I like to think that climbing is in my genes because my parents were climbers. We travelled the world to climb. And it’s still with great pleasure that I go climbing with them. My mother, Martine, is always excited to go on an adventure. At 65 though, her knees are giving her much trouble. So, I try to pick climbs which don’t involve much approach or descent.

This year, we headed to the Cosmiques Ridge on the Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix, France. After a frothy capuccino and still warm croissant in town, we rode the cable car nearly 10’000ft up to the top of the Aiguille du Midi. There, the view stretches out to Mont Blanc and onward to Italy. The Aiguille du Midi is also the gateway to the Vallee Blanche, a classic ski run in the winter, which ends 10’000ft later back in Chamonix.

Hiking out of an ice cave, we made our way down the knife edge snow ridge which drops steeply down 3500ft to the north, and down to the col du midi on the other side. You don’t want to fall down on either side there. The terrain eases up passed the ridge. We contoured the base of the striking south face of Aiguille du Midi, which rises like a bright orange flame out of the glacier below and kept heading west to the start of the ridge proper.

Although I had already done this climb with my mom, she was thrilled and excited, blown away by the beauty of the scenery around, as though she was there for the first time. It felt so special to be here with her. We climbed up mixed terrain, some time on snow, some time on the reputable Chamonix granite. This ridge is climbed and guided so often that locals have drilled holes in the rock to make it easier to climb with crampons. Only in the Alps could you see that! We traversed a snow couloir, contoured gendarmes – one of them has the highest 5.13 crack in the world: Digital Crack – and made it to the crux of the route, a diagonal slanting crack up a used-to-be blank-now-drilled-all-over-wall. This section is always a bottleneck, with people struggling up the 10m high crux. We killed time rehydrating, soaking in the view and enjoying each other’s company until it was our time to climb. My mom made quick work of the section and we climbed on, traversing into the north side of the ridge before reaching the summit, where a crowd of people coming out of the cable car was snapping picture after picture of us.

My parents opened my eyes to climbing and taking my mom on climbs now is not only a way for me to give back, it’s also very rewarding to take such an accomplished climber with me. My mom has pushed the boundaries of woman climbing in her own way when she was younger. She climbed great classic such as the Gervasutti Pillar, the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey, did the first female ascent of the Naranjo de Bulnes in Spain, climbed in Peru, came first in many ski mountaineering competition. She is a true model for me and I am greatful to be able to share time with her in the mountains.

The Matterhorn is certainly the most  iconic mountain in the world. No less. It’s no surprise that everyone wants to stand on its summit. Yet climbing the Matterhorn is no walk in the park. It requires fast climbing and a great sense for route finding.

When Whymper first climbed it in 1864, they started from Zermatt and made it 3/4 of the way up in a day, which is mindblowing considering the times, the gear they had and the very poor rock quality on the climb. When I first attempted the Matterhorn, Iwas 17. My brother had decided to climb it in pure style, starting from Zermatt instead of taking the lift to Schwarzsee. I had no experience back then and it was late in the Fall. We made slow progress and turned around. The next time I visited the Matterhorn was in the winter of 2003 to climb its  great north face – one of the three great north faces in the Alps. We left the hut at noon because of poor weather. We had a twelve hour window of better weather and decided to go for it. We bivouacked below the summit, sitting on a ledge so tiny that each time I fell asleep, I also fell off my ledge. We also lost our lighter and couldn’t make any water or warm food. It was a little epic. Since then, I have stood on the mighty Matterhorn many times. On this guided trip, I was working with a local Swiss guide, Jean Pavillard and American Steve Banks. Our clients were a brother and sister, Alicia and Peter,  from Australia and their friend, Patrick. They had been climbing around Zermatt for a few days, training to get ready for the D-Day. The whole Matterhorn experience is pretty particular.

The local Zermatt guides own the show. On the walls in the hut is written: breakfast 4am, departure 4.20 (underlined indeed). There are so many stories around the Zermatt guides. They have been known to: lock the hut door so that no one would leave before them, send a guide ahead in the wrong direction with a headlamp on while the rest of them went on without lights, just as to lead the other parties astray, be really hard on their clients, etc. Granted, they know the route by heart and are super fast and efficient at climbing it. Yet, there is no need for such attitude. Clients are tied into the rope while still chewing on their morning breakfast slice of bread, with their helmets and harnesses already on. People are all racing for the door, hoping to be the first ones (after the Zermatt guides) to be out the door and race to the start of the climb, 5 mins out the door. There, you wait for your turn to climb up the fixed ropes initiating the climb. It’s not exactly your best wilderness experience, but it’s pretty unique in its own way.

It’s a long ways to the summit: 1200m long to be precise. You need to keep a pretty steady pace the whole way, as it gets harder the higher you go. After the Solvay Hut, the terrain is more exposed, harder to protect in places, and then you get to climb up fixed ropes and neve all the way to the summit.

