7/23/14 - Goulotte Chere

Oh man, RAIN!  It has rained non-stop for the last three days!  We went to the pool, did some climbing in the gym, went for soggy bike rides, and watched movies.  For...three...days.  Bucky was getting so stir crazy that we actually went up to the Aguille du Midi yesterday to try and climb.  We wanted to do the Goulotte Chere; a 400m ice and mixed route rated II/D(4).  We got to the bottom of the tram at 0640 only to find it was not running.  We waited around until 0730 before we got an update that the first tram would leave at 0800.  Once we got to the top the wind was howling and it was a complete white out.  After debating for a few minutes whether to brave the whiteout and the knee deep fresh snow we decided to go back down and call it a day.

Wondering whether to brave the whiteout and climb

Crystal Clear skies!

Today we were expecting the weather to be miserable once again so we slept in until about 0730.  The entire valley was shrouded in clouds, but Bucky decided to check the webcams and see what it looked like at the top.  Low and behold it was clear blue skies!  We got ready as quickly as possible and got our butts up there.  We practically ran across the Vallee Blanche to the base of the Chere and were both dripping sweat when we got there.  There were about seven teams on the route so we were worried about falling ice, until we noticed every team was already coming down!  Bucky took the lead for the first four pitches and we had to deal with minimal ice fall, although I caught one right on the upper lip that took off a little skin.  I led the last four pitches on the less technical terrain and started to notice the clouds coming in again.

Some clouds starting to form around pitch 5.

Shrouded by clouds!  It only got worse from here.

 By the time we reached the top of the route the clouds had completely blown in and left us shrouded.  Bucky had taken a compass bearing of the Aguille du Midi before it disappeared from view, and there is a well worn foot path back, so we weren't worried.  During the climb Bucky had managed to drop an alpine draw, and I had dropped my sunglasses so we looked hard for these on the way down.  After rappelling back to the bottom I managed to find my sunglasses, as well as a nut tool, but Bucky's sling was nowhere to be found.  On the way back it started to snow, which quickly turned into rain, which even more quickly turned into biting ice balls!  We hustled through the storm as quickly as we could and managed to make it back to the station for the last tram down of the day!  We are so thankful we finally got to get out and climb, and such a fun route as well!