8/28/14 - The Midi-Plan Traverse

While +Laura Kottlowski  is in Chamonix she wanted to summit Mont Blanc.  She doesn't have much experience with alpine glacier travel or snow climbing, but we thought we could probably give it a go.  Since +James Schafer  and I had already done the Bosses ridge route, we thought it would be fun to try the Tois Mont route this time.  After helping Bucky with some work stuff on Wednesday morning we made it up to the Vallee Blanche and had camp set up by around 1700.  With three hours of daylight left we decided to give the Cosmiques arete a go and get Laura some good alpine rock and snow experience.  With some rock climbing, snow climbing, and rappels the Cosmiques arete has a good variety of climbing.  Laura did well, even on a tricky diagonal rappel that was only her second rappel ever.  We made it to the summit while the sun was setting, but made it back down to camp before we had to break out the headlamps.  We set the alarms for 0300 and hit the sack.

We hit the trail at 0330 on a very chilly morning.  We started up the most dangerous part of the Tois Mont route with a great deal of exposure to serac fall and a large bergschrund.  This really isn't a place that you want to take breaks, or hang out for an extended period of time.  As the face grew steeper, Laura was feeling really uncomfortable with the steepness and hardness of the snow.  After having climbed about a quarter of the face we decided it would be best to turn around.  We frontpoint down climbed a decent way before the slope mellowed out enough that we could walk down and back to camp.  With the snow freezing hard over night, Bucky and I decided that instead of going back up the Tois Mont route we should attempt to complete a route we had turned around on last week because of too much fresh snow; the Midi-Plan traverse (III, 2, 4a).  We left camp at about 0545 and headed back up towards the Aiguille du Midi.  The very first section of the ridge is a nice mellow walk, but soon enough it drops very steeply down a knife edge of snow.  At some points the ridge was so narrow

through this section you couldn't even fit your feet together side by side!  After the recent snows had wiped away any previous path, a few people had done the route the day before so we at least had a few foot tracks to follow.  However, going down that ridge, face in, in the dark, was a very slow process.  Bucky led and kicked out nice footholds which I, and all subsequent parties of the day were able to use.  From the bottom of the descent we had to cross a large bergschrund via snow bridges at two locations and from there we began to climb again.  The air was very chilly, even after the sun rose, so much so that I was wearing every layer of clothes that I brought and still wasn't overheating on the climbs.  About two hours in we came to the Rognan du Plan and had our first route finding problem.  The faint foot track led in two directions.  One leading up and over the rocky spire, and

Sunrise on the Midi-Plan traverse

one going down and around.  We started by heading up.  Bucky started to traverse across a wide rocky ledge, but upon turning the corner and looking down, he determined that it was not the proper route.  We headed back and went down and around.  I was in the lead at this point and as I approached the ridge line the snow turned more and more rotten.  Trying to actually gain the ridge was a very tricky, and dangerous, maneuver with snow crumbling under my feet.  I managed to gain the ridge with my nerves a little rattled, and belayed Bucky up from the safety of the rocks.  From there we followed the ridge up and down a few more times before coming to another place where the route was not so obvious.  The guide book says that you are supposed to rappel to a series of snowy ledges before down climbing to where the glacier meets the rock.  After one rappel and a short down climb we came to a ledge, but there was no way we were going to down climb all the way to the snow.  Luckily, many people before us felt the same and there were two more rappel set-ups that we used to get to the bottom!

Summit of the Aiguille du Plan, looking NE

Summit of the Aiguille du Plan, looking South

After reaching the snow we looked back up at the rock face and wondered where we were supposed to ascend the thing after reaching the Aiguille du Plan and turning around.  We had noticed some parties following behind us after the sun rose so we hoped that at least one of them would know the route back.  The guide book says simply to re-trace your steps, but the face we had just rappelled down looked like 5.10 climbing, not 5.6 like the guide book says.  We turned our backs on that future problem and continued on toward the summit of the Aiguille du Plan.  At this point we were on the South side of the ridge and the sun was very intense and hot.  The snow started getting very soft, even at 1030, and we removed most of our layers.  After gaining the rock, Bucky took the lead as we pitched out the final 30m to the summit.  We climbed to the summit on the North face, and being in the shade, with the wind howling, we had to put back on a few of the layers we had just removed!  It was cold enough that all we managed to do was snap a few pictures on the summit before we turned around and rappelled back down to the snow and the sun.  We had reached the summit in about 4.5 hours, or about an hour longer than the guide book said.  We talked to one of the parties as we turned back toward the Aiguille du Midi to ask if any of them knew how we supposed to get back up the rock face we had rappelled down.  All anyone knew, however, was to just go back the way we came.  When we got to the rock Bucky took the lead on the first pitch.  With a few pulls on a fixed rope that some kind soul had left behind, he managed to make it to the top of the first pitch.  I took the lead for the second pitch and had an easier time, which was good for me.  From here the fun of the route ended, and the difficulties began.  With the exception of the very first ridge, the way to the Aiguille du Plan was steep climbs followed by more mellow descents.  On the way back, then, we had to down climb all of the steep climbs.  Down climbing in the steep snow is something Bucky and I do not have a lot of experience with.  Normally when we do steep snow and ice routes you down climb somewhere else more mellow or rappel.  No chance of that here.  I was taking the lead on the way back since Bucky led on the way there, and I was moving slow and deliberate.  I tried to face downhill and walk at the beginning (much faster) but after a few of the steps we had kicked in on the way up blew out on me and I had to catch myself, I turned around and down climbed