Although we didn’t summit this time, it was great to be back on that mountain! Looking forward to next time.

 

The Papillons Rige is a great climb on beautful rock on the Aiguille du Peigne in Chamonix. You reach the base within a 30-45min hike from the Plan de l’Aiguille – the Aiguille du Midi mid station.

Sophie is a doctor in Geneva and the mother of two little children, so she was excited to do a day climb. Last year, we did the Cosmiques Ridge together and the Papillons Ridge seemed like the natural progression. We were in the shade the whole time, which was perfect given that it’s in the 30’s in Chamonix (90F). This ridge offers just the right amount of technical climbing and an amazing view on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi and the Aiguilles Rouges across the valley.

A great day climbing in Chamonix! Merci Sophie!

Ah, La Meije!
La Meije was one of the last great peaks of the Alps to be climbed and the first to be climbed only by French people. Prior to that, English men would hire guides to take them up peaks like the Matterhorn, the Aiguille Verte, etc. So it was with great pride that 19 year old Emmanuel Boileau de Castelnau summitted with Pierre Gaspard and son on August 16, 1877. Before then, many had tried and believed it would centuaries before the peak would be climbed. Each section of the climb has a name, often related to how far the previous climber had climbed. The Pyramide Duhamel was a kairn built by Mr. Duhamel himself, to show how far he had gone. During the first ascent, the crux sections were climbing in….. SOCKS! It was many years before the peak saw a second ascent. The Meije – which in local slang means “the south” because the sun goes over it at noon” – is still to day one of the most beautiful ascents in the Alps!

The weather wasn’t looking good in Chamonix or in Switzerland, so I suggested to my friend/client Floriane to drive south where the sun is (almost) always shining. I had done the climb in 2002, but hadn’t been back to this area since, and I was as excited to guide it as I had been when I first did it. We left from the ski mecca La Grave and climbed the Enfetchores to the Breche de la Meije and down to the Promontoire Hut. The climb follows a 900m long spur/arete to the top of the Grand Pic (3983m… the highest of the Meije traverse peaks), followed by 3x50m rappels into the Breche Zigmondy. It then contours the Dent Zigmondy by traversing into the north face and climbing up cables to a notch, and continues up and down the 2, 3, 4th tooth all the way to the Doigt de Dieu – aka God’s finger. How I love the names in the Oisans – Southern Alps region! Three rappels takes you down on the glacier. From there, the tiny, tiny, tiny but ever so welcoming Aigle Hut is only 30mins away. Day three, we climbed the last summit of the Meije – The Meije Orientale – and then hiked down (loooooong ways down) to Villard d’Arene, and hitched hiked down to La Grave. It snowed overnight and we climbed the Rateau the last day in full on wintery conditions. Here is a photo album to illustrate Flo and I’s four days in the Ecrins Range.

I am taking Floriane into another amazing place this coming WE. Check back for more adventures to come!

My first guided trip in the Alps this summer was working for ISM – The International School of Mountaineering – based out of my home town Leysin in Switzerland. My Dad had worked from them back in the ’70s and I grew up surrounded by the guides who worked there and was mesmerized by them. It’s probably then that my secret desire of becoming of guide budded. And hence ISM seemed like one of the obvious companies I wanted to work with.

I would be working with Adrian Nelhams, as I had the previous year. Adrian is British, has a little son named Monty and is an examiner for the British Guides. I really enjoy working with him.

We met the day before the start of the course in Leysin to discuss the plan. We decided to climb the SW ridge of the Grand Cornier in the Valais and the west ridge of the Dent de Tsalion in Arolla, along with the nearby Aiguille de la Tsa.

We hiked from Ferpecle up a rugged trail and then glacier to the Dent Blanche Bivouac. It was raining and snow conditions were completely isothermic, which made for difficult travel. But the beautiful little rounded shaped bivouac made it all worth it. After a night of heavy rain, we woke up to perfect blue bird skies and great views of the mighty Dent Blanche north face and of our climb, the SW ridge of the Grand Cornier.

At 3962m, The Grand Cornier is just shy of 4000m, but its surrounding giants have nothing on him. There is no easy way up or down it and the SW ridge offers amazing climbing up its sometime snowy or rocky but always knife edge arete. With the previous night’s rain, the snow was very punchy all the way up the climb, which made for strenous trailbreaking.

After many hours of breaking trail and climbing up the amazing SW ridge, we climbed down the normal route, which is just as hard and long. There were lots of precipitation in June and the snowpack hadn’t yet fully transformed, which made for hainous postholing down to the Moiry Hut, where we spent the night. The Moiry hut was just remodeled this year, so we got to enjoy this beautiful new facility! The following day, we hiked down from the hut and drove back to the Arolla valley.

Day 4, we climbed a technical via ferrata right above the little pittoresque town Evolene. It was very steep to overhanging in many sections, which got some of the client’s hearts going!

