Cogne ice climbing

After climbing in Chamonix I spent a day in Verbier for skiing. Next day Peter came in from Berlin. Initially we planned to go to Chamonix again but the weather got bad. As always we have a plan B: ice in Cogne. On the other side of the Mont Blanc the weather was still good. As we arrived on thursday afternoon we both were tired; Peter from the long trip and I because of 3 days of outdoor activities. So we decided just to walk into the Lillaz valley and checking out the routes for the next days. It was a beautiful afternoon and there were lots of people climbing - but not in the cold couloir. This long ice route starts with 2 difficult pitches and then gets easier. I suggested just to try the first pitch. It is never difficult to convince Peter to do some rock or ice climbing. So in the late afternoon we got 2 really cool pitches of the cold couloir.


cold couloir, with the steeper pitches

Next day we went up to Lillaz again to climb one of the classics in the valley: "candelabro de coyote". We haven't seen a coyote here but the climbing was pretty impressive. 6 pitches of climbing. And we were alone - never expected that. The climbing was great. After 5 hours we were back at the bottom and we discussed options like having coffee or climbing.... 30 minutes later we were at the start of the steep pitch of Tuborg, another WI4+/5. We climbed that route as well and after that we went down, it was too late for coffee.... we checked out the bars if they had Tuborg, but they hadn't since we were in Italy and not in Denmark :-)


nice overview from the bottom of the valley: from right to left Tuborg, Coyote and not really visible on the far left the Chandelle Levure


Coyote ice fall



 the first pitch



airy and really cool climbing



the upper pillar



Peter leading the upper pitches

On our third day we went up to the Chandelle Levure. I already climbed that route with Roeland - earlier this winter. Back in december the last pillar hadn't formed pretty well. So I really had to come back for climbing the last pitch. Peter lead the first pitches. Then you got a 35 m pitch with a almost vertical wall at the top. The climbing was really cool and suddenly I felt the sun - reaching the top of our ice fall. Fantastic. The night had been cold, maybe -12 degrees, the ice has a lot of tension. If you work with your axes on that tensioned ice it breaks. But if the sun starts shining, temperature rises and the tension in the ice removes. So in the upper part of that pitch suddenly the ice got really smooth and the climbing becomes easy inspite of the steepness.


the first pitch of the Chandelle


catching the sun...

Peter followed very quick and we went up to the last pitch. It still looked thin, but most of all very steep (at some parts overhanging). The sun was shining on the upper part and small pieces of ice came down. I saw no signs of previous attempts. But I thought ok, in parts it  looks protectable. I can try. I started really careful the first steep part, but already the second ice screw pinned through the ice and catched air on the inner part of the pillar. Normaly, good icescrews in good ice can hold 2000kg - this is more than my car and thats what I am always visualizing if I'm climbing ice. Ok, stay calm, you just put an ice screw where my BMW could hang on - I don't know but this thought makes me way more relaxed... In this pitch my ice screws were not solid, there was still a lot of tension in the ice and I really did not feel confident to continue. So I carefully climbed down again and we went away.