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Todd Eastman
climber
Bellingham, WA
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:43pm PT
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Cool stuff!
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steve shea
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:52pm PT
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There is/was really good crystal hunting behind the Leschaux. I lived off of crystal sales from time to time. Georges Bettembourg was a master crystal hunter. One of his stashes was behind the hut. Georges was killed while hunting crystals in the Argentierre. Rockfall.
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bhilden
Trad climber
Mountain View, CA
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Jan 25, 2013 - 01:09pm PT
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A couple of notes on this great thread.
-Marc Twight did the Eiger in 1984 with Boulder climber Alan Bradley.
-I believe the 1950 Air India crash was the basis for the 1956 movie 'The Mountain' starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Wagner.
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pneame
Trad climber
Tampa, FL
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Jan 25, 2013 - 01:43pm PT
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Nice finds Marlow - makes you realise that the glacial retreat has been going on for a while.
The little video - great. Crowds notwithstanding, it is a stunningly beautiful area.
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BASE104
Social climber
An Oil Field
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Jan 25, 2013 - 01:47pm PT
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Yeah, I saw that Twight did the Eiger in 1984. He fer sure wasn't staying in Snell's. I first heard of him through Bouchard a couple of years later.(very nice guy). People need to understand that in those pre-internet days, it was very hard to even get decent topos of routes. We mainly just yacked with other climbers and did stuff that they knew about.
I am curious what month Twight was there. I hear that nobody does it in the summer anymore. Way too much rockfall since the ice all melted away.
I read his book "Kiss or Kill" when trapped last summer and I thought he was so wound up in himself. Not in a narcisitic way. He's all grown up now. I could relate to him, but he was more of a badass. Remember, I am a dumbass.
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steve shea
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 02:12pm PT
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Topos? Did you not see the topo book in the Meteo? Very detailed IMHO. But there was so much new stuff to do there were no topos for that obviously. It was a smorgasbord of unclimbed routes. But for Gordon Smith, I never would have gone to Cham. The Brits were on it. Alex, Terry, Gordon, the Nicks...
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steve shea
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 02:31pm PT
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Bruce, I agree. Larry and I had a very similar event on the Grand Central on Kitchener in Aug 79. We were dumb, full of Canadian Kokanee (beer) and chasing the alpine dream. The ice fields had the most confounding weather though. The Altimeter would read high pressure and it would snowing in July. Cham was much more 'predictable'.
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Jan 25, 2013 - 02:41pm PT
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The Brits were on it. (... ), the Nicks...
Which Nicks Steve? Black and Blond?
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steve shea
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 02:54pm PT
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Yes. I met Gordon in the states in 76. We climbed together a bit and his stories of Chamonix and what was possible got my attention. I met up with Gordon in France in 77 and then the rest of the Brit contingent. The whole Bar Nash scene it was unforgetable. There were a few Americans there, Rick A, Tobin, Mugs, Jack Roberts and others. 77 was Tobin's incredible season. Anyway that was it. I basically moved there. Spent a lot of time with black Nick the following summer. The whole lot of us pretty much got chased from Snell's and moved to under the Midi cables. It was free and the Gendarmes had not figured it out yet. Once everyone got wind of it though, it turned to typical climber's camp squalor. Nick always drove out from GB so we had wheels.
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Jan 25, 2013 - 03:06pm PT
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Ah, well you might recognise Blond Nick here on Salathe Wall in 1981. Sadly no longer with us.
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steve shea
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 03:14pm PT
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I won't post the names but it is striking that so many who cut their alpine teeth in Cham are no longer with us. Sad indeed.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 25, 2013 - 04:28pm PT
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A part of the history of North wall climbing as shown i Edouard Frendo's book "La Face Nord Des Grandes Jorasses". Climbing as discovery.
Frendo and Rebuffat made the second ascent of the Walker in 1945.
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pneame
Trad climber
Tampa, FL
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Jan 26, 2013 - 08:24am PT
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Apart from the genuinely mixed nature of the climbing + the tasty history, the other take home lesson seems to be that the "light" part of the modern "fast and light" was already much in vogue.
Note the quite small sac on the photo of the 'schrund.
The lack of "fast" was mostly due to the lack of modern gear slowing them down
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mackenzie74
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Jan 26, 2013 - 07:38pm PT
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Great photos, brings back a lot of emotions.
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Degaine
climber
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Jan 28, 2013 - 04:26am PT
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jaaan wrote:
Piola had already replaced the old bolts on Le Ticket, le Carré... when I climbed it in July 2010.
Ok, glad you had the replaced bolts. We looked over to Verdon Memories and the anchors looked like crap (old rusty pitons and tat). The second to last pitch of Le Ticket (your photo?) is pretty run out. The last pitch and variation are well protected cracks in the 5+/6a range.
jaaan wrote:
The Perrons... for me the Perrons have simply the best multipitch routes in the region.
I agree, the rock and setting are excellent. The traverse is fantastic, and a great intro to arête traverses.
Only climbed on route at Barberine, which has great rock as well.
Cheers.
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Degaine
climber
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Jan 28, 2013 - 04:35am PT
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Wow base, this photo of the Talèfre basin:
http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=Ojw1PzckJisiIQ,,
is amazing, there is so much glacier / ice coverage. Nothing like that today.
Here's a photo of of the (l to r) Courtes, Droites, Verte:
Taken in April 2011. We climbed the Y couloir on L'Aiguille d'Argentière, and then skied the Milieu Glacier (the classic ascent/descent route, "milieu" means "middle" in French).
The snow coverage on those classic north faces hides the glacial thinning and retreat in recent years.
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Borut
Mountain climber
Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Jan 31, 2013 - 12:59am PT
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Here is a clip of a March 2010 repeat of 'Manitua' (VII +, A3 + 1100m), a route opened solo by Slavc Svetičič in 1991 (July 8th to 10th).
http://vimeo.com/10578974
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Jan 31, 2013 - 06:26am PT
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Always has been on my dream tick list. sigh
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 7, 2013 - 12:16pm PT
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Grandes Jorasses - Face Est, Face Cachée (Vertical 1 2006)
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SuperTopo on the Web
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Let us know!