The finest Granite climb in Europe?

The spectacular Dos d'Elephant

There is never much point trying to crow-bar a particular wish to climb an alpine route into an unfavorable conditions and a mixed weather forecast.  That is to say ,work with what you have.
Not for the first time, this is what happened to Charles Sherwood and myself.  All the routes we had outlined as possible goals, were either falling down [Walker Spur] Unapproachable because the glaciers were all tortured [Traverse des Drus] Or were ridge climbs covered in too much unconsolidated snow. [East ridge of D'Herens]

The later route  being a possibility, if, there was a stretch of good weather and the snow  burnt off with the sun, but at least in the short term that looked unlikely.  So we decided to head south for a few days to find some better weather.

We left Chamonix,  in the rain and headed for Orpierre where the weather was good.  We had a mix of sport climbing and climbed the classic La Diedre Sud on the  Quiquillion crag.

Orpierre in the afternoon sunlight

La Diedre Sud   Quiquillion crag.

 We reviewed the weather forecast, decided that there was no great improvement in the alps and headed further south.  Cassis and the Calanques.

L'arete de Marseille

We climbed the sensational L'arete de Marseille, on the Grande Candelle . although it is supposedly only 5 pitches long, the shear aura of the route and the fact that every pitch is uniquely special without doubt makes it a world class rock climb in a beautiful position made even more special by the fact we were all alone.

Start of the 2nd pitch .

Les Calanques

We then reviewed the weather forecast and this led us to go even further south: Corsica.  The beauty of the trip is that you board the ferry at 7.00 pm enjoy a perfectly competent dinner, go to bed and disembark at 7.00am the next morning .

Leaving Marseille looking towards Le Grande Candelle

 We were on the crag climbing at 9.00am, this time complaining about being too hot!  There was some good single pitch rock climbing on rough grippy granite followed by a swim in one of Corsica's idyllic canyon streams.

Great spot for a post climb swim.

Our goal for our Corscian trip was to sample some of its classic rock climbs .  We identified two very different style of routes, both in the Bavella region.  This meant getting in to position which meant undertaking a magnificent and  hair raising three hour drive,  [as the crow fly's about 15 km.]  We stayed in the beautiful village of Zonza which was below our objective for the next day.

L' Arete de Zonza. This was a  classic route in every sense of the word.  Not just was it "classic" in the sense it was beautiful, it was also classically  traditional in the sense there was very little fixed protection and route finding was demanding if not ultimately rewarding.

Searching for the rappel anchor with the Mediterranean in the back ground. 

The second route trumped the lot.  It soaks up superlatives like none other.  The Dos d'Elephant is the most sought after rock climb in Corsica, often described as the finest granite rock climb in France , if not Europe. This is no small claim and we thought we should see if it was true .  It is a giant slab climb on featureless rock with minimal protection.  When it was first climbed about 20 years ago the bolts were placed on the lead and not many bolts were placed. it must have been mind boggling serious.  Since then it has been retro bolted, but it is still very scary. Where it isn't so scary it is instead just very hard.  Added to which the On-line posts has helpful information like "you must be very comfortable climbing at the grade 6b+ " and you need to have new rubber on your climbing shoes" neither of which we completely qualified for.

Nevertheless the next morning after a viscous steep ascent  we had located the bottom of the route.  Some achievement in its own right. [Subsequently learnt that many of my friends had failed to locate the route!] Charles was keen to stamp his name on the climb too and wanted to lead some of the pitches.  I lead off on the first pitch.  By the time Charles reached the stance his enthusiasm to lead through had waned a little.  But always a man to stand by his word he launched himself at the second pitch with what looked like  impressive commitment, although later he admitted he wasn't quite so committed.  The third pitch was the technical crux pitch after which the rest of the climbs cruxes were in the head- long featureless slabby pitches with a bolt about  every 20 meters- so potential 40 meter screamers...

Head games .

