Frendo Spur
Frendo Spur… check it out! http://blog.firstascent.com/2010/10/22/first-ascent-guide-caroline-george-navigates-the-frendo-spur-in-france/
Drus North Couloir
Les Drus, The Drus. A beautiful granite monolith that stands proud above the Chamonix valley, burning like a flame as the sun sets down on it.
There is no easy way up the Drus. There is no easy approach to it either. It’s a mountain that you have to earn. I first climbed it back in 2001, upon graduating from law school. I was with my brother and we had wanted to climb the American Direct, a stunning line up the center of the west face. We had little experience and carried way too much with us – we had over 5liters of water for our bivouac half way up the face! – and we didn’t make it to the summit. The route doesn’t end at the summit, but with a mountain like the Drus, the top matters. I had always wanted to get back on the Drus. In 2003, I climbed the north faces of the Eiger, the Matterhorn and the Grandes Jorasses, all in just over three months. A week later, I was climbing the north face of the Piz Badile, another one of the six great north faces. I was hoping to climb all six in six months, but that summer had been very dry and the Drus was falling apart. An ascent of its north face would have been suicidal. I tried the north face of the Cima Grande too. We left after work on a Friday evening, drove 8hours to Cortina d’Ampezzo and tried to climb the route the following day. It was already late in the fall and very cold, but moreover, the local rescue team was conducting a training, rapping 300m down the face. Their ropes were hitting the face, triggering lots of rock falls. We had to bail and drive back to be on time for work the next day. I hadn’t given that project much thought until this summer.
With a very wet August in the Alps, I figured conditions were going to be amazing for early season ice climbing in the mountains. I didn’t have a precise idea as to what I wanted to climb. Adam was desperately looking for a partner to climb the north face of the Eiger but I had no real interest in climbing it again, I had been working non stop, guiding pretty long routes back to back and felt that I needed to rest more than go climb a big face. But since he couldn’t find anyone, I motivated to go with him and started to look forward to a bivouac on the face. Yet at the last minute, he found a partner. The next day, I woke up to intense FOMO desperately longing to do something big too. The weather was perfect, conditions were perfect and I was dealing with shuttling cars and house work instead of being in the mountains. During a failed attempt on the Lessueur route, I saw that the approach couloir to the Dru looked like it was in condition and I was excited to give it a go.
I first went with a girlfriend, Ildi Kiss, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time: we had first met competing in ice climbing world cups back in the early 2000. She hadn’t been in the mountains in a while but was motivated and it was really fun to reconnect with her and try this route with her. We left early in the morning and simul-climbed some of the approach couloir. Things spieced up after that. I led the first mixed section and she led the second one but ended up way left of where the route was.
So, we had to lower off and climb back up to the base of the Nominee crack – a 30m long overhanging crack filled with fixed pitons. We climbed it but when we got to the top, we realized it was a little late and that we would most likely get benighted on the route if we kept going. Night falls at 6.30pm at this time of year, so we only had a few hours of daylight left and I wasn’t keen to search for rappels in the dark (the rappel route doesn’t go down the climbing route). So we rapped but I knew I would be back before I flew back to the US, providing I found a motivated partner. I couldn’t pass up the perfect conditions on the route and the beautiful Indian Summer.
The crux indeed proved to be the lack of partners: people were either down south rock climbing, or working, or on expeditions and no one was really motivated to hike up there when you can access it more easily on skis in the winter. I guided the Midi-Plan traverse on the day following our return from the Drus. On the way back, I got a message from my friend Ueli Steck saying that he was really motivated to climb this route with me. I was bursting at the seams with excitement: not only I had a solid partner, but I also knew we would for sure make it to the top! My only worry was that I was worked from too many big days in the mountains and from lack of sleep, but motivation was all I really needed to get me up the climb. The body would follow.
We met the following afternoon at the Montenvers train station to sort out gear. We hadn’t seen each other in a few years and it was fun to catch up as we hiked back up to the bivouac. We made good time hiking through the heinous talus field and reached the rocky knob at the base of the Drus in 2h30. We weren’t alone. Another party was going to climb the Lessueur route and two others were going for the same route as us. Since it’s an ice climb, we didn’t want to have anyone ahead of us, so we got up at 1am to start up the route.
There was no moon, so it was pitch black out, but I knew the way and thought I could figure it out in the dark. Ueli led out and went off route pretty much right away, but it enabled us to climb a pretty fun pitch, so that was all good. We rapped down it and I led to the start of the difficulties. It was still dark when we got to the Nominee crack.
Ueli led it in style, freeing this very steep/slightly overhanging crack. I so wished I would have had monopoints to free it too, but with dual points, I couldn’t reach inside the crack and my feet would skit, so I resorted to stepping on some of the pins. Two more sustained traversing rock pitches with rotten ice and lots of wideness took us to the base of the ice couloir.
From there, we found perfect ice to the top. We simul-climbed it in two sections and made it to the Breche des Drus, embracing the sunshine. We kept going to the “antecime” of the Petit Dru, sorted out the gear and started back down to the Breche des Drus.
We had to build V-Threads (ice anchors) on the way down as there weren’t any, which made us think that we might have been the first to top out the route this season.
