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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Dec 28, 2012 - 11:08am PT
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Marlow, tres bien!
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Borut
Mountain climber
Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Dec 28, 2012 - 04:34pm PT
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still dreaming of the Jorasses
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Borut
Mountain climber
Ljubljana, Slovenia
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Dec 29, 2012 - 09:16am PT
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but i remember seing RD climb
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 01:37pm PT
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Alexandre Marchesseau and Remy Peschier at the Colton MacIntyre at Grandes Jorasses
[Click to View YouTube Video]
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 17, 2013 - 05:38pm PT
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Steve
Thanks for linking Gogna's commentary!
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 17, 2013 - 08:57pm PT
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Ya got a great thread started, RT. Love the stuff on the French Riviera.
Seriously, I'm not in the mood for ice climbing, though it is crazy enough to appeal at this late, safe stage in my, ahem, climbing career. I never ever thought it possible that I might entertain the notion...I'm a Californian, I've taught myself to avoid snow unless it's for a good reason. It's easy to forget how many have to adapt to it to live.
My interest's there, but nothing will come of it. It's too arcane a pastime to dedicate any of my meager resources to it. I seriously intend to refit my body adequately to get some rock climbing in this spring. When summer comes I'll be ready to travel...
Here's a question you can answer for me, if you will. The Peuterey Ridge is not considered to be part of the Grandes Jorasses, it it? It does lead to the summit of MB, but my knowledge of the massif is sketchy and my favorite old book of mine with maps, Wilfrid Noyce's Atlas of World Mountaineering, is now history. It had very easy to follow line drawings which followed ridges and delineated glacial valleys in black ink.
Rather like this,
only from directly above. More like a topo, actually, but w/o hachures.
So, if I were to go to the top of this ridge, via the Aiguille Noire (sure, you betcha) and continued to the top, to the point called MB de Courmayeur, what would I need to do to claim an ascent of the Grandes Jorasses, or is this impossible? Would I need to go start someplace else?
Am I on the wrong side? The wrong country? Where's Mouse? Lost again!!
Keep on keepin' us knowlegeable.
Note: Roy T. referred me to the genereal populace--Great post Mouse, post it on the GJ thread. Mouse is much better lost than Marlow is informed. Much appreciated!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Jan 17, 2013 - 09:20pm PT
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Mouseman, you having us on or is geography not yer strong suit? ;-)
Wrong mountain and you'd better like snow if'n yer gonna do that and then
head to Les Jorasses! :-)
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 17, 2013 - 09:33pm PT
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WAIT A MINUTE...
Reilly, AM I GONNA DIE?
I don't wanna! I don't even want to get lost.
I'd like to go to Chamonix, take a telepherique up wherever, come down again, check out the M from a bar, talk sh#t, then go and go take a pee.
Sound good?
No, seriously, I am quite baffled by the geography of the massif (because I haven't been there--if I've been someplace, I don't get lost easily, I have my bearings), but also fascinated by the tenacity of people (climbers as well as others) in dealing with such a huge establishment.
My own particular favorite armchair cruise would be the Central Pillar of Fresno. Just jiving...which is one of the only connections to Yosemitay which I can dig up, which is Roger Breedloof's fault anyway.
Frenziedly, MFM.
As I thought I indicated to Marylebone, I know not which part of the massif is which from here, due to lack of mappage and overall distance.
My sense of direction is good. I need a starting point other than just the summit of the beast. And I haven't a good map, too lazy to check the net.
Where do I go from the campanile in Berkeley? Or Bowditch Street at Frat Row? Can I get there from Anders' place?
For years after I met Patrique Cordier, a Frenchman who climbed the Salathe in 1972, I dreamed of a nice dry summer in the Alps. PC was enthusiastic, to say the least, about the Alps.
After wanting to do some of the things he talked about, I was tempted. Jackass. Too much or too little trust in the weather, says I, years later, and abandoned the idea of ever trying European alpinism. It wasn't Berkeley enough.
Tim, my brother, had an experience of horrid financial dismemberment from a season spent trying to compete in speed skiikng in Europe, mid-seventies. There was no snow!! Dry as a California July! Two months he wasted. Ruined him.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 18, 2013 - 11:33am PT
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Mouse.
Thanks for posting.
Here is some geography:
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Jan 18, 2013 - 11:38am PT
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So many aiguille, so little time...