The incredible slab pitches

 We were both delighted to have been able to climb this route.  We rappelled back down the line of climb and eventually rewarded  our selves with a plunge in the canyon at the bottom.

After our final night in Zonza we explored one of the sea cliffs called  Barbicaghja outside Ajeccio while waiting for the night boat back to Marseille.

Sea side cragging.

Weisshorn 4506meters. A dream fullfilled.

It took a long time.  It was now four years since David Brooksbank emailed me asking me whether he could climb the Weisshorn after a 40 year hiatus.  David climbed the Matterhorn with Ulrich Inderbinen in 1975.  Ulrich was born in 1900.  He worked as a Guide until he was 96. Ulrich is quite an act to follow.  The Weisshorn is sometimes referred to as the "thinking mans" Matterhorn. In many ways it is just as spectacular and a lot harder- a rather more sophisticated climbing goal than its rather Chavy neigbour.  I have even heard the Matterhorn described as a sort of pimped up Ford Escort to a Ferrari but maybe that's a bit of extreme.

I agreed to try to climb the mountain with David and it was clear from the very first steps he would be more than capable.  The trouble was always the weather.  On our first year together it snowed and we went nowhere near the Weisshorn but instead climbed a lot of mixed of alpine routes all over the alps.  The next year it snowed again and we just left and headed for the Dolomites where we had some fantastic climbing.  Last year we did actually get as far as the Weisshorn Hut to find ourselves to be the sole occupants.  This was because it snowed again obliterating our attempt which ended in knee deep snow.

So to 2019.  We were to try again.  Our strategy was to climb a preparatory route that was not only "interesting" but would  provide valuable acclimatisation.  We would then have an easier day so that we did not get too tired before the ascent.  In essence 3 days warm up and 3 days for the ascent and descent of the Weisshorn.  After all, the vertical ascent of the Weisshorn is greater than from Everest base camp to its summit.

We climbed the Arete de Saille on the Grand Muveran.

The arete.

 We stayed in the Cabane de Rambert.  We both agreed that if you wanted the perfect quintessential hut experience then this was it.  A quiet hut with just a few people , a good food and then a spectacular climb with no one else on it.

Crux Pitch.

On our third day we ventured into the Vallee Blanche in order to maintain the acclimatisation and to make sure all the ice related kit was working.  We climbed Point Lachenal.

The plan was going fine, then the weather played its part again.  We were forced to re book our night in the Weisshorn Hut and delay a day.  We went rock climbing above Brevent- that was  hardly a sob story.

The next day we drove around to Randa and made the long walk up to the Weisshorn Hut.  Meanwhile the weather forecast had changed again.  Our proposed summit day, the next day, was now showing a poor forecast. The other teams bailed. We found ourselves [once again] the only occupants of the Hut.  After a "Council of War"  David and I decided to sit it out at the Hut because the next few days promised stellar weather.  This had pro's and cons.  The main pro was that we would gain valuable acclimatisation and rest .  The cons were that David would have to change his flights and I would be climbing the Weisshorn on my 25th wedding anniversary. Dinner needed to be cancelled.

Our enforced rest day involved sitting around in the fog and the drizzle.  Then the water supply dried up.  Then the beer supply dried up.  The beer supply was bravely sorted by the arrival of a helicopter slaloming through a break in the clouds.

Fixing the Hut water supply was arguably marginally more important than the beer supply as no water would mean no food.  The way to fix the water supply was to hike up to the glacier and re plum the pipe into the glacier.  This is how I spent my afternoon.  I walked up the path behind the hut armed with a long wooden ice axe, not really knowing what to expect.  I followed the pipe to its end where I found it sticking up in the air.  It was an easy fix to dig a hole in the glacier and reposition the pipe so that the glacier stream could flow in to the end of the pipe.

I was not sure how successful this had been until I arrived back at the hut, but I guessed by the hugs and kisses I received from Jacqueline the Hut Guardian I'd fixed it.

