I finished my winter driving work at the end of February, and went onto a casual contract, meaning I only worked if I was offered it, and if I wanted to. Working depended on whether the sun was shining, or if I felt particularly broke at the time of the call. Mostly, I’ve just been sticking to the principal, of climb now. Work and everything else later.
A tiny bit of Scottish Winter
(me on magic crack Scottish VII or an amazing HVS. Photo Miles Perkin)
I went back to Scotland for a few days at the start of March for my BMG Winter climbing induction and some training. This went well and we had really good conditions. I climbed with Kevin Kilroy on Friday, and we enjoyed the Genie, Damnation and the Magic crack.
(somebody on Damnation grade VI)
1938 Route, Eiger North Face ED2
Before I left, for Scotland my friends Alasdair Fulton and Graham McGrath took advantage of a three day weather window, and dubious conditions and smashed up the North face of the Eiger. At the same time I had waded my way up to the base of the Grand Charmoz North Face, and made a call that there was too much unconsolidated snow, so waded back down again. I also had work commitments but I was very envious of their ascent, and wished I could have been with them. If there is any route in the world that I have dreamed of climbing since as far as I can remember it is the Eiger Northface. The same for a lot of climbers I guess.
(me on the Hinterstoisier Traverse.Photo John Orr)
When I was back in Scotland I eagerly scanned the forecasts, and was surprised to see what looked like a weather window at the end of the week. I talked John Orr into driving out and we got on and climbed through the weekend of the 7th, 8th and 9th of March. The climbing was hard work, and it certainly matched all my expectations and more. I don’t think it was in great condition and we were smashing a way up a lot of bullet hard ice and bold awkward sections, in particular “The Ice Bulge”. I will write up my own full report, but in short it was a dream come true to climb that mighty wall of 1800 vertical meters of choss.
(John Orr teeters across snowy slopey choss on “the traverse of the Gods”)
(time to put the tools away and climb with hands and look like its really fun- Exit Chimneys)
Bouldering: Medonnet and Vernayaz
After the Eiger, the weather continued to stay settled and lovely. I needed a bit of rest, and quite nicely Katie was coming out to see me. We had a nice few days chilling out, doing a bit of skiing and bouldering. Katie’s climbing really strong at the moment, and bouldered 7c+ at raven tor while I was on the Eiger. She was keen for a bit of boulder crushing. (http://katieclimbmaxwell.wordpress.com) I thought it was quite funny how we both completed our limestone projects on the same day. Katie climbed a desperately hard boulder problem in a cave under raven tor, and I climbed a massive pile of choss above Grindlewald. We are both psyched for very different things.
We bouldered at Medonnet and Vernayaz. Katie cruised some 7a’s and 7bs, as I struggled to get my ass of the ground. I did manage a brilliant 7a hanging arete thing and the 7b eventually, but I had to remind myself to pull really hard again.
With the weather holding out, and surprisingly still looking awesome, I needed to get back into the mountains again, so I combined forces with Graham, and we set to some smashing around.
Super Coulour. Mt Blanc Du Tacul. ED1
After leaving Katie to the airport I went for a ski down the Vallee Blanche and had a look at most of the big faces, to try and make a plan. The Super couloir on Mt Blanc du Tacul looked like it was in good shape so we decided to do that the next day. Planning on going up and coming back down on the same day, we went up on the first bin of the morning. Unfortunately 3 other teams had also planned on climbing super couloir that day and had all stayed in the cosmiques hut and started very early. By the time we got to the base there were 2 teams on the direct start, and a team on the rock start. The team on the direct start were still moving very slow, and although we really wanted to do the direct, we couldn’t really be bothered hanging around. I had my stickys and reckoned we could zoom up the rock start quite quickly and possibly get ahead of at least 1 of the teams. We were fast and moving well, and over took everyone and finished the crux pitch about 2pm. We upset one Norwegian, but his partner seemed happy enough, and could see we were definitely moving faster, and that there was space for us to climb to the side. Rapping down this route is so easy with bolted abseils every 55m. We skied all the way back to town and straight to elevation to have beer. It was a great route, and fun to climb a few pitches of E1 in the sun, and then superb steep ice, all in a very grand alpine setting. It was also how I had once dreamed of climbing this route, after reading an article about it a few years ago where some one described skiing in, climbing and skiing out down the valley blanche in the same day.
