Category Archives: Climbing

Swiss Route Solo

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With a long stint of work behind me and a blur of pow days and free-riding before that I felt like I needed a memorable day and a tough outing to remind myself I’m still able to go big.  Yesterday reminded me of some of the things I’ve done in the past and also gave me motivation for the future.  It feels like a long time since I have climbed anything over 60m and apart from an evening soloing at the Cremerie in Argentiere (small beginners Ice climbing venue) I haven’t wielded my Nomics for what seems like eternity.  I’ve wanted to climb the Swiss route on the Courtes for years but as time went by the idea that I wanted to solo it turned more and more into reality.  I find building things up in my mind can psyche me out so when the opportunity arose to try it yesterday I was surprised at how calm I felt about it.  After skiing down from first bin at the GM to the glacier and beginning the skin up I nearly bailed due to the wind but something inside of me kept me going.  I’m not sure whether it was arrogance but it should have been a sign of things to have come….

on the hike up to the face, Sastrugi forming....

on the hike up to the face, Sastrugi forming….

Saying goodbye to my shadow for a few hours.

Saying goodbye to my shadow for a few hours.

I headed up toward the base of the route breaking the skin track to the shrund whilst listening to my tunes.  I was still calm and motivated and soon found myself strapping on my crampons and attaching my ski’s to my bag which felt pretty heavy already. Crossing the bergshrund was pretty easy (although you have to go far left of the route) and I began wading up the snow cone to the start of the ice.  It was tiring work and I must admit I have never been as happy to pull onto 70 degree ice before. The first few hundred meters went smoothly with a couple of small spin-drift showers tinkling down the face.  On the second and steeper of the two crux’s, about 200m up, I got nailed for about 10 minutes by a sizable spin-drift avalanche which left me gripping onto my tools looking down at me feet as they came in and out of view.  It was good contemplation time and certainly got my pretty pumped shaking out on the 85degree ice.  I kept telling myself it would stop and then wondering why it hadn’t.  After it had I tentatively looked up to check properly and carried on up dreading the next one.  This happened again a few more times and I lost a fair amount of time waiting them out. After a while I started climbing the ice out of the main gully line which helped a lot and meant I could keep going longer before my hands got to cold and I had to stop.  The ice however was amazing Neve with perfect first timers every swing.  It reminded me of previous routes and how much fun alpine ice is to climb.

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Found a belay and took a little rest from the spin-drift and cold hands.

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Looking down the route from about halfway on one of the only mellow snow sections.

The rest of the route went well apart from battling hot aches and numb toes until I reached the final 50m to the summit ridge.  I hit some super hard, brittle ice which required a lot of care and attention.  I ended up smashing my axes in well  which took a few good swings each.  Not ideal when your already mentally drained from 750m of climbing.

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I took this photo accidentally at the top but the look on my face says it all…

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Free ride. I’ve wanted to ski of this peak for a while. Glad to have a good pair of ski’s to do it with. Mont Blanc in the back.

My initial plan was to ski the South Face direct but I pretty soon went of the idea as I was feeling pretty tired and the snow looked pretty bad on the southerly aspect.  I decided instead to traverse to the Col de la Tour des Courtes and descend from there to the Telefre basin and back to town. It turned out that I didn’t really need the 120m of rope I lugged up after all but I did do an abseil on the ridge to avoid a large patch of black ice.  The snow was OK in places but crusty in others but I was pretty happy to be on my way down.  the skiing went quickly and I got to the start of the hike up to the buvette (or the end of being in the mountains proper) just before the light started to fade and I managed to make it to town before needing my head torch. A pretty special day and a grand adventure by all accounts.  My legs are certainly feeling it today and I was glad for the beer and burgers at the MBC afterwards….

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Looking down at the Col des Droites South Face from the Col de la Tour des Courtes

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Beer and burgers at the MBC went down very well!

Departure Imminent

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Talung in far Eastern Nepal Stands at 7349m and is yet to receive a successful ascent of its north face despite a few very strong Czech teams making attempts. Myself, James and Gavin hope to make an alpine style ascent of the prominent 1800m North Pillar. Fingers crossed for a good trip!

Tommorow I will be departing for my most epic adventure to date.  Myself, Gavin Pike and James Clapham will be boarding a plane to Kathmandu in Nepal from where we will take another plane ride east to Taplejung. From here a 1.5 day jeep ride to the end of the road at Gopetar.  Then begins the 10 day trek to Ramche which will be our basecamp for the proceeding month and is some 15km from the base of the north face of Talung, our proposed objective for this November.

