last pitch we passed a huge window in the rock, that looked out over the North-East face. We were also surprised by the toughness of the climbing for the grade or was it the altitude… After all the climbing is situated between 3100 and 3600m. Later-on we learned that the Voie Contamine follows the ridge and as we climbed more on the face, I believe we climbed some pitches of Harold et Maud, after we left the ledge. Anyway, if you know what we climbed, please comment below!
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| The Chèré Couloir, pretty crowded as usual
©Barry Smith
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| Waiting for the other teams
©Barry Smith
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| Barry, leading the first steep section ot the Contamine-Mazeaud |
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| Bart, following the steepest part
©Barry Smith
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| Barry, leading a fun pitch with some mixed in the end |
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| Rapelling over a gigantic bergschrund |
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| Our camp on the Col du Midi |
Next morning, we took our tent down and went for the East-face of Pointe Lachenal to climb the classic Contamine route. The approach was easy, but there was some doubt about the right start of the route as our topo wasn’t very clear. Thank’s to Barry’s route-finding experience, we started the right route. A nice crack with a block underneath that served as a gear depot. The most pitches were relatively short, that’s why sometimes we climbed two pitches together. My lead of the second pitch consisted out of a short, but very beautiful dihedral and led to a ledge. After this plateau started a huge compact wall littered with beautiful cracks. Pitch after pitch, we were astonished by the beauty of the wall! There where surprises behind every corner! Halfway up the route we encountered a huge freestanding flake, with another flake lying on top of it and on the last pitch we passed a huge window in the rock, that looked out over the North-East face. We were also surprised by the toughness of the climbing for the grade or was it the altitude… After all the climbing is situated between 3100 and 3600m. Later-on we learned that the Voie Contamine follows the ridge and as we climbed more on the face, I believe we climbed some pitches of Harold et Maud, after we left the ledge. Anyway, if you know what we climbed, please comment below!
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| Approaching the East-face of the Pointe Lachenal
©Barry Smith
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| Bart, following the third pitch of the route
©Barry Smith
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| Barry, climbing without helmet because he dropped it (we were able to recover his helmet later on, because it lay on the bergschrund) |
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| Barry crushing one of the harder pitches |
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| Enjoyable climbing on the face! |
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| Bart, arrives at the last belay after the 'window pitch'
©Barry Smith
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| Climbing to the actual summit
©Barry Smith
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| Yeah! But the day is far from over!
©Barry Smith
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General info
A return ticket for the
Midi-cablecar cost you 50 euro’s, yeah pretty expensive! However if you don’t
wish to pay for the expensive Cosmiques hut, you are allowed to bivouac in the
Mont Blanc Masif. Beware! Camping is forbidden, so you have to take down your
tent every day! Be careful because the camping fees are very high!Thank's to our sponsor: Kariboe Leuven
For more pictures, take a look at our Facebook page
