third pitch on the Ravanel Frendo... nice views ;-)
fifth pitch, some ice!
getting higher...
back at the cable car station...
the kitchen....
We spent the night at the ladies toilet ;-), excellent place to get some acclimatization... Next day we went down to the Argentiere hut. Our goal was the North face of Les Droites. The week before it was in really good condition and we could not wait to get our chance to climb this impressive face. It looked pretty snow plastered and the good weather was important to get some snow out of it. There was one party climbing and they reached half way where difficulties start at 11.30h, which is quite late for this big face, so we guessed that the conditions would not be too good for a fast ascent.
top of the Nant Blanc face of Aiguille Verte
sunrise on Mont Blanc
Walking down on the Argentiere glacier
Les Droites, North Face, 2 climbers in the center
Together with the fact that it was very warm the avalanche danger on the south side would be considerable. We had to be early and fast to make both, a safe ascent as well a safe descent.
Next morning, after four hours of sleep we started at the hut at 1.15h and were at the bergschrund at 2.30h in the morning. The schrund was good climbable but we had a quiet severe spin drift in the first pitch. Stupid thing was that we were not alone there - at night, on a big face, at the same moment 5 other parties wanted to realize there alpine dream of climbing the Ginat... they did not wait a second and started climbing as well, 2 sometimes 3 leadclimbes close to each other in steep and soft snow with no protection at all. if one would fall he would take all the others with him... sometimes you need to take some risks but we would have to climb together all the way through the Messner ramp, the central ice field and the technical top part.... this would cost additional time which we would not have to make a save descent in the afternoon.
Sunrise on the Droites and Verte
We returned after two pitches, disappointed of course, but in my opinion this was the only right decision. Two other parties returned later as well. We had a second breakfast at 6.00h at the hut when all the ski touring folks got up for their haute route. Funny, because we already had half a day of climbing behind us.
Next day it would get even warmer and the guardien told us that a lot of climbers would come up for climbing the Ginat. After sleeping two hours and having some coffee we decided to go down. We were not ready to give it another try with big chances that we would end up like this night....
Next day we did some drytooling in Le Fayet and on thursday we went up with the midi cable car to climb M6solar on the Point Lachenal. Nice mixed climbing (6 or 7 pithes), with a short descent from the cablecar to the start of the route (only 15 minutes). We were on top of the Lachenal at 13.30h, walked down again to our skis and made the descent through the Vallee Blanche....
First pitch of M6solar
drytooling in Le Fayet