(Graham climbing the rock start. E1 In spantiks)
(overtaking)
(nicer Norwegian On the top Pitch)
(me having a super time, rapping down the super couloir. Super route+ super abseils=super time)
North Face of Petit Drus. Allain- Leininger. Still winter. TD
With it being so warm, and having quite enjoyed the bit of rock climbing we had done on Super couloir we decided that the original route on the North Face of the Drus could be a fun route to do in the current conditions. The drus is probably one of the most iconic mountains around, and viewed from Chamonix rises up as a 900m shard of granite. Famous for hard rock routes and enormous rockfalls, it is not an easy summit to achieve but for an aspiring alpinist it is an obvious goal. I first looked at the Drus long before I knew anything about climbing, on a hiking trip when I was 17. I remember being impressed but I don’t think I even comprehended that people climbed up its steep walls. 9 years later I was going to climb its north face in winter. Its cool how we progress.
A day and half after super couloir we were sliding down from the Grand Montets on approach skis to the North face of the Petit Drus. I say sliding because I definitely wasn’t skiing. With a heavy bag and heavy deep snow, I had no control over those stupid mini planks which might as well have been sellotaped to a pair of slippers. In such circumstances approach skis felt about as useful as trying to play tennis with a fish instead of a racket. I pointed them down hill, sat on my bum, and kind of turned into a human sled.
Graham brought a single skinned tent which we pitched under a massive boulder on a platform with one of the best views in the valley. I had heard about magical bivouacs here, and it didn’t let down. We sat under our objective route with a couple of terribly rolled rolly up cigarettes and enjoyed a stunning sunset and tucked into re-hydrated soya bolognaise. (real meat costs more. sorry g)
(glamorous camping thanks to force ten for giving Graham a lovely lightweight tent)
We started climbing the next morning at 4 am. Again, we felt fit and were moving well, and climbed fast and efficiently. The bottom section was all really good mixed climbing, with occasional awkward chimneys or steep cracks where we pitched.
(like a mini wintery thank god Ledge)
(fun steep Mixed with some good neve in the cracks)
Around the junction with the west face, we put our tools away, and climbed in rock shoes and bare hands. It was beautiful climbing and the cruxes were really fun. We passed a French team, who had already spent a day and one bivvi on the route. They were trying to climb dry 5b cracks with ice tools. We were able to move fast past them on hand jams and smears, sort of smiling to ourselves. Towards the top we were definitely off route a few times, but just kept boshing on.
We topped out around 2 o’clock and chilled on the summit for a short while hanging out with Madonna. Its a fairly special summit, and I can now finally say that I have climbed the big pointy one.
We made our way across to the breche and began the slightly less enjoyable descent down the drus couloir. This is basically 800m of abseiling off abolikovs, and dubious tat connecting a mish mash of lego blocks and pegs. The further you go down the more and more abseil stations you find and its quite obvious that most teams dont bother climbing to the top of the Drus couloir. It was mega dry, and the direct looked like 200m of the most amazing overhanging e4 granite corner.
(loving the abolokov situation)
Eventually we made it down to the glacier and back to our splendid bivouac spot. It was 6pm, and we were just in time for another glorious sunset and the prettiest of skies. We had another night in the tent and adventure skied out the next morning. Due to the amount of snow on the banks of the glacier finding the Charpoua ladders was quite difficult from above. We got down to town mid afternoon and went straight to elevation and drank athletic quantities of pelforth blonde until about 3am the next morning.
(me skiing out under the Drus on approach skis. Barely skiing)
(grahams creepy topo)
Indiana Jaune. Maladiere. 270m 6b+
The next route we went in to do was the modicca nouray, but we got shafted by the injustice and corruption of the Aiguille du midi queing situation. By the time we got up there were loads of teams on it and psyche diminished. We decided to ski down and drive to the Arve valley and climb a route at Maladiere called Indiana Jaune. At 6b+ this route is 10 pitches long and doesn’t disappoint. After skiing in to a crowded ice route in the morning we were stoked to be climbing on a massive deserted sunny limestone crag in the afternoon in our t-shirts.
