We are walking towards Pointe Lachenal with the spectators above ever watching, everyone holding their breath, trying not to make a sound… Dead silence as if the smallest distraction could end up with a catastrophe. Thoughts of why and how is the reason for a frustration slowly spreading. Lack of answers… Or understandable answers at least. Questions are nagging in to peoples minds. It just seems so far off common sense, but then again, so pure and real.
People dream, slipping in to the realm of imagination for a moment. For a second they become what we are, they do what we do.
Meanwhile, we live what you dream…
Putting the crampons on
The Ridge
The first pitch
Climbing towards the summit
Evas Hand
And so we met Jude half way up the wall
Eva pulling herself around the last corner of the beautiful 6b+ pitch.
Jimmy Halvardsson called me one day and asked if I wanted to come and try a traverse on the boulder at Pierre d’Orthaz outside Le Praz. Since boulder traverses always has been of lesser interest to me, I wasn’t very psyched. In fact I have always been looking at traverses the way the old alpinists probably looked at bouldering back in the days; something very contrived and pretty pointless except for the single reason of good training, which I might as well get in the gym anyway so why bother?
However, I must say I really enjoyed working on this traverse, the moves on it are so cool and it really has a little bit of everything. Slab moves, crimpers, jugs, slopers, toe hooks, heel hooks, big-, technical- and sensitive moves.
A very nice and warmly recommended traverse located in a very classic area, walking distance from Chamonix.
Don’t forget to grab a coffe at the nice little hotel restaurant next to the parking lot :)
I have been walking past those stunning crack lines located underneath the cosmic hut for three years now. Since I first saw them I’ve wanted to climb them and when Linus, Mike and I decided to finally go and try them out I was well excited.
The climbing did not disappoint either. In fact this forty-five meter 7b crack is the best trad single pitch that I have ever tried!! I just can not imagine crack climbing being better than this, not to mention the setting that it is located in! It is just world class!
I gave it all on the onsight and fell not too far from the top. Too wrecked from the onsight push I didn’t have more energy to go for a redpoint attempt.
I am very glad to finally have tried those magic lines and I must say I was pretty stoked to have been so close on the onsight :).
Linus doing his best gangsta posé
Beautiful warm up crack, 6b-ish
The first tricky section
Roof crack with some good smearing
Me fighting my way up the crack, Mont-Blanc in the background.
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 ofchoss, which gave reasonfor 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
The next morning we woke up at 06.00 am, ate a quick breakfast and took off towards the second pillar of the Nantillons to do the route Fleurs du Mal. For todays mission we had recruited a third member to our climbing party. Thor a friend of Evas showed up during dinner yesterday evening and had a plan to do some sort of solo mission but we talked him in to come with us instead.
Said and done our three men strong team started climbing at about 07.00 am. We decided to lead in blocks with me starting. The first pitch was a really nice crack/slab pitch. The second one which was the 6b+ crux-pitch was ok but a bit to contrived for my taste, there’s an easier but much nicer crack just next to it that led up to the same stance.
After I was done leading the first five pitches Eva took over and linked some nice pitches past the traverse on pitch seven. Quickly covering ground, it was soon Thors turn to take over the leading who did the last pitches to the summit with ease.
The descent took us about an hour and a half and from the bottom of the route what we had left was the long way back to the train. We walked, down climbed ladders and rails on to easier ground, walked on the glacier, climbed back up ladders and walked the gravelled path zigzagging between tourists until we got back to the Montenvers train station.
Two very good and intense days were finished and we were tired and very happy!
Fleurs Du Mal
The first pitch followed a beautiful crack
Thor belaying, Me climbing and Eva doing something else :).
The approach up to the Refuge des Envers is between 2-3 hours depending on how fast you’re walking. Even though I am pretty used to walk long approaches, through ski touring among other things, I find the walk up to the Envers hut very long. Maybe it is because it involves so many different stages. It’s not that you walk on the same path and in the same environment for 3 hours as it normally is. It’s a constant change of landscape under your feet.
We start off taking the Mont Envers train that in a speed not much slower than a snail, drag us up along a very beautiful and steep track to the foot of the massive Mer de Glace.
We continue walking down a wide gravelled path, zigzagging between tourists until the path is exchanged for an exposed traverse on steep rails and ladders.
Eventually we get down to the level of the Glacier.
With the enormous red and yellow arrow in aim, we start walking up the glacier which in the beginning is easy but gradually gets way wilder. We have to walk around big water filled holes and jump over crevasses which if we would fall into would put us in a very serious situation.
The glaciers are amazing natural features and make really cool shapes and formations that you never get bored of looking at. The Glacier is surrounded by big mountain sides that are very brittle. A lot of rock has fallen on to the glacier which at some parts has covered it completely, making it hard to understand if your walking on a glacier or just a big pile of gravel. Another cool thing is the individual stones, some times fist size some times car size, that are getting heated by the sun and eventually melts their way through the ice, creating the big holes. The constant melting is also creating rivers that are undermining the glacier and in an extent are filling up the holes (made by the stones) with water.
After about 20-30 minutes of walking we start traversing off the glacier and climb the endless ladders and rails that will take us past the big arrow painted on the rock, unmistakably showing which direction we are heading. The ladders are at some points very steep and even overhanging actually!
On the top we have one more stage of endless walking to conquer. It’s the least dramatic part of the approach but the longest and goes quite steep uphill more or less for ever.
Then all of a sudden, when we have almost given up and we’re all very convinced that the Envers hut is just a bluff, we can see a house in the distance.
Tiredness and a slight dizziness could easily make you wonder if your eyes are telling you a lie when you see a house built on a very exposed and steep ridge, which from a distance doesn’t seem to have any access to it. But make no mistake, it’s there! :)
Up at the hut, we hade a quick lunch and then went to do the route Guy-Anne 12 pitches, 6a+. A warmly recommended route with two crack pitches in the beginning of absolute world class!
Me getting in to the first world class crack of the route.
Eva on the second world class crack pitch
Eva on the tiny and exposed summit of the first pillar of the Nantillons.
Evening at Refuge des Envers. People bragging about their adventures of the day and the aguille verte range in the background looking down at us. (Le Dru and Aguille verte in the clouds)