Returning to the Aiguille du Midi (distant right peak)

face-in (slower, but safer).  The down climbing seemed to go on forever, and the going was very slow.  Two parties passed us before we made it back to the final knife ridge that we had come down in the dark so many hours before.  At that point I knew we had no more down climbing ahead of us and I was very grateful.  I never really felt secure the whole time we were climbing down, and five hours is a long time to feel uncomfortable!  It was probably a good experience for us, since there are a lot of similar routes in the area, but at the end both Bucky and I said we never wanted to do that route again.  We made it back to camp at about 1630.  The 8 hour route had ended up taking us almost 11 hours!  Add on the 2 hours that we had spent on the Tois Mont route earlier in the morning and we had been moving non-stop for 13 hours by the time we returned to camp!  We both felt bad for Laura, whom we had left at camp with the impression that we would be returning only eight hours later.  She had made the best of her time in the Vallee Blanche, going for some short hikes on the "safe" paths criss-crossing the glacier, and taking a lot of pictures.  We were also very grateful to her for having camp all torn down and packed up when we got back.  All we had to do was fill up our packs and go.  We knew that the tram had recently changed its hours of operation and we thought it might be shutting down at 1730.  Having got camp packed up by 1645 we had to hustle to make it to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi.  About half way up it was 1715 and we were really hoping we were wrong about the 1730 shut-down.  Very luckily we were and we found many people milling about and the tram still running when we reached the summit!  I checked the website today to see when the tram is officially supposed to shut down and it indeed says 1730.  I don't know why they didn't shut down until 1800 yesterday, but I am very grateful!  After 15:30 of near constant movement, Bucky and I did not have much energy when we got back to town.  A quick dinner in our bellies and we were both passed out by 2100.

8/26/14 - St. Gervais Dry tooling

We woke up to an absolute downpour this morning, a downpour that lasted nearly all day, and swelled the rivers to near flooding levels.  Either we were going to head to the pool, or head to St. Gervais to do some more dry tooling on the overhanging rock.  We also welcomed a new partner!  +Laura Kottlowski will be joining us for the next few weeks.  Since it was Laura's first day in town we decided to do more of an adventure than just a pool day.  It was raining so hard we decided to take the train down to St. Gervais rather than bike there.  The crag was very crowded when we arrived.  There were only a few routes available so we spotted one that looked OK and Bucky took the lead.  He really struggled to get up the short route, but he eventually made it.  Laura went next and made it almost to the second bolt before coming back down.  I made it to the top as well, but really struggled near the second bolt as well.  Our favorite route from our last visit had opened up by this time so we headed over there.  Bucky had to rest four times on the way up!  Laura made it about half way, but couldn't quite get over the second big roof.  I went last and made it all the way up with only one rest.  Bucky, I think, was a little jealous that I rested less so he went one more time.  Just to show me up he also did it in tennis shoes!  The second time up he was much stronger and only had to take one short break.  After that we did a bouldering style traverse route with the tools.  All in all, a really good way to spend a rainy day!

8/25/14 - Plan de l'Aiguille Challenge!

The first time Bucky ran from our apartment up to the Plan de l'Aiguille (4133 ft. elevation gain in 4.44 miles) he did it in 1:11.  I told him a goal of the summer (for him) should be to try and break 1:00.  Since then he has run it a couple more times and his fastest time is now 1:06.  My goal for the summer was to try and get to the top in under 2:00.  Now before you judge my lax goal setting too harshly keep in mind two things.  First, Bucky is a former Div. 1 collegiate x-country runner at Notre Dame and a former professional triathlete.  My competitive running career essentially ended after freshman year of high school when I started growing horizontally more than vertically.  Second, I have run once this summer, and it wasn't even for an hour, before that I can't even remember the last time I went for a run.  With Bucky out of town I figured now would be as good a time as any to make my first attempt at the run.  I didn't want him to feel obligated to wait for me, and I didn't want to feel pressured to keep up!  The sign at the trailhead says the average hiker should do it in 3:30.  When my watch said 0:32, I passed another sign that said the Plan de l'Aiguille was only 1:30 away!  At that point I knew for sure that I was going to break 2:00, but I kept the pace up to see just how fast I could go.  I got to the Refuge du Plan at about 1:08 and then I started thinking I might even match Bucky's time the first time up!  I underestimated how much longer I had by a little bit, but I still made it to the Plan in 1:15:23!  After walking around a little and cooling off I decided to run back down instead of taking the tram.  I figure, what's the point of struggling against gravity's clutches for so long if you can't turn around and run back down into her warm embrace?  After about 0:30 of descent my quads were screaming for a break, but I was so close to the bottom I couldn't stop.  I cruised back to the apartment and stopped the watch at 2:00:44.  Now my legs feel like jelly, but at least I can check off one summer goal!

8/24/14 - Les Houches MTB, VTT, DH

Check out the GoPro video here:  Les Houches Downhill MTB - Youtube
With Bucky in Munich for the last few days I have been trying to find ways to keep myself entertained solo here in Chamonix.  Yesterday that looked like sitting in the sun, drinking beer, and reading all day.  Today I decided to do something that I would enjoy, that maybe Bucky wouldn't.  And by that I mean some downhill mountain biking!  I only have a hard tail bike, but I figured it would be a good way to spend the day heading up the lift and exploring the few downhill trails in Les Houches that I've read about, but never ridden.  From what I read it sounded like there were three separate DH trails.  What I found today, however, is one trail that has some easy, medium, and hard variants.  There were a couple fun sections, but it is not really a place I could spend all day.  There was one drop that was looked like it was going to be about 3' when I rode up from the side, but I think it was more like 6'.  Either way, I landed pretty hard, but was able to ride away.  Now, I'm not saying I could compete on the World Cup DH or anything, but I'm no slouch.  I can't even remember the last time I got passed on a descent.  Well, today I got passed.  And it wasn't even close.  Maybe I can blame it on the fact that I was riding a hard tail in spandex and he was on a full DH bike with body armour, but I don't think even all that would cover it.  This guy was flying.  Luckily I passed enough guys in full DH gear that I didn't feel too bad.  Anyway, after a couple descents I decided I was done and headed back toward Cham.  On the way I took a turn up toward Merlet and hoped to link up with the Petit Balcon Sud trail.  After about an hour of fun technical climbing, the trail became noticeably steeper and nearly unrideable.   I pushed on for about thirty more minutes or so until a section where I had been hiking for about ten straight minutes.  At that point I decided to give up and ride back down.  Despite the grueling nature of the climb, the descent was really fun.  I got back to Chamonix about 4 hours after I left feeling really hungry and really satisfied with the day.  I walked to the grocery store to buy some food, totally forgetting that it was Sunday, and everything is closed on Sunday!  Oh, well.  I will find something to eat!