There were a couple more moral boosting teams who arrived in the afternoon.  A local Swiss Guide and his client , plus a Polish Guide and a Ukrainian Aspirant Guide, the later was apparently being assessed for his Guides badge by the former.  How this was going to work was beyond me, because neither of them could speak each others language and the only mutual language they had was English, of which neither of them [as far as I ascertained] could speak that very well either.
Anyway three parties in total.

The alarm went off at 2.00am.  We were away just before 3.00am.  All the stars were out.  Not a breath of wind.  Was this to be our day?  Progress was smooth, steady and incident free.  We made it to the "Breakfast stop"  a place on the climb where we join the the true east ridge.

 The rock on the ridge now becomes solid and the climbing straightforward but  airy.  Firstly over the Lochmatter Tower and then over and around several other towers, before the rock ridge turns to a snow ridge.  Or in our case an icy snowy  ridge.

 The other parties elected to pitch climb the icy sections.  We choose to climb moving together.  We were able to do this because in the four years we had been climbing together I knew David would be just fine.  Inevitably by not pitching the climb we arrived on the summit first followed very closely by the Polish/Ukrainian team.

Summit with the Matterhorn in the background

There was now the issue of getting back down.  Maximum concentration is needed at every step.  The icy ridge was a bit softer on the way back which helped the crampons bite well.  But every step potentially could be your last.  The rocky ridge went well and I lowered David down off the towers then rappelled my self.  The big pain was the ground below the Breakfast Stop.  In the dark we had not appreciated what a pile of rubble it was.  And a constantly moving pile.  It was difficult to find the best path because there were so many false trails, it was uncomfortably hot and we were tired.  Eventually after stopping for a swim in a glacier pool we arrived back at the Hut after about 15 hours.  Too tired to contemplate the walk back to the valley we elected to stay the night.  My status as the Huts favorite Guide was still intact and we were treated to beer and an extra special private bedroom.
After a leisurely breakfast, good bye hugs from Jacqueline we departed for the valley.  We had finally made it.

Jacqueline waives us goodbye.

An eclectic mix of alpine climbing.

South Face of the Dibona

 I was about to be joined by John Young for ten days climbing just as the local, Mt Blanc massif weather forecast had gone  awry. A familiar story.   It was, however. considerably better down in the Parc Nationale des Ecrins.  I suggested to John that we head down there and "warm up" by climbing the south face of the Dibona.  John is fundamentally up for any new mountain  adventure and  just said "lets do it " so off we went.

Yet I had last climbed the Dibona exactly ten years ago and the trouble was I had forgotten that I had forgotten three key parts of my original trip. 

We drove from Chamonix leaving in the rain. After a four hour drive we ended up  near the end of the remote Berarde valley where we  parked the car and set off up the path.  The first key thing I had forgotten was how fierce the walk to the Sollier Hut is.  A very steep unrelenting 1000 meters plus walk.

The Hut was busy but not too busy.  Some work had been done on the infrastructure since I was last here  and it was good to be able  to take a [albeit cold] shower.

We were keen to grab an early start the next morning  because our route, the Madier Climb, is the classic of the Dibona and we didn't want to be all tangled up with other groups. The Hut is a ten minute walk from the start of the climb .  If you fell off the climb you would probably land on the roof. We were climbing by about 7.30hrs.  Soon passing through the famous tunnel pitch.

John popping out of the tunnel pitch

 It was several pitches later that I remembered that the climb is a lot longer and considerably more difficult  than my memory recalled.  Still we climbed on, always on fabulous rock and in sensational situations.

Finally the summit , as the photos suggest it's  compact.  We weren't alone as all the climbs on the Dibona naturally converge on its top.  Quite an eclectic set of climbers from every part of Europe.

 A couple of short rappels from the summit followed by some simple but exposed scrambling lead us to the path which took us pack to the hut.  The third thing I had failed to remember is the descent from the hut back to the car is harder work than the ascent.  Ultimately a twelve hour leg shredding day.  "Some warm up climb" John said.

