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ThomasKeefer
Trad climber
Between Tuscano and Liguria, Italia
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Topic Author's Original Post - Mar 24, 2009 - 11:58am PT
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This past week while out running with a workmate, he told me he was climbing Mt Blanc. Having "le tres mt blancs" route on my list of casual summer mountaineering objectives, I became very interested since it is surely way early in the season for sane attempts at the summit.
After checking the weather, it was interstingly stable but with high winds predicted near 4000m - tempting enough to go up to the Cosmiques Hut and give it a shot - the worst case scenario is a night at the hut and an early morning run down the Vallee Blanche. I am less than confident in the reliability of the Chamonix Valley forecasts when they are predicting terrible weather since it seems it is never bad there.
As most adventures in 'the valley' go, we drove through the tunnel from Italia to France
We got on the Aguille Du Midi cable car and left Chamonix below - no need for a long approach here!
The signs at the end of the snow tunnel are great - no tourists allow - only alpinists
After the trip down the famous ridge below the cable car, it is a short 45 mins walk to the Cosmiques hut at about 3650m
The view from the hut is amazing - almost a 360 panorama of the main alpine ridge - sunsets and sunrises are spectacular.
Looking West (obviously)
end then East:
This is the climbing route. You start down from the hut about 250m onto the col du midi and then walk over to the toe of Mt Blanc du Tacul (4248m) before starting up. The route we took is indicated and varies from the normal summer route bit which takes a less direct line onto the right hand shoulder and then walks the ridge before the summit pitch.
Dinner in the hut is a fantastic 4 course affair, starting with some yummy cheese and onion soup.
Unfortunately, we went to sleep with an 80kts of wind forecast and from the deck at night, it was believable. It had the sound of huge crashing crashing waves as it ripped across the Col du Midi.
Managing to stay optimistic, we decided to get up at 3 and check the winds. We did, but my partner was a bit altitude sick - too bad, since the winds were pretty low. We shifted the plan to 'lets get up at 7 and then decide what to do'. Mont Blanc du Tacul became the objective and we went back to sleep.
We did not exactly get an alpine start - 8:30am
Here is the avvy debris clearly visible in the route overview pic
Low on the route, the conditions were perfect. We offered a local skier who was soloing the route to rope up with use beneath the berschrund since it was pretty unclear how weak the snow bridges were:
After reaching the ridge crest, it is a short walk to the start of 50m of easy rock terrain which leads to the summit.
The summit, of course, is adorned with a cross and pretty impressive views of the whole range.
The main alpine ridge.
Monte Bianco - a summer objective perhaps
This is the ski route from high on the climbing route during the decent.
Descending over the main bergshcrund just below a huge serac.
Falling into a crevasse here is ill-advised but my buddy did punch through a small spot up to his thighs just below here.
Another shot of the route showing the decent and the start of the ski from the hut.
But no need to start before a quick lunch back at the hut where we left the skis.
Time to start the decent back to the car. Good thing no money was wasted on the 're-tour' Aguille du Midi pass! Just 26kms of fun ahead.
Some guys were touring up to finish the Haute Route.
The Vallee Blanche is an amazing, in not overcrowded off piste ski route. During the day, it is packed but at about 5 at night, it is nearly empty. We saw about 10 others the entire time including a girl having an asthma attack awaiting a helo ride to the hospital. Despite the infrastructure, it is still pretty wild.
Since this is a great snow year, you could ski all the way from the hut at 3600m down to town at about 1000m!!! Only about 10 mins of a steep climb onto the ridge seperates the two. You can see the Dru clearly dominating the skyline behing now. Also visible is the huge white scar on the Dru from the rockfall during the 96 (I think) season.
Soon enough we were back in Cham - just in time for some fondu and beers to celebrate.
GPS track of the ski descent (need to figure out how to stop it from automatically turning itself off) almost all the way to town - we were actually able to ski all the way down and then walk about 400m to the central square.
Enjoy!
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SteveW
Trad climber
The state of confusion
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:01pm PT
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Woa!
Nice! Looks like a blast.
Thanks for posting it!!!!
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mrtropy
Trad climber
Nor Cal
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:11pm PT
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very cool thanks
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:11pm PT
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Really beautiful stuff! Looking forward to seeing then next one -
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:23pm PT
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Now that is a proper trip report!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Somewhat exotic fare for our normal rock-wrangling here on the forum too...
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drljefe
climber
Old Pueblo, AZ
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:24pm PT
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Brrrrrrrrr....Bravo!
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:27pm PT
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NICE!
You carry your skiboots? I guess climbing in them isn't too much fun...
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Hoots
climber
Tacoma, Toyota
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:54pm PT
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A climbing TR?! All right! Nicely done! Cham looks to good to be true.
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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Mar 24, 2009 - 12:58pm PT
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amazing pix! i can't believe how good the snow looks--- i've always wanted to do that descent.
and your lunch-- is that a tomme de savoie?
cham is great
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Ottawa Doug
Social climber
Ottawa, Canada
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Mar 24, 2009 - 01:01pm PT
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Nice photo visit with one of my 'second' homes. Thanks for the awesome photos.
Cheers,
Doug
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ThomasKeefer
Trad climber
Between Tuscano and Liguria, Italia
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 24, 2009 - 02:08pm PT
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I did carry ski boots to the hut.. Normally I climb in them since they climb great but I am planning on doing the Matterhorn in the summer and wanted to get some miles under a new pair of boots.
Cham is getting hammered with a snow storm now - should last almost an entire week and after that - - - who knows what is next.
