The Pouce-Café adventure

Me and Bjarne took the first cabin from Flegere at 8.15 with the intent to walk up to Aguille Pouce. We wanted to do the 14 pitch long route called Pouce-Café. What interested us most with this route was the remoteness of the mountain. Because of the long and rough approach and descent, the routes here doesn’t get climb that much, in difference of many other places in Chamonix. This fact of course makes the route quite serious in comparison with others and this would be a great experience for us.

When we went up with the Index lift, we got hit by a thick fog that made it almost impossible to navigate and see were we where supposed to go. After a while of discussing whether we knew where we would go or not and if it was a good idea to continue, we began walking. We started off slowly up towards the couloir, which we couldn’t see but thought was the right way, hoping the mist would ease of soon. All of a sudden after just a couple of hundred meters the mist got thinner and we could barely see the couloir in the distance. 

The approach turned out to be scrambling on a endless pile of choss, which gave reason for some less flattering expressions.

After we reached the top of the Col de la Glière we did a sketchy and steep down walk/climb on more choss with ever sliding rocks under our feet.

Finally we got to the base of the route! 

The climbing was for the most part alright on typical tricky slab á la Chamonix with spaced protection, occasionally very spaced. However, the last 6b+ and 6a+ pitch was really funky and nice on steep and quite well protected ground.

Even though we climbed pretty fast and linked about six pitches, the last cabin back to Flegere had already gone when we were on the summit. Having this in mind was nice actually because it meant that there where no stress getting down. The descent now would take about 3h instead of 1.5h and we had about 5 hours of sunlight left. Instead we just sat down on the top enjoyed the view, ate some leftovers and took a bunch of top photos. After a while we started the long and epic descent down to Flegere. The Traverse of the comb from Aguille Pouce to the Col de la Glière was really cool and adventurous with some pretty exposed sections.

The sum of the day is that maybe the climbing over there isn’t the best but the mountain is really cool. The whole package with the approach, serious climbing, and the descent really makes it a great adventure well worth the hassle!

 

Foggy morning

It slowly cleard up.

Choss, choss and more choss

Getting above the clouds is always a safe bet to get nice weather

The stunning southwest-face of Aguille Pouce

The line we climbed  follows a straight line on the right face (To the right of the climbers)

Bjarne seconding the first slabby pitches of the route.

The summit is, belive it or not, also a pile of choss

Bjarne hugging some rocks to get past a tricky section on the way back.

Having a quick stop on our way down, Aguille Pouce gives the picture a nice backdrop