7/25/14 - Aiguille de l'Index

Today Bucky and I explored a new area of Chamonix.  We walked to the town of Les Praz and went up the Index lift.  Our plan was to try and climb two different routes up the West face of the Aiguille de l'Index.  The first thing that went wrong was that we thought it would take about 20 min to walk to Les Praz; instead it took about 45 min.  Next, when we got to the top we had to keep checking the guide book we brought with us because the West face looked absolutely nothing like what was shown in the topo.  Unfortunately while we were wandering about another team got in front of us and jumped on the first route we wanted to do, L'an d'Emile, so we ended up going for the other route, La Complainte des eaux-vins (6a, 250 m, 8 pitches).  The topo in the guide book made this route look like it was on a face.  Instead we were climbing a ridge/arete the whole time.  This prompted many more looks into the guide book because we thought for sure we were on the wrong route.  Turns out we were most definitely on the correct route, the topo was just terrible.  La Complainte des eaux-vins really was too easy of a route.  We realized that we have improved in our climbing enough the last month that a route of mostly 5b and 5c is too easy.  The two pitches of 6a were the only parts we really enjoyed.  After getting lost and then getting stuck behind some teams at the rappel station at the top we did not have enough time to complete both routes today.  We will most assuredly try again some other time now that we know exactly where we are going.  Probably the best part of the route today was the view of Mont Blanc.  For whatever reason it looked very cool today.  I also wrote a new poem today:

Cham-bug

I moved with a friend to Chamonix
My soul seems to be in harmony
We climb and run
and bike for fun
Or study French when it's not sunny