| Summary | MITOC oldbies climb at Chamonix |
| Owner | Patrick Lam |
| Creation Date | 2012-03-14 21:04:03 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Unknown route after the Tour des Crochues
March 14, 2012 Written up at the instigation of, and some photos by, Chris Glazner. After two skiing days at Chamonix---one acclimatization day at the Grands Montets to help Chris get back into skiing shape, and the Vallée Blanche (plus extra skinning uphill to access both good powder and breakable crust), it was time for a rest day. Looking through Selected Climbs in the Aiguilles Rouges, the Route de Galbert seemed to be a reasonable moderate candidate (more on that climb later): 6 pitches, mostly F4c (5.6) with one F5c (5.8) move. The guidebook claimed a 45 minute approach, 20 minute descent, and 2-3 hours of climbing. (All lies!) After some errands in town, including picking up some climbing shoes for Chris, we set off for the climb. It didn't help that we missed the correct bus stop and had to detour back to Flegère. In any case, Chris obtained an "Alpiniste" lift ticket, enabling us to take a gondola, the chairlift, and the poma. (It's hard to take a poma in the summer, since it's a surface lift and would drag you over rocks and grass. But it works fine in winter.) Approach directions per the guidebook: "follow the Lac Blanc trail northeast, leave it to climb the base of the Aiguilles-Crochues comb, reaching the base of the route." The guidebook lacked the following data: 1) GPS coordinates; and 2) an area map. We therefore thought we would actually have to climb over the comb and then we'd see the 6-pitch climb. After getting off the poma, we skiied across the bowl, taking care to conserve elevation, up to the comb. Staring at the comb, we found something that looked like a grassy gully---a good place to cross the comb and look behind it. We stashed our skis at the base and started climbing the grassy ledges in our telemark boots. As it turns out, the ledges included some traversing third-class moves, which I really would rather have not done in plastic boots. In any case, after that excitement, we arrived at some obviously fifth-class terrain. Off with the skis, time to flake the rope and rack up. I was happy to find out that my Figure Four pack fits telemark boots just fine, so that I could wear climbing shoes and carry the boots up. Although the terrain was fifth-class, it wasn't hard (except for being a bit crumbly). It's very much like some easier 5.4 climbs I've done on limestone, with large footholds and jugs. Also, one feels a bit more confident about cams not falling out. In any case, after placing a couple of nuts, I reached a good place to bring Chris up and start the second pitch. It seemed to be a good bet that this climb would get us up the ridge without becoming 5.hard, but part of the charm of being on unknown terrain is that one doesn't really know. I figured that in the worst case we could just rappel. I mentioned that to Chris sometime later, and that thought had also occurred to him as well. Pitch 2 was more ledges, around a corner, to the snow at the top of the ridge. Having gained the ridge, we thought that we'd now be able to see the climb. I mean, how can you hide a 6-pitch climb? There were some things that looked high enough in the distance, but they seemed to be way too far for a 45-minute approach, and they were the wrong shape anyhow. How mysterious. In any case, we took a while to appreciate the epic scenery (and the skiiers down below). A short walk (and a bit of postholing) took us to back to our skis, and then we skiied out to the lift and gondola. Entirely successful, except that we didn't find the climb we set out to do. Oh. Where was the climb we were looking for? We figured out later that evening that it was one of the first things we saw after getting off the poma. |