8/21/14 - Cosmiques Arete

After so much bike riding the last four days, I was looking forward to taking a day off and relaxing in Chamonix.  Bucky had something completely different in mind.  With relatively good weather in the forecast for the next few days Bucky wanted to attempt the Midi/Plan Traverse.  Since the traverse is a very long route we decided to spend the night up on the Vallee Blanche so we could get an earlier start.  We got up to the Aiguille du Midi around noon with ideas of climbing the Eperon face again, but were greeted with gale force winds.  At one point a gust came with so much force it not only stopped me in my tracks, but it literally ripped the sunglasses right off my face and sent them tumbling across the snow!  The Vallee Blanche is a very high traveled and relatively crevasse free area, but I still didn't feel very comfortable running, ropeless, across the glacier chasing my sunglasses!  Glasses retrieved we set up camp and I was ready, again, to relax and read and let my legs recover.  Bucky decided to solo the Cosmiques Arete while I hung out in the tent and read a book.  So about three weeks ago, after climbing the triangle du Tacul, we had about three hours to make it to the tram before it closed for the night.  Rather than hike up the ridge line to the tram station, which takes about 45 minutes, Bucky wanted to do the Cosmiques Arete.  We had done the full traverse two years ago with our guide Adam, and I remembered it taking about four hours.  Bucky thought we would easily be able to do it in three hours and make the last tram.  I was really looking forward to half-priced burger night at the Monkey Bar and I was stubborn enough that eventually we just hiked up the ridge and made a bet.  If we could do the traverse in under three hours, I would owe Bucky a burger and beer.  If we couldn't, Bucky would pay for a night in the Cosmiques Refuge.  Well, Bucky got back from soloing the traverse in about two hours.  He made it to the tram station in about an hour and a half.  We would move slower together, but it was pretty certain that I had lost that bet.

 Anyway, with the wind howling we hunkered down in the tent for the night and hoped that it would stop snowing and blowing before long so we could do the Midi-Plan traverse.  We woke up to a beautiful sunrise, clear skies, and our tent buried in about 18" of snow!  It seemed like only about four inches of new snow fell, but the wind had blown it all into our little tent hole.  With all the wind and fresh snow it seemed like the Midi-Plan traverse was out.  The terrain is exposed to collapsing cornices and high avalanche danger which is not helped at all by high winds and fresh snow.  We decided to go give it a look, however, and met another party along the way.  At the first knife ridge we made a few exploratory attempts and the snow was sloughing heavily beneath our feet and felt really unstable.  Deciding to err on the side of caution we turned back to camp and decided it would be better to just do the Cosmiques arete and then go climb some rock down in the valley or on the Aiguille Rouges side.  After breaking down camp we headed up the arete.  Even with full packs, and a little waiting around for a team in front of us, we still made it to the tram station in 1:45.  We were back down at the bottom of the valley thirty minutes before the three hour deadline had expired!  Now I owe Bucky a burger and beer, which is fine by me.  We finished the day off by heading to a new area of the Gaillands crag in the valley.  We only did three routes, but all three were very pumpy and had some really tricky awkward sections.  Despite not being able to do the Midi-Plan traverse, we actually did a lot and got the best climbing workout we have had in weeks!  I wore the GoPro on the traverse and you can check out the video here:  Cosmiques Arete - GoPro - Youtube

8/19/14 - Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 4

If you missed day 3 click here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 3


After about 125 miles of riding over the last three days I was really ready for an easy day on the bikes.  Luckily, our fourth day looked like it was going to be just that.  We had only two passes to climb and a total vertical on the day of only about 1000m (3280 ft).  Compared to the epic day 3, it was going to be a cake walk!  Of course, after three days of perfect weather, we woke up to a downpour!  Hoping it would quit soon and we wouldn't have to ride in the rain, we killed time staring at the map in the refuge.  Luckily, especially this summer, the rain totally quit at about 10:00 and didn't start up again for the rest of the day.  We left Le Gorge du Notre Dame and headed towards Les Contamines Montjoie.  We veered right at the town of Le Cugnon to meet up with a trail marked on our map as T.P.M.B.  The guide's blog that we were following for most of the journey simply said that they climb from Contamines to the Chalets de Miage refuge to start off the day.  I can't say what route the guide normally takes, but I am 100% positive it is not the route that we took!  We ended up essentially bushwhacking our way through the woods trying to find the T.P.M.B trail.  Bucky kept making comments along the lines of, "Hey, did you know they filmed Gorillas in the Mist here?"  And a little later, "Hey, did you know they filmed Jurassic Park here?"  Even if we weren't exactly on the right route, it was worthwhile to see so much Hollywood history in one small area of France!  

The pretty Chalet du Truc

We did, eventually, find the T.P.M.B trail after about an hour of hiking and made good time to the Chalets de Miage.  The Miage valley was absolutely gorgeous.  If you are coming to the French Alps just to sightsee, you need to go here.  We grabbed a quick lunch (and no pictures) and continued down a really technical singletrack to the town of Bionnassay.  I managed to endo once again, but at least I didn't land on my head and fractured helmet!  From Bionnassay we had one last climb, but boy was it a DOOZY!  I was in granny gear for almost the whole thing, and even that wasn't enough.  I probably walked about 25% of the thing.  Bucky, however, managed to ride all they way up to the Col de Voza.  From here it was a long descent to Les Houches, then a very gradual climb on paved roads just a few miles back to Chamonix, hot showers, and our own beds!  Les Houches has

Finally found the T.P.M.B!

spent the last few years developing their downhill MTB trails so I was excited to give them a whirl.  While we did manage to ride a short section of one of them (and man was it cool.  There was a Northshore bridge feature that was probably about 8" wide at the narrowest spanning a gully about 15 ft deep and then ended in some huge banked wooden "S" turns, but I digress) the next section of the trail was closed, and all the others below that!  Unfortunately we had to descend the majority on the road, but I will come back to try out some more of those Northshore features at a later date!  We arrived back in Chamonix after six hours, our easy day being a bit more difficult than expected.  The whole journey was about 160 miles, with about 27,000 feet of elevation gain, and about 29 hours of total ride time!  With all of that riding, especially on hard tails, I think it was pretty miraculous that we only had two broken bike parts, two flat tires, and one broken helmet!  Bucky and I agree that in order to ride the Tour du Mont Blanc, you have to go into it expecting an epic adventure, and not epic mountain biking.  There were a few fun climbs, and a few really fun descents, but the majority of the time you are on roads, either paved or dirt, and there is a substantial amount of hiking involved.  With the right attitude, however, you can have a grand ol' time; just like we did!