What to do next ?  Well we were down in the Ecrins with a good forecast and it seemed that we should make the most of it.  In particular John had never climbed the Barres des Ecrins.  [One of the 4000 meter peaks  missing from his impressive portfolio.]

Me with the Barres des Ecrins in the background.

We secured a reservation in the Barres des Ecrins Refuge [Hut], which was easier than I had anticipated because the flip side to the ease of reservation   was that not many people were climbing the the Barres des Ecrins because it was intimidatingly  icy and a lot more serious an undertaking than normal- [whatever normal now means in the world of global warming].
We left the road-head at at 10.30hrs and followed a path which was ludicrously busy but after two hours we  troughed down  a welcome omelette at the Glacier Blanc Refuge. After which we continued plodding on to the Ecrins Refuge.  The whole approach walk taking about 4 and half hours.

In this part of the world it is a bit of a tradition for the Hut Guardian to address his  guests with an "After Dinner Speech" -a bit of a conditions report and the weather forecast,freezing temperatures etc etc.
It is also the tradition  for the Guardian to actually wake people up at their designated breakfast time. Ours was at 3.00am. There were only about 8 of us for the early breakfast.

We were a way by 3.45hrs.  Firstly it's all about re-descending about 200vertical meters back down to the glacier. [Global warming] before plodding up the glacier  for an hour or so, where the ground rises up sharply and the difficulties commence.  Suddenly we knew exactly why there were so few people attempting the peak.  It was steep , there was no track, we were surrounded by huge crevasses and it was still dark.  We were forced to front-point up some boiler plate hard ice which was distinctly sketchy, while at the same time thinking it its like this all the way , then , we're going to struggle and that is without the no small matter of returning .
We carried on and to our relief the terrain mellowed out and we followed a good track until we arrived just before the Dome des Ecrins.  This proved to be another tricky obstacle because all the snow had melted into ice.  We had to pitch the final part placing ice screws for protection.  We were able to do this in a controlled and considered manner , yet nevertheless it was far harder than what most people would sign up to.

Once we were on the Dome we had to make our way on to the ridge of the Barres des Ecrins. This part of the climb benefited from the dry conditions and the climb to the summit was magnificent. Alpine climbing at its best. We moved  quickly along the rocky exposed ridge and were on the summit for 9.00hrs.

The summit of Les Barres des Ecrins

  To the north we could see Mt Blanc . To the south Monte Viso. We took  some photos, then  something to eat and then it was back down again.   The rocky ridge went well .  We were able to circumnavigate the icy ascent of the Dome des Ecrins by a rappel.

The rapel avoiding the icy slope of ascent in the background

 A group of four french climbers very kindly let us jump on their ropes.  We made the descent with some  trepidation while pondering how we were best going to negotiate the treacherous icy section. As it happened the snow had warmed up the track and we found our crampons bit in to the ice well.  We were able to weave our way down through the crevasses, the  intimidating snow bridges and steep slopes with no problems.  Then it was just a case of knuckling down to walk the 2000 meter vertical descent back to the car.   We did stop to trough a couple more  omelettes on the way down which were fairly essential fuel. Still another 12 hour plus day.

Pointing towards Mt Blanc

 Big crevasses spanned by small snow bridges.

We traveled back to Chamonix.   We decided to take a rest.  This also coincided with some bad weather which allowed us to rest without feeling overly guilty.  

We reconvened three days later.  It seemed sensible to change the emphasis from massive mountain days and explore some of the multi- pitch rock climbing .  Firstly we needed to find somewhere that was dry after the apocalyptic rain of the previous days.
We chose to start on the Pantagreul on the Trappistes crag which is near to Sembrancher on the road bewteen Verbier and Martigny.

Penultimate pitch on the fabulous Pantagreul 6a

The next day we headed up the Berard Vallee to climb the modern classic L'Ete Indian.  A stiff hour and halfs walk brings you to the foot of a seven pitch masterpiece all in beautiful remote surroundings.

