Last Tuesday I climbed Les Courtes, 3856m, in Chamonix.
Together with Jeroen I climbed the Austrian route on the Northface. The day
before we went up to the top of the Montet cable car station. Many thanks to
the guys of the station because they let us sleep in the warm women toilet…
Officially climbers are not allowed to sleep at the Montet cable car station
anymore. But some nice talkings helps a lot. We started at 6 AM next morning,
first down skiing to the bottom of the Argentiere glacier and then 1,5 hours to
our ski depot. From there we had to climb another 30 minutes to the start of
the Austrian route.
The bergschrund was ok, and after that we had perfect neve
and a track. After the first 200 metres we got some steeper rock/snow sections,
but easy. We simul climbed the whole face. Conditions were really good.
Interesting, because this route was the only route in the Argentiere basin that
was in really good condition. All the other stuff for example on the Droites
was dry…
Normally the Suisse route on Les Courtes is climbed most of
the time. The Austrian route is less known and climbed. And indeed, we found no
pitons, slings or other stuff in the route. We were alone on the face that day,
really nice.
The top ice field was kind of hard ice, but ok. After 5.45h
climbing we reached the summit at 2 PM. Sun, nice views to the Mont Blanc and Grand Jorasses. After 25
minutes we started down climbing the ridge to the col and descending into the
North East couloir. This was steep in the upper 100m and after that the angle
eased… After 2,5 hours with a final abseil over the enormous bergschrund we
reached the bottom of the glacier again. After 20 minutes walking we were back
at our ski depot and made a save descent down to Chamonix. At 8.30 PM we had a
nice pizzza and a glas of red wine in Argentiere.
More info about the route on http://www.camptocamp.org/routes/54321/en/les-courtes-autrichiens
Currently there is only one more route “in condition”: Petit
Viking. Lagarde Direct has also been climbed, but the schrund is kind of tricky.
Let’s hope that with the new snow expected next week conditions will improve…
easy travel on skis...
traverse to the right, it would be possibel to continue up and then make a traverse to the right as well...
to the tour rouge...
at 2 PM on the summit....