Check out the video of the journey here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Youtube

8/18/14 - Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 3

If you missed day 2 click here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 2

It was a really good feeling, waking up ready to ride on day 3.  The only bad thing was that we had a long, long way to go before we were back on our original schedule.  We rode down on the pavement from Refugio Elena to Courmayeur.  At this point we were essentially directly opposite from Chamonix with Mont Blanc between us and home.  After getting a little lost in Courmayeur we managed to find the road to Val Veny.  At this point we began the longest climb of the whole journey.  From Courmayeur to the Col de la Seigne is an elevation gain of 1390m (4560 ft)!  At around noon we passed the Refugio Elizabetta, meaning we were only 3 hours behind our original schedule.  Upon reaching the Col de la Seigne, and the border between Italy and France, we were looking forward to what many people had described as the best descent of the whole journey.  The descent did not disappoint.  Sometimes technical and tough, sometimes fast and flowy, the ride had everything.  We flew down to the town of Les Chapieux and had a quick lunch.  Next we left the hiking route of the TMB because it is too steep for bikes and began the climb to the Cormet de Roselend.  Although the climb is entirely on paved

Col de la Seigne, border between Italy and France

road it is still cool because the climb has been featured in many years of the Tour de France.  I think Bucky climbed the thing as fast as the tour riders do, even on a mountain bike.  Every time I looked up he was further down the road and I was getting more and more drenched in sweat!  From the Cormet de Roselend it was a fast descent down the road to Lac de Roselend, where we hoped to find a market to replenish our snacks and water.  We were very sorry to find that we could not replenish our snacks, but we ended up having a second lunch at a small cafe and at least getting our water refilled.  The next section, from Lac de Roselend to the Col du Gittaz looked very daunting on the map.  The topo lines are so close together through this section I thought for sure we were going to be hiking the whole thing.  At this point we had already been riding for 7 hours and we only had three hours to make it to Le Gorge de Notre Dame, the location of our refuge, before they served dinner.  We also had three passes and about 1300m (4265 ft) of climbing to go!  We made it up over the first pass and found our path blocked by a large herd of cattle lining up to get milked.  We had to pass over a series of electrically charged fences (without getting shocked, thank God) and continued on our way.  As we descended to the Lac de la Gittaz we could see the road that we were supposed to end up on, and it seemed the trail we were on was heading in the opposite direction.  I climbed up a side path to peek over a knoll and see if the trail we were on doubled back around or if we had taken a wrong turn somewhere.  Upon finding that we were indeed headed in the right direction I attempted to ride down the very steep hillside back to the trail.  I was nearly successful, but ended up endo'ing near the bottom and landed with my head on a rock and my shoulder in a cow pie.  Besides the smell I had only suffered some small cuts and bruises so I continued riding without thinking much about it.  We began the climb up to the Col du Gittaz and found that the road had a lot more switchbacks than were shown on the map, so even though it was quite steep, it was all rideable.  I managed to ignore the pain I was in by imagining myself in a hot tub, in February, in Vail, with a bottle of rye whiskey, some beer, and a beautiful woman.  Somehow that managed to get me through the arduous slog.  

Lucky Cows

I awoke from my reverie near the top to find that the road ended and we had to hike our bikes up a trail that seemed to have been used exclusively by cattle for time unending.  Upon passing some of said cattle, Bucky quiped, "You don't know how lucky you have it cows, you could be living in Nebraska!"  Instead they were living in a place that could only remind someone of The Sound of Music.  At the top of the Col du Gittaz Bucky looked at me and said, "Was your helmet always cracked?"
"No." I said.                                      "Well it is now!"                                I certainly wasn't concussed at all by the little spill I took, but apparently my helmet is not quite as hard as my head.  Anyway, from the Col du Gittaz we had a short but very fun descent (I thought the best of the journey, Bucky voted for the Col de la Seigne) before we started climbing again to the Col du Joly.  Luckily this was a very short (2km, 100m) climb and we arrived at the top at about 7:15pm.  At the top of the Col du Joly we entered the boundary of Les Contamines Montjoie ski area and found an extremely fun downhill MTB specific trail to take us all the way in to town.  We made our way to the refuge at 7:40pm after 11:10 hours of biking, but we had made up all of the time we had lost by the broken bike shenanigans on days 1 and 2!  The next best part was that the refuge didn't hold to the serving dinner at 7:00pm sharp rule so we were even able to eat!

Check out the video of the journey here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Youtube

8/17/14 - Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 2

If you missed day one, you can find it here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Day 1

So, we ended day one about an hour and a half from where we were planning on finishing, and we had a broken bike!  We asked the the people who ran the refuge (Plein Air, an awesome little place with awesome big dinners!) if there was a bike shop in town.  They said no, but maybe the sport shop in town would sell bike stuff.  If they didn't have what we needed they were at a total loss.  Apparently in Switzerland on Sundays, everything is closed.  They knew there were bike shops in Orsieres and Martigny, both relatively close, but they also knew they would be closed.  Upon further questioning they said that maybe the bike shops would be open in Verbier, since it was a resort town they actually kept stores open on Sundays.  The first thing we did, though, was wait for the sport shop to open at nine and see if they had anything.  We were met with a resounding no.  Our only option at this point was to head to Verbier.  We looked up some shops online and called to verify they were indeed open.  Their being open, and having Specialized repair parts, meant we had to find a way to get to Verbier!  We found that we needed to take a bus, two trains, and a gondola!  While we were waiting for the bus we discovered that it wasn't just the derailleur hanger that was broken, it was the derailleur as well.  This meant a much more expensive repair, but we had to do it if we wanted to continue.  We arrived in Verbier, got Bucky's bike all fixed up (for 200 euros), had some lunch, and started day 2 of the Tour du Mont Blanc!  It was about 1:30 in the afternoon, and we were about 27 km (18 miles) off track, but we were fit and healthy with fully functional equipment!  You really can't ask for more than that!  It was a long ride on the road, but we made it to La Fouly, CH (where we planned on finishing day 1) at 4 pm; 7 hours behind schedule!  We knew at that point we weren't going to make it to our planned destination for day 2, Refugio Elizabetta Soldini, but we would go as far as we could.  From La Fouly we had to climb the second big pass of the journey, the Grand Col Ferret.  Many people had told us that this climb would take three hours and involve a lot of hiking, so we were just hoping to make it to a refuge before dark!