Pinocchio Grade VI 7( whatever that means)
With the arrival of some less pleasant weather we went up and climbed Pinocchio on Mt Blanc du tacul. It was a cold and slighty Scottish day out, with the worst hot aches of the season. I thought we were going to get choppered with the amount of screaming going on. It was good fun to scratch around on some steeper mixed, on what was another dull overcast day in the valley.
Sometimes you have to ask yourself, Where would Stevie Haston go?
Mt Dolent Traverse solo. Via Charlet route (TD) And south face Descent. With a flippin heavy bag.
Another spell of good weather came and with no readily available partners I had a little idea for a solo mission. Seen as distinct pyramid, far away from the familiar peaks of the Verte, Chardonnet and the Droites, Mt Dolent (3749m) stands proud at the end of the Argentiere basin. As a beautiful peak, joining the boarders of France, Switzerland and Italy, I decided wanted to climb it. With an excellent and rarely climbed north face route and a classicly good skiable normal route on the south side it, a traverse sounded like a grand adventure. With no schedule and friends to meet at the lift, I can’t say I found it very easy to get out of bed that morning. Digging deep into my pockets of motivation I eventually got round to catching a grand Montets bin at about 9.30. The skin up the back of the Basin was hard work and I was breaking trail through knee deep snow all the way.
(lonely skin up to the back of the Glacier)
I got to the final slope below the berchsgrund about 1 pm. Crossing was a nuisance, and spooky business. I finally managed to cross on the very right hand side, and got my tools into some decent neve. The route follows some cool little chimneys and grooves in the middle of the face which are hard to see until you are in them. Thankfully the neve was really good, and the climbing was fun. The face had a lot of snow on it, and from the approach I concluded that it probably didn’t matter where I climbed. I soon discovered that a lot of the snow was covering fairly dry and blank mixed ground. I got myself a bit too high up on a section of this. I could see the Neve filled groove I needed to be in to my left, but I had climbed up into an area of buried blank slabs. I got a bit scared, as I wasn’t sure if I could down climb what I had come up and I couldn’t find any gear to lower off. I settled myself and, after scraping around, managed to dig out two little thumb sized flakes of rock. I equalized them with some slings and lowered myself hand over hand back down to where I could swing left into the “thonka” neve ice. As I climbed past my equalized thumb rocks I flicked the slings off and carried on happily. The top section was mostly hard black ice, and quite relentless. I followed what I thought might be the bash marks of some other climbers and smashed on and on.
(looking down. while resting my tired calves on a belay)
(looking up)
At the top of the face, you reach a col, where it is common to abseil back down the face. The final section of the north ridge to the summit is quite long, and still quite difficult. It was a relief to reach the summit, and know that soon I would be sliding down soft snow, instead pounding blunt tools into hard ice with a massive bag with skis strapped to it.
I enjoyed putting first tracks into the descent and sought out the fiorio Bivouac hut. I still probably had time to ski out, but finding a lift from the road head to Courmayeur, and then through the tunnel was looking unlikely, so I decided to spend the night in the hut. It’s a lovely hut, however there was no bonus food so I had a hungry night. The next day I skied out of Val feret, hitched to Palud, then took the Helbronner lift back up and skied down the Vallee blanche. It was a grand adventure. If I was to do much more of this type of thing, I would definitely get some much lighter skis, and a light weight rope. Instead I hauled a pair black diamond verdicts (really usefully 110 underfoot) and a 60 dmm prophet.
(fiorio Refuge)
(my novelty topo, shows the berchsgrund adventures, poopy pants moment and summit joy. The route is 700m to the col I think, and in reality dwarfs the buttress on the right.)
Aiguille du Tour Noir. AD
John Orr came over for a visit, and was keen to do a good day tour on skis and get a peak climbed. Dave Chapman joined us for the banter. We skied to the col du tour noir, and climbed the south ridge on the Aiguille du tour noir. It would seem this is quite an elusive peak, and another rarely climbed route. It was quite good fun, with reasonably involved climbing for the grade.