That afternoon, he hiked to the beautiful Tsa Hut above Arolla, to climb the west ridge of the Dent de Tsalion and the Aigille de la Tsa.

We woke up in the early morning to hike up a boulder field to the base of the climb. The few first pitches instantly wake you up, climbing up steep and beautiful rock. The whole 600m. of ridge climbing is up perfect cracks and nice ridge features. A nice and long journey.

From the summit, we scrambled down to the glacier and joined the start of the Aiguille de la Tsa, a striking mini Matterhorn like peak.

We then hiked up and over to the Bertol hut. The view from the Bertol Hut stretches to the Dent Blanche, the Tete Blanche and the Bouquetins to the south and over to the Pigne d’Arolla and the Aiguille Rouges d’Arolla to the north. Although this is a great hut, the toilets are the biggest shame. I thought I was going to pass out from the smell.

This was another great week with the International School of Mountaineering.

It’s 7.30am when we reach the summit of Mont Blanc. At 4810m (15,782ft), Mont Blanc is the highest peak in western Europe and in the Alps, which means that right now, it feels like we are standing on top of the world, higher than any other peak that the eye can see. It’s quite a show! Standing on the knife edge snow ridge, we have one foot in Italy and one foot in France. Chamonix, to the north, is still in the shadow of its surrounding giants, while Courmayeur, to the south is already in the sun. We bask in the morning sun, enjoying the fruits of our effort, catching our breath and already looking on to future possible ascents: the Gran Paradiso -highest peak in Italy – to the south, the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa to the east, the Eiger to the north.

The climb started when the three of us guides – Tomaz from Slovenia, Daniel from Switzerland and myself – met the six clients the previous day at the Bellevue cable car in Les Houches, a few kilometers down valley from the alpine climbing mecca, Chamonix. We rode the lift to then catch a little mountain train to the start of the trailhead at the so-called “Nid d’Aigle”. We hiked from there up steep switch backs and a rocky spur to the Tete Rousse Hut at 3167m. The Tete Rousse hut is a beautiful and comfortable little hut perched high above the Vallee de l’Arve, with the north face of the Aiguille de Bionnassay and the strenuous Gouter Ridge looming above. The great thing about climbing in the Alps is that you don’t need to carry any camping or cooking gear with you. The hut system is so well done, that all you need is your climbing gear and warm clothing. The huts are equipped with beds and comforters and the hut keepers cook delicious pies to snack on before or after the climb – it was a real challenge for me to pick between the blueberry and the walnut pie!!! – and all-you-can eat meals, with soup, cheese, main course and dessert.

At 1am, we woke up, had breakfast and headed out in the moonless night up the 700m long rock ridge to the Gouter Hut. We encountered one of the cruxes of the route 20minutes into the climb, when crossing the infamous “Grand Couloir”, a 50m wide couloir which sees tons of rock falls and that you need to run across. After that, we scrambled up easy but exposed rocky terrain to the Gouter Hut, which sits on the Aiguille du Gouter at 3817m. Lots of people stay there to climb Mont Blanc, but it’s got a bad a reputation for being extremely crowded and dirty, with people sleeping on tables and rats running around. A new hut is getting built and should be ready to host the hordes of people that climb Mont Blanc by 2012. From the Gouter hut,we follow an almost horizontal ridge toward the Dome Du Gouter (4237m), and onward to the Vallot Hut (4362m)

– a trashed observatory that people go in to find warmth on cold windy days or when waiting out bad weather. From there, we climb steeply up the sometime knife edge west ridge called the Arete des Bosses – The Bumps Ridge -, going over the Grand Bosse (4513m) – The Big Bump – and the Petite Bosse (4547m) – The Little Bump – and along the narrowing ridge to the top of Europe.

My clients today are Josi and Stuart from the UK

. They were fit and we made it to the summit in good time. There is no wind on the summit and it’s a bluebird day with warm temperatures. We snack, rest and my mind drifts to how it must have felt to be the first people – Jacques Balmat and Michel Paccard – to summit Mont Blanc back in 1786. People had tried to summit Mont Blanc long before that time, but the main concern was how to get up and down in just one day since the local peasants did not believe that one could survive a night in the open, in the snow, a reference to the old superstition dating from the time when the range was known as the Montagnes Maudites – The Accursed Mountains. When a man, Jacques Balmat, got lost on the mountain, was benighted and came back to tell the tale, he was living disproof of the legend. It would now be possible to climb Mont Blanc in more than a day and Jacques Balmat proved it by summitting on June 8th, 1786. Over 200 years later, Mont Blanc is ascended by an average of 20,000people.

This is my fifth ascent of the peak. I have climbed it through different routes: from France over the Arete des Bosses, the Three Monts Traverse and the Grand Mulets, and from Italy by climbing the Freney Pillar, one of the hardest routes in the Mont Blanc range and one of my greatest climb ever! I always look forward to climbing this beautiful and prestigious peak, for myself or with clients.

Caroline George with www.intothemountains.com