It ended up only taking us an hour and a half and we found most of it rideable, so I don't know what those guys were talking about.  At the summit of the Col we crossed over from Switzerland into Italy and the quality of the trail maintenance between the two countries was striking.  The Italian side wasn't really all that bad, but they used these tall, thin, and sharp granite rocks to direct water off the path, which made mountain biking down much less fun.  About 10 minutes in to the descent these diversions also caused me to get a pinch flat and crash my bike!  A quick tube change, however, and we finished the descent to the Refugio Elena.  Once again, we had barely made it to the refuge in time for dinner!  Even though we were way behind schedule, I was confident we would make up a lot of time on day three.  We would be starting right after breakfast, with two healthy bodies, and two working bikes for the first time of the journey!
Check out the video of the trip here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Youtube

8/16/14 - Tour du Mont Blanc, Day 1

One of our major goals of the summer was to ride our bikes on the Tour du Mont Blanc.  With a favorable weather forecast for the next three days we decided to give it a go now.  On day one we had some last minute planning, packing, and purchasing to do.  Our plan for day one was to ride to La Fouly in Switzerland.  This would be conquering days one and two from a guide's itinerary that we were trying to follow.  This meant we had about 80km (50 miles) of riding and 2925m (9600 ft) of climbing to go.  With a noon start, we decided to bypass the Petite Balcon Nord trail to Le Tour and just take the road.  At Le Tour we took a bump up the gondola, the only mechanical assist we were planning on getting.  From the Col de Balme we headed down in to Switzerland.  The really nice thing about following the TMB trail in Switzerland is that they have two routes, one for hikers, and one for bikers.  The biking route is clearly marked, which makes the route finding so much easier.  The descent from Col de Balme to Trient was rocky and rooty and fun.  There were a few sections that were smooth and fast too.  From Trient we had the first pass to conquer over the Col de la Forclaz.  This was a relatively easy ride up the old dirt road, zig zagging with the new highway.  From the Col the hiking trail goes East in a more or less direct route to Champex-Lac.  We were told by a woman we met here that if you take your bike on this section of the TMB you were in for a 3 hr hike-a-bike.  The biking route we planned to follow goes down the road to Martigny (a loss of 1026m!) and then back up to Champex-Lac.  On the way up towards Champex-Lac I saw a hiking sign that said Champex-Lac was 4 hrs up the road.  Rather than riding the highway I thought it would be nice to take the side roads.  We made the turn and headed up the road.  We came to a fork where it was somewhat unclear which way we were supposed to go.  Bucky thought left, and we went that way for a little bit.  When the road went from a paved road to a double track and there was a mail box I assumed this was someone's driveway, a dead end, and the right fork was the way to go.  We went up the right fork and climbed very steeply for about an hour.  At that point we came across some guys hunting for mushrooms and asked if we were on the right road to Champex-Lac.  None of them spoke English, so the communication mostly involved hand gestures, but we got the idea that we were indeed on the wrong road and that there was no way to get back on the right track without going all the way back down to the bottom!  We were certainly disappointed, but we thought that there must be a trail or something from the end of the road we were on up to the TMB hiking trail, despite the men's assurances there was not.  We found exactly where we were on the map and realized we were very close to the end of the road so we decided just to explore for ourselves.  We got to a switchback that had a singletrack trail leading away in the direction of the TMB so we headed down it.  Not 10m down the trail Bucky ran over a stick that got caught in his wheel, spun around, jammed on his derailleur, and snapped the hanger right off!  At this point I thought it would be prudent to roll back the way we came to Martigny and find a bike shop.  Bucky thought we were headed to the TMB, which was a hike-a-bike anyway, and we would find a bike shop in Champex-Lac.  We went with Bucky this time and hiked on down the trail, which promptly came to a dead end at a 20 ft drop into a creek.  We noticed a bunch of heavy anchors on our side of the creek, as well as a trail that headed up the other way, and determined that there used to be a bridge, but the bridge was long gone.  We explored a little trying to get down to the creek, but couldn't find an easy way and decided to head back and hike up to the end of the road and see if there was a trail there.  On the way we came across some hikers who told us there was definitely a trail that connected to the TMB.  With that good news in our pockets we hiked on and on and on and on, up a very steep trail that was heading West, when we wanted to be heading South.  After about 2 hrs of hiking we finally arrived at the junction with the TMB!  We took off Bucky's derailleur and chain and figured he could roll all the downhill and hike the uphill.  We also decided that I should take all the tools and pump and charge down the trail and try to get us a refuge in Champex-Lac before 7pm so I could get us some dinner.  After I charge the downhill I met up with the road and started climbing the last few hundred meters up the road to Champex-Lac.  With the slower pace and the smooth paved road I heard my phone buzzing.  I missed the call, but I checked my missed call log and saw that I had missed about twenty calls from Bucky in the last twenty minutes!  Apparently, about a minute after we split ways, he t-boned a rock and got a flat.  Since I had the pump he was walking all the downhill now too!  I was too far down the road to go back, so I rode on to Champex-Lac and found us a refuge.  When I told our story to the lady running the refuge she said her husband could definitely go pick Bucky up!  He was about 6km down the road when we got to him, a very short drive, but it would have been a very long walk!  The best part of it all was that we made it in time for dinner!  Day one was in the books, we were about an hour and a half away from where we had planned on going for the day, we had a broken bike, and the future of the trip was looking a little hazy.
Check out the video of the trip here:  Tour du Mont Blanc - Youtube