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 18, 2013 - 11:47am PT
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... which makes it a good life for sport climbers and dreamers like Marlow... Lol...
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Jan 18, 2013 - 12:44pm PT
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Here you go... the Grandes Jorasses on the left, Dent du Géant in the middle and Mont Blanc on the right. The big glacier heading out of the bottom right corner is the Mer de Glace. This was 26 September 2011. Normally the massif doesn't look this 'clean' in September but there'd been a storm a day or so before.
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steve shea
climber
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Jan 18, 2013 - 01:43pm PT
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Hey Mouse, jaaan's photo clearly shows the upper Peuterey Integrale and matches your topo/drawing that you posted. The huge rock buttress in the sunlight is the Eckpfeiler/Grand Pilier d'Angle. The Bonatti/Gobi is on the lit up portion with the big ice/mixed routes to the right. Also Mt. Blanc de Coumayeur can be seen as the sharp summit still some meters from the top. The integrale is a Himalayan scale route summiting some very remote and spectacular features. Some have been skied. The Eckpfeiler is fantastic and the site of many interesting and remote routes which is a full day in itself. Once you climb the buttress and gain the Peuterey you still have a long haul to the summit at over 15 thousand feet then a descent to the Grand Mulets Hut if you are returing to Cham. The Eckpfeiler and upper Integrale are accessed from Chamonix via the Midi and Heilbronner freaks. Then a bivy at the Brenva then a dangerous run don't walk type of approach under groaning seracs of the Brenva face to the bottom of the route. The photo also shows Mt. Blanc du Tacul in the right foreground and of course the Dent du Geant and the Jorasses to the left.
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Jan 18, 2013 - 03:09pm PT
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And another - for fun - looking in the other direction, down to the Mer de Glace. The Aiguille Verte is in the middle of the photo (the mighty Dru just a bump on its lefthand ridge) and to its right the Droites and the Courtes standing above the little Talefre glacier (the last photo was taken while the plane was over flying this). On the left side of the photo are the Grepon and the Requin. You can just make out the Requin hut perched on the rocks - just up and left of the wing tip. The Grandes Jorasses is out of shot on the right.
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 19, 2013 - 11:04am PT
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Waltzing with Walt. A little part of the great story told by Duane Raleigh - January 2013 in Rock and Ice - from the Grandes Jorasses - the Croz Spur:
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Degaine
climber
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Jan 19, 2013 - 11:16am PT
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Hey Marlow,
The third image you posted, the one below the map, is taken from Lac Blanc, and the building is the original hut that was subsequently (can't remember what year) decapitated due to a huge avalanche. The ground floor is still used by the hut manager and his team.
Just about everyone who has hiked around Chamonix has a photo of Les Grandes Jorasses/La Mer de Glace/Les Aiguilles taken from that spot.
For those interested, the Walker Spur (Eperon Walker) is 5+/6a rock climbing, and in dry years has little to no snow or ice. Still have to descend the regular route down the south face that, due to the glaciers thinning and receding, is now very exposed to serac fall.
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Degaine
climber
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Jan 19, 2013 - 11:18am PT
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Hey jaan,
To be a bit pedantic, but technically the Mer de Glace starts at the confluence of the Leschaux and Tacul glaciers. In your second photo you are looking down the séracs du Géant and the bottom of the Tacul glacier with the beginning of the Mer de Glace when everything breaks left and out of the photo.
For the naming, Mer = Sea in French, and when the glacier was much higher (lost over 100 meters in thickness since 1990) the crevasses/folds in the glacier looked like waves from the Montenvers. Here's a photo from 1949:
http://www.glaciers-climat.fr/Mer_de_glace/1949.jpg
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Marlow
Sport climber
OSLO
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 19, 2013 - 11:22am PT
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Degaine
Thanks for the comments.
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jaaan
Trad climber
Chamonix, France
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Jan 19, 2013 - 11:47am PT
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@ Degaine:
Yes I know that, but if I'd said Glacier du Tacul, no-one would have known what I was talking about (apart from you...)! And then of course higher up its called the Glacier du Géant. Three names in a couple of kilometres, so overall Mer de Glace seemed more appropriate to orient folks.
Edit: Check out my photo on UKC and the links underneath for more shrinking Mer de Glace photos: http://www.ukclimbing.com/images/dbpage.html?id=180060
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