Last Few Weeks

The Wiseboyz, Knowing when to fail has been one of the hardest lessons I've learnt in the mountains.

Its been a reasonably hectic last few weeks for me without a lot of really interesting stuff to write about. I’m currently back in the UK for the next few week’s waiting for the snow to hit Scotland so I can do some winter climbing up there. Just coming out of the two day hangover which was Kendal mountain film festival which was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Before that I spent one night in London where I went to see the new North face film about Gasherbrum 2 and had a catch up with some mates down there. Before I left for all this me and Ally Swinton had a go at the Desmasion/Gouseault on the North Face of the Grandes Jorasses which was cut short due to a combination of factors but mainly the lack of gaz and lots of spindrift which slowed us down in the first few hours on the face. Here’s some photo’s of what we we managed to do.

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Croz Spur with Slovenian start.

Croz Spur on the Grandes Jorasses with route Shown (slovenian start)

Croz Spur with Slovenian Start. Showing the Line of ascent.

I recently got back from climbing the Croz Spur with the Slovenian start with my friend Ben O’Connor Croft. I have wanted to climb this route on the Grandes Jorasses for sometime now. It was great to finally get it ticked. The climbing was varied and for the most part good, with the exception of the penultimate pitch which was quite tricky with steep, broken rock and poor protection. Normally this pitch has more ice in it but this year it is quite dry so it’s been putting up a bit of a fight! We were one of three teams on the route that day and I’ve been informed we were the only team to make it over the top with the other two teams being helicoptered from just below this ‘crux’ pitch. This however wasn’t the only helicopter action that the Jorasses saw that day….

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