8/14/14 - Contamine Vaucher - Aiguille du Peigne

After it rained all day yesterday we decided to give the Contamine Vaucher route and the Aiguille du Peigne another go today in order to hopefully summit, but mostly retrieve our rope and some cordelette and carabiners that we had left on the last trip.  Unfortunately we found that the snow line from the storm yesterday was low.  Lower even than the start of the route we were attempting today.  For me this meant leading with bare hands, but climbing with the gloves on top rope in order to keep some feeling in my fingers.  Luckily I wasn't such a cotton-headed-ninny-muggins and remembered to actually bring gloves today!  Some statistics for Bucky and I vs. the summit of the Aiguille du Peigne.
Total number of attempts: 3
Total number of routes attempted: 2
Total number of days it has rained/snowed while attempting to summit: 3
Total number of successful summits: ZERO!
We didn't summit, it snowed on us, it was really, really cold (numb fingers on snow/ice covered rock is never fun!), but we did retrieve all of the gear that we left on the route two days ago!  We have some unfinished business with the Aiguille du Peigne, but I am not planning on heading back there until we have a nice, sunny, clear forecast!

8/12/14 - Contamine Vaucher - Aiguille du Peigne

When life was good, before we got lost,
and before it started to rain

We just can't  just can't get enough of the Aiguille do Peigne.  It shut us down the first time we tried to summit on the normal route do to miserable route finding on our part.  We went back today to try the Contamine Vaucher route (6a, 400m) and totally redeem ourselves.  Unfortunately that did not happen.  We were going great, having a blast, the sun was out, and the route finding was easy.  Then we got to the tenth pitch.  I was leading and it looked from the topos that the route went up to the left.  As soon as I got up about half way, however, I could tell we had gone off course.  I found an emergency rappel set-up that someone else had used and lowered back down to Bucky.  Then I went up to the right on the second try and got to a wicked hard overhang with no where to place pro, so I down climbed to yet another emergency style rappel set-up and Bucky lowered me back again.  At this point we had been at the same belay for an hour!  There was one more route up the middle that Bucky thought looked promising, so we switched places and he took the lead.  He climbed up to the left, following the route I first took, but then went one crack system to the right from where I tried.  He went further than I did on my first attempt, but still got to a very tricky section that made him feel like it was the wrong way.  I lowered him down to a ledge up high and he gave it another try one more crack system to the right.  This new crack system only led him exactly to the place he had just been.  We thought that maybe this was not the correct route, but Bucky thought we could climb it and maybe things would clear up once we got over the next hump.  This time I took the lead and boy, was that pitch a doozy.  We could see a purple sling hanging off the rock up above us so we decided to make for it.  After some foot smearing on very slabby rock with virtually no hand holds I came to an overhang with a nice crack.  I managed to get a piece of pro in the crack which made me feel much more confident about the move, and, tricky as it was, I managed to get over without any hiccups.  From there the pitch only got harder.  After some more slabs I got to another very challenging overhang.  The purple sling was right at the top of this overhang.  Once again, it was very slabby for the feet with a crack for the hands.  This crack was not very nice.  It was wet and slimy and very difficult to get any purchase with the hands.  There was a jammed hex that I managed to clip while basically doing the splits between two opposing faces.  Next I moved slowly up to a jammed cam.  From there it was trying to smear the feet with my left hand jammed in the slimy crack while I reached with my right up to a nice big jug!  As difficult as the move was, it was well protected with the fixed cam so it wasn't too dangerous.  When I got to the purple sling I hadn't yet used even half of the rope so I decided to try and climb up the next little section.  This one was sheer slab with a very wide crack in a dihedral.  We brought along a #3 cam which I started using as aid!  I would basically set the cam, move my feet up the slab, hope I was secure, then slide the cam up again.  I did this for about eight feet when the crack I was using disappeared and I said, "Screw this, I'm done!"  I am not one who is easily frightened by the idea of taking a fall, but I was scared.  I basically reversed the process back down until I was hanging off the purple sling where I set up a belay and had Bucky come up.  While completing the overhang right below the purple sling Bucky said, "Dang dude, this is scary!  That is an impressive lead!"  So at least it wasn't just me.  He wanted to climb up and take a look around the corner at the section I had bailed on, and after a few seconds we agreed that it was time to bail on our dreams of summiting.  We started rappelling down and everything went smoothly for the first few legs.  As we were pulling the rope through before our fourth rappel I noticed the tail of the rope had managed to somehow get a knot in it.  Try as we might, with all 350 lbs of force between the two of us, we could not pull that knot through the rappel ring.  The rappel route was different than the climbing route so in order to get it free we would have to climb up two pitches on the blue rope, to where the climb and rappel routes met, and then rappel one pitch down to where the red rope was stuck.  I was all for climbing back up and actually climbed the first pitch.  After that, though, Bucky said he would rather come back tomorrow, try again, and get the red rope then.  I was concerned that all the rappels might not be 30m, like the first few we had done, but I succumbed and lowered back down.

The very first rappel we did ended up being about 31 meters.  Bucky made it to the ends of the rope and could not reach the rap station.  He yelled up to me to tie a prusik knot on one side of the rope and clip it to my harness.  He lowered himself off the end of one rope while I held on to the other so he could reach the rap station.  In order for me to reach the station I extended my belay device with a double sling and then clipped another double sling onto my belay loop.  When I reached the ends of the rope I lowered one of the double slings to Bucky so he could clip me in to the rap station.  Then I slowly lowered myself off the end of the rope without the knot, while Bucky pulled on the double sling and brought me safely in to the station without too big of a fall!  After this sketchy scenario we decided to just try and find any rap station (the mountain side is literally littered with them) so we could make it to the bottom.  Some of these rappels were only ten meters long!  Soon enough, to add insult to injury, it started to downpour.  It didn't take long until we were both soaking wet.  Slowly zig zagging our way down the huge face from random rap station to random rap station while little cascades flowed past our feet!  By using this method we were able to rappel all the way down to the glacier without any more incidents.  By this point it was about 6:05, or five minutes until the last tram left the mid-station.  I was certain we were going to walk down, but Bucky said, "screw it, let's get down this glacier as fast as we can and just run.  Who knows?  We caught a tram once at 6:40, maybe it will happen again!"  So we pulled out our ice axes and glissaded very quickly down the glacier.  I was a nincompoop and forgot to bring gloves so my hands got pretty shredded by the snow.  As soon as we were on (relatively) flat and dry ground we ran!  We looked up and saw that a tram was coming down from the Aiguille du Midi, it was 6:30, the absolute latest we have ever seen the last tram was 6:30, and we were still about 15 minutes away from the mid station.  Bucky wanted to start walking, but my body was soaked and cold and the running was really warming me up so I just kept going.  I looked back and said, "You never know!  By the Grace of God there could be one more tram!"  At about 6:45, low and behold, another tram started coming down from the Midi!  This time we knew, as long as we kept running, we could make it to the mid-station before that tram did.  We rolled into the mid-station soaking wet and out of breath, but we made it!  Some people already there and waiting just looked at us, smiled, and said, "Oh! You guys are lucky too!"  Apparently there were some mechanical issues with the tram earlier on in the day, so they were running extra trams late to try and get everyone down off the mountain!  I don't know if we were the last one or not, but it sure felt good not to have to walk the 2 hours and 20 minutes all the way down to Chamonix!  I guess we are going back tomorrow, weather permitting, to retrieve the rope.

