An Alpine Trip Odyssey – An Awesome Beginners Week Climbing In Chamonix, France Day 4
Day 4 was mostly spent getting ready for the next overnight trip.
Alpine climbing does not afford one a laid back start to the day. It involves a very early start, in our case we were up and about at 04:30. We were racing against another climbing group of Germans heading across the glacier for the Chere Couloir. We gulped down hot chocolates and started the trudge. Even though this climb is a good trial run for novice climbers, it is not without its own difficulties. There quite long gaps between places where one can set up belays for safe ascents but the drops remain perilous. This is a classic route and as such there are quite a few groups trying to get across the glacier first to avoid ice falling off climbers overhead. Secondly, the sun hits the peaks quite early and this causes the ice to soften up quickly, making it more dangerous
I was part of the second pair of our group. My leader was very fast and almost dragged me to the base of the climb through 2 foot drifts of fresh snow. As the lead pair ascended, ice kept raining down on us and we were very glad to have our helmets with us. We had left our 2 berth elbow room tents behind as we would only be climbing up and then descending again in the evening.
It is pure ice hell, and steep. Lots of spindrift, old ice and hard rock raining down on you as you make your way up the gully to each successive belay point, where you hang in mid air, dreading the call to climb. Quite a funny feeling, knowing that there is no resting place, just 4 points of steel, holding you into the ice, 3000 metres up! Eesh! Our descent was a quick abseil and then the long trudge across the glacier again. The worst part was ascending the ridge again to our original exit point from the cable car. This was extremely tough going. The ride down however was absolute bliss.
Once we got down we started to recuperate from our massive day and getting all our gear sorted. We were glad to see that despite the heavy snow up top (and precipitation in the valley), the Elbow room tents were still in tip top shape, dry and standing proud. The snow at the top of the mountain meant rain at the bottom and our elbow room tents were doing a fantastic job of keeping us dry. These 2 berth tents had plenty to offer and were great for all our gear that we left behind As we prepared for an early night it gave us great pleasure to reflect on the past few days and what we were still to accomplish…
To be continued….
How to Use a Pairing Knife
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