Dolos this summer though (skiied for a week there two weeks ago and it was amazing) - problem is that when it is flyable, it is hard to pass up a day under the wing.
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Ghost
climber
A long way from where I started
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Mar 24, 2009 - 02:31pm PT
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Sounds like a fun ride down. And definitely nice to see a TR from outside the US Southwest.
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cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
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Mar 24, 2009 - 04:09pm PT
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skiboot climbing... got it... have climbed in my (not very heavy) tele boots, but I have no experience w/ alpine boots. course, I've also carried them and used sneakers for dry approaches...
I'm jealous, btw. Thanks for the report - it looks very like very civilized ski mountaineering.
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Mar 24, 2009 - 04:44pm PT
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Wowzer, great TR!
I was there in '85 and spent 2 weeks in the Vallee Blanche. We ended up running into Italy and blietzkrieging up the Brenva Spur. We left the hut around 2 pm, and around 3:00 we saw an avalanche obliterate a couple of headlamps running hell bent for leather while crossing the Col Major?
Anyway, we left the hut around 1 PM and passed everyone, taking this pic around 7 AM, while topping the ridge.
Later we took this shot from the summit of the Blanc, around 9AM.
An awesome route, to say the least.
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Mar 24, 2009 - 05:20pm PT
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Very cool, enjoyed your sunny, snowy photos. It's a spectacular massif.
Now I'm wanting some of that cheese.
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Michael Hjorth
Trad climber
Copenhagen, Denmark
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Mar 24, 2009 - 06:29pm PT
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Edge,
1985?
I was there in 84 and 86 (and...), so no chance of us bumping into each other...
A place to do exactly that was at Brasserie Nationale [Bar Nash], the most important watering hole for english speaking climbers them. Sipping a demi bière or petit café for hours to idle the time at low cost. Maurice, the half blind proprieteur, accepted that, but his two daughters didn't. A few years after these photos were taken it all changed into a modern cafe for the tourists. The pin board was taken down and the climbers left. Cannot really blame the girls - there were money to be earned...
The youngest daughter:
We also went up Vallée Blanche that summer 1986. Did the old Bonatti on Grand Capucin. We had pitched our tent below Midi, but took a bivuac below Capucin the earn a few hours:
Nice steep climb on beautyful rock. Here is Søren at half hight:
On the return to Vallee Blanche a storm started, so we had to flee for the Torino Hut, quite a distance from our tent:
The storm lasted for two full days. We didn't have a single franc or lire, so ended up eating or drinking nothing, while sitting in the fancy bar looking at all the other stranded people doing just that. We bivuaced on the doorstep for two nights before crossing the Vallee for our tent:
Found it below 1 m of new snow, complety shredded and emptied for whatever of value. During our digging a gendarme landed in a chopper and asked if we were us. Well, yes, why? He had our ID at the policestation in Cham, and was just checking if we were alive.
Nice thought, but still lost quite a lot of gear...
I just stiched three scanned slides together to this view from our tent site below Aiguille du Midi.
Grandes Jorasses to the left, Capucin is the dark tower right of the middle and Mont Blanc du Tacul and Maudit to the right:
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Reilly
Mountain climber
Monrovia, CA
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Mar 24, 2009 - 07:10pm PT
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Excellent TR! But a winter ascent sans suffering? Doesn't count, sorry. You had waaay too much fun.
So you mean to tell me the Bonatti Pillar fell off?
When did Cosmic get into the hut business?
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'Pass the Pitons' Pete
Big Wall climber
like Ontario, Canada, eh?
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Mar 25, 2009 - 12:53am PT
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BRAVO! What a fan-fukkin-tastic photo trip report! [though you could stand to make the photos bigger, eh?]
So you buggers skied all the way down the Mer de Glace, eh? I guess that's "safe" in the winter? Don't people die falling down crevasses on that thing all summer long?
What have you done up there, Doug?
Bollocks shrivelling in terror at the sight of the Brenva Face, Peuterey Ridge and the [gulp] Central Pillar of Freney:
Back in the day when I actually worked, I sold enough insurance to qualify for the company's convention in France. Summer of 1993. So I scored a couple weeks of timeshare off mom, and grabbed the [then] wife and kids and went to Val D'Isere. One day I took off and took the tunnel over to Cham, where I rode the telepherique up to Aiguille de Midi. I had been working out and was in the best cardio shape of my life. I knew how far I could climb in how long, and calculated I had just enough time to run down the ridge from the station to the Vallee Blanche, and up to the first summit [Mt. Blanc de Tacul?] and back to catch the last ride back to Courmoyeur. I recall I was the only person up there unroped. What was I thinking? [Young, dumb, and full of c#m pretty much]
Thanks for the memories! Now, you have to answer this question for me! Every region of France has its own unique cheese, and I remember enjoying Beaufort, which is virtually unobtainable round 'ere. So tell me, is this Beaufort:
I'm thinking it's knott, because there look to be some holes in the cheese, and the wheel slice doesn't look quite big enough.
Thanks again, eh?
Cheers,
Pete
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Mar 25, 2009 - 01:40am PT
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Beautiful photos which brought back a lot of memories. I'm linking them to the Frank Sacherer memorial thread since so many of the routes mentioned there are shown in your photos.
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pip the dog
Mountain climber
planet dogboy
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Mar 25, 2009 - 02:12am PT
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outstanding thread. keep it up -- and more photos!
dammit, when the Euro/Dollar exchange drops -- i'm in Argentiere in a heartbeat. i know just where to go.
()
many thanks,
^,,^
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