Climb Abseil
Posted on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 at 10:02 am
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.
After our epic climbing, one would think we would have a laid back start….Uh Uh, alpine climbing requires that you start at 4am to avoid softening snow, widening crevasses, and the ever present German that wants to get to the route ahead of you! So after a chocolat chaud (hot chocolate) we headed out at 4 30 am to get to the Chere Couloir, an epic, and well known ice climb.. The climb is not the easiest of ice climbs but a well known proving ground for novices. There are quite a few good places to put up protection and to make headway safely. But first we traversed the glacier in deep snow and then began our zigzag approach to the beginning of the climb. 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 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. As you sit or stand awkwardly at the belay point tied into safety, you actually have to keep your head and helmet close to the ice wall as their is a lot of ice chipped loose as the climbers above make their way. You almost want the call to look up and strat climbing not to come. 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 began resting and recovering from our huge day and getting all our gear sorted. We were glad to see that despite the heavy snow up top (and rain in the valley), the MSR Elbow 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 Being so tired and nearly ready for bed gave us good opportunities to reflect on out accomplishments in recent days
To be continued….
2009 AGM / Open Day – Climb Abseiling
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