Legarde Direct. North Face of Les Droites. TD
I had a full body crash the day after this after over week of daily activities, and needed a lie in. The following day Rory was keen to do something before his season came to an end. I Suggested a rock route up high somewhere. That evening one beer turned to six and the following morning admittedly I wasn’t very “on it”. I arrived at the midi, and realized I had forgotten my lift pass. Rory thought it was an April fool. Driving back to get it we decided it was maybe a bit to cloudy for rock climbing up high, and thought about then zooming up to the courtes and doing the swiss route. On the approach to this, Rory suggested the Legarde couloir on the North Face of the Droites. I have done the Swiss route but not the Legarde. I can’t say I really wanted to climb the Legarde couloir. Having already climbed the North East Spur Direct, and the Ginat/Jackson on the Droites the Legarde wasn’t really on my radar. But the idea of doing the Swiss route again wasn’t really filling me with psyche either. It was at this stage quite late in the day, and the legarde is a long route. We watched another team disappear over the steep ice into the upper wide couloir and thought that if they were starting this late, then we probably could too. After all we were fit, fast, acclimatized and could probably catch up with them. Little did we know it was Ueli steck and Colin haley. We committed to the idea, and made our way up to the start. It was 12 nooncrossing the berchsgrund. We stood at the top at 4pm. Not bad for Rorys first Grand course. The start has about 200m of excellent steep ice, and the rest is mostly a slog up a wide and easy couloir. Despite that, the rock architecture is stunning, and it takes you right to the summit. We passed Ueli and Colin down climbing back the same way. That was also our plan, but on reaching the summit we, weren’t actually that keen on down climbing. There were a few tricky bits, and the idea of abseiling down the south side seemed easier. The problem was our skis were at the berchsgrund and we were in ski boots. We had a long walk all the way down the telefre, mer de glace, and montenvers back to Chamonix in ski boots. We made it back to town at 10 pm. Still all that was better than climbing a big route with skis on our backs. Right?
North Face of the Grand Charmoz ED1
My final route to seal the deal of a pretty damn good season was the North Face of the Grandes Charmoz. I had wanted to climb this all season, since I read about Jon and Ally climbing it in December. Dave Searle was up for it. We met up and had a chat about tactics, and decided to go for it in a day from the first lift. We got the first lift up to the midi plan and skinned across to the col du bouche. From here we ditched our skis and went up, over, down, and around to the North Face of the Charmoz. We moved together through runnels of ice and neve all the way up the face, apart from an awkard chimney pitch in the middle.
(awkward chimney pitch. Photo Dave Searle)
After the large snow field we climbed four superb 60 m pitches of mixed which deposited us on the summit. The descent down the Nantillions glacier went smoothly and we were back to our skis around 6pm. We skied through the sun baked slush for as long as we could and then walked. I made it back to town without having to get my headtorch out, and we went straight to midnight express and had burgers. It was another superb day in the mountains, taking in a huge north face route in good style with good company. Daves report is (http://davesearle.me/2014/04/07/grande-charmoz-north-face-a-day-to-remember/)
(at the end of the large central snowfield with Aiguille du republique on the left)
(0n the mixed ground towards the top)
I have really enjoyed my winter season in Chamonix and over the past 4/5 weeks with generally good weather and free time I have been able to climb some really amazing routes. It was nice to be climbing these routes, just for the love of the mountains, not because I was chasing routes for an application form any more.
I have been writing this on the long 17 hour ferry from Cherbourg to Dublin. I had a swim in the sea at Omaha beach and I’m looking forward to summer time. I also visited some good friends in Strasbourg on my way, and spent a day not talking about climbing. That was nice too. I’m looking forward to Irish trad climbing and I’ve been thinking about a few routes and projects. Alpinism is great but it doesn’t do much for your rock climbing. After a full winter of skiing and loads of mountaineering in big boots i feel like I have tree trunk legs. Better start off with some slabs…
johnmccuneclimb 
Fantastic season wow! Impressed.