8/10/14 - Clocher Clochetons

The Route across the Clochetons

Ever since we got to France I have been intrigued by a climb that Bucky showed me in his 100 best climbs of Chamonix book.  It is called Clochers Clochetons (6a, 500m).  It's a relatively easy climb, but it has a unique feature that neither of us had ever done during a climb.  That feature is setting up and crossing a tyrolean traverse!  I had a lot of questions about just how the traverse would work, how we would lasso the iron peg, and how we would ultimately remove the traverse after we had both crossed.  We managed to figure out how we thought it should be done, but I was still curious about the lasso part.  Rather than doing just the traverse, however, we decided to do the Clocher climb up to the Clocheton traverse.  Neither was rated very difficult, but they were both estimated as three hour climbs, which, of course, could mean more like ten.  We got an early start and managed to be the first party on the route today!  This was a first time for us (except for when we have been the only party on the route) and ended up being a very good thing.  The party that started directly behind us was left behind very quickly.  We made it to the base of the Clocheton very quickly and easily with the exception of a 6a+ variant section that I led that managed to provide a challenge.

At the start of the traverse we ran into a party from Germany who had hiked all the way up.  Luckily we were able to get in front of them on the pitch and quickly outdistance them as well.  After the first pitch of the traverse came a 20m rappel, then a second pitch, then just what we had been waiting for.  The whole reason for doing the climb.  The tyrolean traverse!  The span was only about 10-12 ft long, and about 30 ft above the ground.  We put our plan in place and Bucky hucked a bunch of the rope clear across the gap.  After whipping it around a little bit he managed to get the rope over both pegs!  We tied figure 8's on a bite in each end and clipped them together as tight as we could manage.  Bucky put me on belay and I slowly eased myself over the edge.  The sag in the rope as I put my full weight on it was truly remarkable!  The traverse was totally unique.  As I pulled myself up onto the ledge on the other side I was super jazzed.  I have done tyroleans before, but this was just such a cool experience doing it high in the mountains on our own set-up.  After Bucky made it across it was a matter of a couple more pitches, a couple more rappels, some down climbing and we were on a trail headed back to the tram station.  We have really dramatically improved our time vs. the guide books estimated times these last few trips.  Today we were over an hour faster than the estimate in the guide book!  These last few experiences have provided me with much more confidence in trying to go for some of the bigger day trips in the guide books.  As a matter of fact, if the weather cooperates, we are going to attempt one of our biggest goals of the summer later this week.  The Frendo Spur!  More details to come later on that.  I once again brought along the GoPro, check out the video here:  Clocher Clochetons - Youtube

8/8/14 - Forbes Arete

The Route, up the left side, down the right

Bucky on the summit of the Aiguille Chardonnet

The weather forecast for yesterday looked iffy. The weather forecast for today, however, looked fantastic.  In light of this Bucky and I decided to do a very short day of climbing yesterday at the Aiguilles Rouges crag and then catch a bus to Le Tour and head up to the base of the Aiguille Chardonnet and camp the night.  The plan for today was to get up early and attempt a very long mixed alpine route.  The ascent involved about two hours of glacier travel, then about two hours of steep snow and ice climbing, then about two hours of a ridge traverse with rock and snow.  I was excited to get the crampons back on again after such a long hiatus.  The morning up at the Aiguilles Rouges was awesome.  I started by leading a 6a+, then Bucky led a 6b, then I led a 6b (my first sport lead of that difficulty!) then Bucky put up a 6c, which I managed to follow on top rope.  That was the most difficult pitch of this trip for both of us!  We cut the day short and went back to the flat to pack up for the overnight stay near the Albert 1er hut.  After an hour long bus ride to Le Tour we began the two hour hike up to the Tour glacier.  There was some beautiful scenery along the way, but I couldn't help but notice some ominous looking clouds rolling in right about the time we got to the hut.  I told Bucky we needed to get a move on, so we quickly found our campsite and about half way through setting up the tent the rain started.  Not too hard, mind you, but a steady drizzle.  While we were still setting up and getting ready to cook dinner the drizzle turned into full on rain.  We ended up cooking dinner inside the tent with all the vents open!  All night the rain continued until I passed out at about 9:30.  Upon waking at 3:00 we looked out the tent flap to see clear skies and a beautiful red moon.  After groggily getting ready to climb we hit the trail at about 3:45.