I have never been on expedition before.  I have never been to a third world country before.  I have never tried to climb a new route and I have never been higher the 4810m (I.e the top of Mont Blanc!). The whole trip should really push my comfort zone and open my eyes to a new world of possibilities regardless of success or failure.  I’m not without my worries about how I will cope with the stresses and strains and extra altitude but I feel I am approaching everything with an open mind and a willingness to learn.  James and Gav have both been to Alaska twice before and they know part of what is involved in the process but for myself my ventures into the mountains have only lasted a few days at most.

This expedition has been a long time in the pipeline and I remember when we first came to the decision we were going to do the trip.  I remember it vividly in fact as I was in a pit of despair in early December last year after fracturing my Tibial Plateau in a ski crash which put me on my biggest layoff from the mountains in 3 years. Towards the end of my week long hospital stay Gav asked me whether I wanted to join them for this expedition.  I immediately agreed.  This trip and the thought of getting back on the ski’s again were the driving forces behind my thankfully speedy recovery.

The metal work that is still holding my knee together.

This autumn has been a total washout so fair with only a handful of good weather days so far and lots of fresh snow to contend with.  Getting out to do anything “big” has been next to impossible.  Its been a haze of sport climbing, drytooling and “Col du Midi Alpine Cragging”.   My hunger for a big route is bigger than ever right and is giving me enthusiasm beyond that that I have felt for any trip into the alps I’ve had so far.

Climbing with Emily on the Tacul Triangle.

I’ve also never had to pack like this for.  You have to think about every thing you’ll need for a big new route and also what you’ll want in basecamp to live in the mountains for 7 weeks.  It’s been a long process of preparing,  packing, repacking, pairing down and adding more and it’s still not over.  I’m also moving out of my current apartment in Chamonix when I leave so there is a lot to sort out over the next few hours!

I’ve also been slightly worried about my current body weight which is perfect for sport climbing but doesn’t give me a huge amount of fat reserves to work with out in Nepal.  So its been melted ice cream, eclairs, cheese and chips to try and pile a bit of much needed bivi fat on in the past few days.

We won’t be in contact with the outside world when we are in basecamp unless there is a  problem (we have a satellite phone but we are planning not to use it).  I’ll be doing a trip report on here when I’m back in mid December.

Still it is with great trepidation that I say goodbye to Chamtown and all its residents and  mountains.  With the recent snowfall and the Season pass bought I’m already looking forward to the adventures that will happen this winter.

Help Out Our Expedition With Two Clicks!

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Want to help out our expedition? Easy! For every Facebook page like that Mountain Drop-offs gets between now and the 16th of October they will be giving us 1 Euro towards the Trip!  Myself, Gavin and James have been working for Mountain Dropoffs for a few years now and they have decide to help us out with this amazing offer. So please please please like and share the page linked bellow to help us get out to Himalayas!!  Did I mention you will also be in with a chance of winning some Julbo Sunglasses!?! Whats not to like?? ;-)

Click on the image bellow to go straight to the Mountain Dropoffs Facebook Page!!

http://www.facebook.com/MountainDropOffs

Biding Time

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This autumn has been a bit of a washout so far.  I’ve not heard of any big routes being done on any of the big faces as it’s either been too hot, wet, windy or snowy to make going into the mountains for a big route a sensible thing to do.  It has given me the chance to focus on some other aspects of climbing and also given me time to get stronger and fitter through numerous Drytooling and Sport climbing sessions and the odd foray to the ever fruitful and reliable Tacul Triangle.

Sending my M10 project at the Zoo after numerous falls including one where I had my finger through the chain!  Photo, Ross Hewit

Me and Ross bundled up for a blustery day on the Tacul Triangle. This was the first time Ross had been in the mountains for 4 months. So I thought we’d do something easy to warm up…….

James Clapham on point on the First Pitch of Les Temps est Assassin on the Tacul Triangle. Photo Ross Hewitt.

Myself on the 2nd pitch. When this route is in good ice conditions its apparently a grade 4 romp. As you can see from the photo the tide was well and truly out and all that was left was a verglased corner crack which took neither cam nor hand nor tool very well.  I was left high and dry so to speak. Ahem.  Still, it made for a great fight and I was pretty happy to finish it off after nearly falling off several times along the way……Scotty tech 8 maybe? Photo Ross Hewitt

So all in all not much to report in the mountains apart from there is a lot of snow and most things should be in pretty good condition due to the freeze thaw cycle and the snow limmit being around the magic 24-2700m mark. I’m feeling pretty primed and ready to go as soon as the weather gets good!!

I Leave you all with this… for those of you who haven’t heard or seen what myself, James Clapham and Gavin Pike are off to try this autumn here’s the best photo we have so far……

Talung, in far Eastern Nepal, stands at 7349m and is yet to receive a successful ascent of its north face despite a few very strong Czech teams making attempts. Myself, James and Gavin hope to make an alpine style ascent of the prominent 1800m North Pillar. Fingers crossed for a good trip! Photo Copyright Billy Roos