I lost count of the number of rappels we did down the 800m long face, but we were back at the bivouac by 3.15pm. After a little
soup, we packed our stuff and made our way back down to Chamonix. The train had closed for the season, so we were forced to hike all the way down to the valley floor. We were down when the bells rung 7pm.
The north couloir of the Drus is the best climb I have done in a long time. It was sustained and varied, with lots of ice and mixed terrain. It’s one of those routes I could do over and over again! Of all the peaks in Chamonix, the Drus is the most striking and proud one. It’s every alpinist’s dream to tick this one off and I was all the more happy to reach the top by climbing this stunning line! It felt good to want a climb this badly again. I have spent the past couple of years focused on getting my IFMGA certification, almost forgetting about the lines that had haunted my dreams. Climbing the Drus has enabled me to reconnect to who I was before I decided to become a guide: an extremely motivated alpinist, climber and ice climber. I am already looking forward to the next big climb!
Kuffner Ridge
The Kuffner Ridge is border to Italy and France, separating two spectacular cirques: the Maudit Cirque and that of the Brenva (south side of Mont Blanc). The ridge was first climbed in the late 18s, by Mr.Kuffner who had to chop steps the whole way for his clients. Luckily for me, times – and gear – have changed!
The ridge is very long and offers spectacular knife-edge-snow ridge climbing and lots of mixed terrain. It tops out on Mont Maudit -Mont Blanc’s little brother – at 4465m in elevation. It’s one of my favorite climbs. I had climbed it a few years back with a friend and was excited when Flo asked me to guide her up it. I was looking forward to revisiting this noteworthy climb.
It took us two tries to get it. The first time, we left from the Aiguille du Midi et hiked past the majestic Grand Capucin to reach the bottom of the couloir leading to the Fourche Hut. This little bivouac is perched on the ridge, in a totally impossible location. It’s hard to understand how it can stand there on its own. It can only sleeps 12 people and there were way more people than that in the hut that night. Was it the nasty-ness of the hut, the crowd, the lack of sleep, the altitude? I don’t know. But 30mins into the climb, Flo got really super sick. She started throwing up and feeling very dizzy. So, we went back to the hut, napped for an hour and started the long descent down the couloir we had climbed. That took a while since we only had one 40m rope and the couloir is 200m long. When we got down, she felt better and we saved the day by climbing the beautiful Aiguille d’Entreves Traverse.
She went home that night. I called her again the following day and said that we should give it another go. She drove back from Switzerland and we rode the Helbronner lift across the Vallee Blanche and this time slept at the Torino Hut. This adds a few hours to the climb but offers way better sleep and food. We left in the pitch black night and headed to a couloir right of the regular couloir to meet the ridge a little higher up. We reached the ridge by dawn. It was a beautiful day, until I hear a huge serac fall on the south face of Mont Blanc, where Adam was climbing. The serac kept falling and falling. And then the heli came, in, and out, and in, and out. I thought for sure that Adam was dead. So the whole time, I was super freaked out, wondering how my life was going to be from now on. Eventually, I saw him way high up on the climb and was relieved! Horrible feeling though.
The climb was in great condition and we moved fast up the beautiful ridge that went on for ever. Gradually, the climb disappeared in the clouds. It had just snowed two nights before and the track down from the top of the Maudit had disappeared under lots of fresh snow and accumulations. We topped out in a full on white out and super strong northerly winds. I felt quite alone, having to navigate down the Maudit, breaking trail in sometimes thigh high snow. Yikes! Eventually, we found the three Mont Blanc track and made it back in time to catch the last cable car back down to Chamonix!
Thanks to Flo for wanting to do this climb and doing such a great job on it!
Rock Guiding in the Alps
I love all aspects of guiding. Alpine, ski, ice, etc. In the midst of a long season of guiding in the mountains however, rock guiding is a welcome breath of fresh air: light packs, approach shoes, climbing with a light rack, no crampons needed, often climbing in a tank top basking the sunshine… it really doesn’t get much better than this.
I was blessed with nearly two weeks of just that at a time when my body was screaming for a break from long alpine routes. Lucky me. On days when the weather is too bad to climb in Chamonix, I took my clients to sunny Italy to climb on the beautiful red dome of Machaby, where we climbed Bucce D’Arancia, a beautiful 10 pitch route with just enough breeze to make the sun enjoyable.
On warmer days, there are many options to climb around Chamonix, from cragging to long alpine rock climbing routes, either on red gneiss in the Aiguilles Rouges to beautiful orange granit. I guided a lot in the Aiguilles Rouges, which offers one of the most beautiful views on the Mont Blanc range.
I got to guide great routes right off of the Flegere:
The famous Index, Mani Puliti and Gaspard Ier with Tamsin:
Manhattan-Kaboul on Floria and La Ravanel on the Aiguille Crochues with Sophie and Denis:
There is amazing climbing right across the border too and we got to climb amazing featured limestone both on the Dent de Morcles and on the Sanetch with Evelyne and my friend Fiona.
Another climb in the Switzerland: The Pilier de la Pissechevre (the peeing goat!!)
I really enjoyed all my days rock guiding and was refreshed and ready to get back to the Alpine world after these two weeks on the rock. Next up was the Kuffner ridge… coming up in the next blog! Stay tuned!