On our final day we decided to head over to the Col de La Colombiere famous among Tour de France fans as its on the Tour most years.  There is also a huge amount of easily accessible rock climbing.  We chose to climb the route Le Lord Anglais on the pic de Jallouvre. 

Col de la Colombiere

It seemed like a strange name for a climb. May be the last pitch was a clue :  It was much harder than advertised and effectively "sand bagged" us, not unlike the present privileged classes and the Aristocracy is doing to everyone over BREXIT ?

Still a very fine climb to sign off on.



 

I call him the "Alpine Metronome." The climber with the perfect alpine pace.

Peter Little approaching the summit of the Pigne de la Lé

Nearly thirty years of climbing together in Wales, Scotland the Lakes, the Peak District and of course the Alps, Peter Little has pretty much climbed all the seminal peaks as well as many of the iconic alpine traverses. His CV of big mountain routes and mix of alpine rock climbs  would be the envy of many aspiring mountaineers.

Nowadays there is more  a sense  just getting into  remote beautiful areas  off the Alps.  Esthetics are everything.  Just being  off the beaten track and soaking it all up.

On our first day together we headed up the Montenvers Railway and rock climbed on the spectacular slabs above what us to be the Mer de Glacé.

Montenvers Slabs

One of the key challenges climbing with Peter is too find somewhere he hasn’t been before.  Such a place did exist- La Cabane de Moiry. It is an area that offers lots of potential on snow covered peaks without the associated grief of flogging up a bigger objective. Mind you there is so much snow still lingering that what we did climb was hard work putting the track in.

On our  second morning we drove from  Chamonix over to Martigny in Switzerland  where we decided to break the journey by climbing the first section of the Farinet Via Ferrata which is situated near the thermal baths at Saillon. The route is conveniently  divided into three sections with opt-out exits as the way gets progressively  more difficult and challenging. So much so there is a sign on the final section with a revolving number that can be set to the current amount of rescues for the given season. We decided not to see if we could add to the total.

Via Ferratta

All was fine as we followed the beautiful gorge with its impressive pulsating  waterfall beside us.  The issue was that after we found the exit, the path back to the car was not obvious, well not obvious to Peter and I.  We managed to get lost in the "Vignettes."  This is a wine growing area of Switzerland which supports some of its finest wines , being caught thrashing through the plants would have meant facing the  "firing- squad."

The great escape.

Safely skulking  back at the car without being caught, we then continued up to the road-head at the end of the Lac Moiry which is at the grand height of 2300m.  From there the walk to the Cabane is about an hour and a half, mind you there was still a lot of snow on the paths which made certain bits slower as sometimes we sank up to our waists in deep mushy snow.

The Moiry refuge is  civilized :  Afternoon Tea is served , then you can take a shower before a very competent dinner.

The next day we climbed the Dent Rosse.  We followed two of my colleagues Terry Ralph and Mark Charlton's groups.  They were doing a very fine job of breaking trail.  Or Mark and Terry had set up there clients to do so - telling them that it is an essential part of their Alpine apprenticeship.  [Which of course it is] Nevertheless we were grateful and when we even offered to have a go out front they insisted on going first.  Frankly there was so much deep snow that we would not have been able to progress with out them.

Dent de Rosse

 On our fourth day together Peter and I climbed the Aiguille de la Lé by its west ridge.  PD.  This is an excellent route which is relatively short but puts you on top of a mountain with fabulous views of many of the Valais grandest peaks like the Weisshorn, Bishorn, Dent Blanche , Zinalrotehorn and of course the Matterhorn [which Peter reminded me we had climbed well over 20 years ago.]

Summit view from Pigne de Lé looking towards the Dent Blanche with the Matterhorn to its left.

The generous snow cover meant that the descent back towards the cabane was quick and we were back in just over an hour from the summit.  We collected our extra stuff and headed down the path back to the car, just as it started to rain heavily.

On our final day the weather was indifferent and we contented ourselves with some valley based rock climbing before Peter's taxi collected him for his trip back to Geneva airport.