wimpyalpinism   welcome to the world of cowardly mountain activities …

The first outside meet of the Wednesday evening season and what a really nice one!  Some photos to remind us all of how good it was (just in case it rains the rest of the time!!).

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Oh dear – running out of time and weather is getting cold and snowy for the next couple of days 😦 so … we have decided to draw stumps and head back!

We could have strung it out for one last trip but I think the adrenaline reserves are a little low at present and everything aches a little so see you all soon.

A bientot

After the Pelissier we spent the night at the Cosmiques Hut. However although the Pelissier was supposed to be an ‘easy’ day – to get us into the mood for ‘Pinocchio’ the day after – it completely wiped both of us out. Time to rethink our gameplan and look at some less uncompromising objectives. The perfect choice was the Chere couloir: close to the hut (40 mins across the Col du Midi), we could get there before the crowds from the first telepherique and you can abseil off after all the nice climbing. Game on!

The following morning we had the ‘late’ 7 am breakfast (you can get one at 1 am if you are REALLY keen!!) and headed across the glacier. Wonderfully peaceful and quiet – just the occasional squeaky snowy footstep.

The approach to the foot of the Chere requires crossing a relatively ‘friendly’ bergschrund (just left of some not so … seracs) and then up an easy slope to the first real pitch.

Crossing the 'schrund - the route is the thin white line above

The rest of the route was superb even if the ice was a little on the hard brittle side. I had done it before many moons ago but it was really nice to be on something not too serious (in alpine terms!) where we could relax a little and enjoy the climbing. Four or five pitches of pleasant ice led to the top of the steep stuff and a nice abseil retreat (no nonsense about getting to the summit!).

Me on pitch 3

By the time we came to head down there were already three other parties on the route behind us. We managed to escape down the route without too many rope tangling events. As we passed a french team of three (2 guides and a client) we were glad we weren’t following them up the route as the ‘client’ proceeded to try and demolish the route as he went. We felt sorry for the Italians who had to put up with a constant battering from lumps of ice as Monsieur le Neanderthal beat his way up the route.

The rest of the day passed relatively pleasantly – even the skinning back up to the telepherique station didn’t seem too bad. Perhaps we are getting into this alpine thing. Just need another extended season or two!

Fresh from our ‘warm’ time in Italy we decided that the mountains were the only place that would be any good. This was confirmed by our view of the Argentiere icefalls from our little balcony – each day a new bit had fallen off one of the routes. On out last visit all the continenetal climbers skied in to the routes with little rucsacs (and in usually very trendy gear) and it all looked rather easy. We decided to do the same (but without the small rucsacs and trendy gear). Another slight twist is that I can’t ski that well and in any case ski-ing with a large rucsac is next to impossible. Mmmm … good idea??

Enough said about the approach apart from the fact that I neither fell down the North Face of the Midi nor came to grief on the icy crevassed slopes that led to the bpttom of our route – the Pelissier Gully on Point Lachenal. Not a big alpine route (350m) but it did have a repuation for quality. Greta choice and lovely. Some nice icy pitches to start and then it opened up into a nice big sunny (!) groove with some excellent Severe(-ish) rock climbing in crampons and then another 2 or 3 pitches of snow to the top.