Chamonix - ice/snow/mixed

Due to back pain I wasn’t able to do a lot of alpine climbing last summer. Even if I would have been in good shape the bad weather in the Alps prevented a lot of climbers to do some bigger routes. Now, september and october were a completley different story. There were plenty of ascents of the North Face of the Jorasses and the Matterhorn. If you read the stories on the internet and social media one can get the impression that it is really easy and everybody can do it. I decided to stay focussed on my own learning curve. The big faces have to wait a bit until my technique and speed are sufficient to climb big routes within an acceptable time frame. Last climbing week helped a lot to make progress working towards my climbing goals in the Alps.

First I went up to the Aiguille du Midi together with my brother. We spent three nights at the Simond Biwak and climbed the Pellissier Gully (WI4, M5, 5b) on the Point Lachenal and the Gabarrou-Albinoni (500m, WI 4+) on the east face of the Mont Blanc du Tacul. At the end of the week I went up again together with Bernd. We climbed a mixed route on the triangle of Tacul (without knowing the exact route, whatever) and the day after we went to the east face of Tacul again for climbing the ice route Modica-Noury (500m WI 5+).

All routes were in very good conditions. For the ice routes we took 10 ice screws (including some shorter ones) and for the mixed climbing 6 ice screws and a rack of BD camalots (0,3 – 2).

 Pellissier Gully

 the second pitch

 looking down the second pitch

 the third pitch: easy snow/ice and then a short section M5, a lot of ice, not too difficult

the fourth pitch: thin

 in the notch, warm sun and nice views, we continued up for another 4 pitches on snow and rock

 Peter, exiting on the Lachenal


THE GABARROU-ALBINONI

after the initial snow slope, to the left the Gabarrou and to the right the Modica Noury

 the second ice pitch after snow field

the last steep pitch (80-85 degrees, but really good hooks) 



Abseiling


Mixed route on the triangle

Bernd leading on thin ice in pitch 1 after the snow slope

Bernd leading in fourth pitch, really nice climbing

 Bernd seconding on the crack (nice tooling there, good to protect, 5a or so)



MODICA-NOURY

Bernd leading on the second pitch: really steep and cool climbing



Bernd exiting the steep pitch after 60 meteres of climbing!

Final pitch for me...

nice climbing, really! we wanted to go all the way to the top of Tacul, but we found a rock barrier (5a and difficult to protect), so we rappelled down the route.

Ettringen

yesterday I have been to Ettringen again. Together with Andreas we climbed a lot of routes at the Lonnenloch.... Glück Auf!, Klimax, Sternschnuppe, J.P.,... I tried to climb Natural Living but had to retreat half way because there was so much sand and dirt in the cracks....
We climbed Fleury Mirogis (UIAA VII-) and I toproped Le Mitard (VIII-/VIII). Nice project for the next visit!

Briancon and Orpierre

After my rehab in Ettringen we went to the area of Briancon in the southern Alps... we spent there 10 days of hiking, cycling and climbing... good for my recovery.

We climbed in Reotier, Le Cala, Rocher Baron and other nice spots!

 First stop was in La Grave, we spotted the Meije North Face with some fresh snow, to the left there is the direct route through the North Face, one of my objects for july...

Because the weather in the Alps kept unstable we went further south to Orpierre... they released a new guide book last year with some spectacular routes to the far right... really cool yellow/golden limestone. long routes about 35 metres up to 6c+, great.

After 6 days climbing in Orpierre on our way home we drove to Cogne/Aosta. The place where I already spent weeks ice climbing in winter. I wanted to show Marieke the valley and I also was really curious about how it would be to see all the water in summer what is ice in winter... and it was great. It was warm, it was green, it was quite! I showed Marieke all the routes includig detailed descriptions about the belays somewhere in the water now...

 checking out Stella Artice...

 Tuborg and Coyote...

 some serious river crossing next day... so much water...

and the famous Lillaz Gully

Ettringen

I planned to spent july in the alps with some friends, doing some major routes there. But mid june I got some serious back trouble. I had to cancel all my alpine climbing projects for the summer '14. Too bad.
By the end of july it went better - slowly and I decided to work on my rehab in Ettringen... it's only a 2 hours drive, nice campground, short walks to the rocks and I could work on my aid climbing and crack climbing skills... better than sitting at home, working...

I spent 8 days in Ettringen with Mike and Bernd. The weather was a bit unstable but ok. We climbed at the sector Grosse Wand but also in Kottenheim. I managed to climb Lauras Stern (UIAA V) on my own gear... that was great. We climbed different cracks up to UIAA VI and I spent two days alone on the cracks working on my aid skills. That was really nice!

After that I went back home for 2 days.

 di-fissure, UIAA VI

 bloody saturday - nice crack at Finsterlay

"Wildsau" - a nice off width crack

crack climbing course

Last weekend I had another appointment in Ettringen… This time not with my usual climbing mates but with a group of Dutch climbers. We all signed in for a crack climbing course organized by the Dutch Alpine Club (oh yes, of course Dutch Royal Alpine Club)… our instructor Martin climbed El Cap several times and also did some bigwall shit on Baffin Island.

I already attended Martins bigwall course two years ago… he managed it to let me climb a A2-pitch on the second day of the course – fun! So, my expectations were high for this course as well. I mean, I spent quite some climbing days in Ettringen, but my crack climbing techniques are not well developed.

The first day we went to the Arena and the “crocodile back”… we started with taping our hands and Martin installed very quickly some topropes. Then it was our turn to try the different routes: “stay in front of the crack and try to put hands and feets in the crack”. This sounds really easy but my hands and feet were constantly searching for hand- and footholds… He also told us that we should try to make a lot of climbing metres… ok got that and I tried to climb all the routes at least 2 or 3 times.

Another funny thing is that the difficulty of the route really depends on the anatomical properties of your body. Sometimes your hand perfectly fits in the crack and jamming is easy…. Next time it just does not fit and you have a hard time on the rock. We also tried some off-width routes, that means the size of the crack is larger than your fist… you really get a good whole body workout stemming arms, legs and your body into the crack…. Nice exercise.

Yesterday I bought the hugh cow bells (Black Diamond camalots size 5 and 6). So next time when I’m in Ettringen I can try this freaky stuff as well.

Next day we went into sector “Finsterlay”. The routes here are longer and harder – yes! The route Oger is an 7+/8- crack in the size of your fist…. Really cool but difficult climbing! Next time I’m gonna try to redpoint that one!

Together we had a great time out there. I think everybody learned a lot about climbing cracks. Thanks to Martin for his enthousiasme and his patience. If you are interested in his skills and courses please check the site of the alpine club at www.nkbv.nl and his own website www.bigwall.nl