We tried to follow the cairns, and eventually the foot tracks through the glacier, but we missed a turn at some point and ended up adding about 30 minutes on to our approach.  The guide book says this climb is supposed to take about 8-9 hours roundtrip, and due to our previous experience I could only assume this meant it was going to take us about 12 hours.  This 30 minute delay left me certain that we were going to miss the last lift down of the day.  The walk down isn't nearly as bad as that from the Plan de l'Aiguille, but it still made me sad.  Every other party on the Forbes Arete route was way ahead of us, but by the time the sun rose (breathtakingly!) we had made up quite a bit of ground.  So much so, in fact, that we had passed two parties before we even got to the ridge crest!  Bucky and I agree that snow and ice climbing in the 30° to 75° is our jam!  Both on Mont Blanc and now this route we have just crushed the time estimate.  The ridge line was mostly distinguished by some really fun climbing, that we accomplished really slowly.  We would climb through a section then wait for the parties in front of us.  Then on and on again until we made it up and over the summit, down the descent route and on to the glacier below before we could go our own pace again.  Even with the wrong approach and waiting for parties on the ridge we ended up finishing the route in 8 hrs and 40 minutes round trip from the hut.  As this was actually withing the estimated time range I was shocked.  Most importantly, however, we made it back to the lift in time to ride down!  The Forbes Arete was a very fun route, and the Tour glacier area is very beautiful.  There are many more routes in the area so we will be back.  Last note on our day today.  The bus ride back to Chamonix.  Oh, man.  The bus totally filled up at the end of the line in Le Tour and proceeded to be jammed even tighter by one or two people at every bus stop between there and Chamonix.  Bucky commented that the bus ride home was the hardest thing we did today.  It didn't help that we had to stand in our mountaineering boots after a long day in the "sultry" heat with a whole bunch of other climbers with BO just as bad as ours!  I digress.  Looks like rain the next few days, but we will probably find something fun to do.

8/6/14 - Caillet

After such a big day yesterday Bucky and I managed to sleep in until 9 this morning.  Then we putz'd around for a little while, then I laid back down and started reading and promptly fell asleep again.  I woke up at noon to Bucky asking what in the world I wanted to do because it was such a beautiful day!  I replied that I felt up for some cragging or a bike ride.  We agreed on bike ride and Bucky went off to run some errands while I planned the bike ride as well as the upcoming trip to the Dolomites at the beginning of September.  After some more putzing about we finally began our bike ride at 7:20.  I decided that we should attempt the Caillet trail.  The introduction to the trail in our guide book goes like this:
"Start off at the microbrewery then head uphill on a long, steepening drag that will sap your energy and have you stuffing in Powerbars until your teeth turn to mush!"
Both the climb and descent are rated 8/10, the most difficult ratings in the entire book, but it is also only 7.1km long.  Otherwise known as a real doozy!  The climb starts out pretty steep, and then it gets steeper.  I was in granny gear and thinking that I wouldn't be able to handle 600m of elevation gain at this rate.  Luckily, soon after I started this thought train the slope slacked off and turned into a really manageable climb.  I honestly thought I was going to be walking the climb based on the description, but I have to say, the Chamonix Classic was a much more difficult climb despite the 5/10 rating.  After about 50 minutes of climbing we arrived at the Caillet Chalet drenched in sweat.  We had come up to the Caillet once before while running.  That time it took us 37 minutes and we were also drenched in sweat.  Last time the guardian of the chalet told us we were crazy and that the record for running, as far as she knew, was 30 minutes.  We actually ran up the trail we were about to descend on and from my memory I knew it was going to be technical and steep.  This time when we got there I think she remembered us because she smiled and immediately started using English to chat.  After a brief interlude we prepared to descend.  I tried to turn on the GoPro and for whatever reason it refused to work.  So unfortunately for those of you who enjoy my videos (thinking of you Kake!), there will not be one for this trip.  It is really unfortunate because it would have been a good one too.  Full of endos and various slide-outs and other mishaps.  About 3/4 of the way down Bucky endoed off the trail on the downhill side.  He managed to start the fall feet first but was quickly cartwheeled down and around, smashing his back and ankles (I don't know how) into a tree and ultimately landing in a thorny bush.  I was waiting down the trail a little way at the time so I missed the crash, but I did hear groaning in the aftermath.  Looking up I watched as Bucky slowly gathered himself and trudged back up to the trail and his bike.  He assured me that we was OK and had me check out the locations of his various pains after riding down.  He managed to sustain a few scratches, bruises, and some sort of allergic reaction to the thorns, mere flesh wounds.  The rest of the way down was pretty uneventful as the trail started to mellow out the closer it got to town.  All in all, it was a good trail, not great, and only about 1.5 hours so it will be good for a supplement to a short climbing day.

8/5/14 - Aiguille du Peigne

The weather forecasts have recently gone from bad to mediocre.  I think this has led Bucky to be extra aggressive in the climbs he wants to pursue.  When Bucky and I climbed with our guide Adam a little while ago, we talked about the Matterhorn and whether or not we could still do it with the hut closed.  Adam thought about it a little and said, "Yes, if you can do the Aiguille du Peigne by the normal route in 8 hours, I think you could do the Matterhorn."  So, with a mediocre weather forecast Bucky was all pumped up to make an attempt.  I don't know what the deal is, but I think we are cursed.  Every time we have gotten up extra early to catch the 6:30 tram for a big day, it's not open.  Every.  Time.  Yesterday was no different.  We got up early, got to the tram station at 6:45, and found a long line of people and no trams running.  They opened the tram at 7:20 and we ended up at the mid-station to start the route at 8:00, instead of the hoped for 7:00.  As soon as this happened I told Bucky there was no way we weren't walking down.  Call me a pessimist, but I figured if Adam mentioned 8 hrs with a smirk, I automatically assumed it was going to take us 12 hrs the first time we tried.  The weather was mostly cloudy when we started, but we had no reason to think anything of it.  The normal route starts by going up the descent route of the Papillons ridge, which we were familiar with from before, so we quickly made the ascent to the top in about two hours.  One of our many guide books says that from this point to the top of the Aiguille du Peigne takes two to three hours.  As a result I started to think we had a hope of finishing the route in the allotted eight hours, and even more importantly, make the last tram down at the end of the day!  From the top of the Papillons Ridge to the Aiguille is a third class, man-made looking, ramp.  We ascended this in a hurry and then all our problems began.  Once at the bottom of the North face of the Aiguille we noticed that the topo of the route we had planned on (originally not the normal route) looked nothing like what was presented to us.  We got to the bottom of a crack that we thought looked closest to what was on the topo, and found it dripping wet and mossy.  If you have tried to do any steep crack climbing before, you know that these conditions make it nearly impossible.  So after climbing up a little ways, Bucky came back down and we headed up a sandy, chossy, train wreck of a chute to try and find the normal route.  According to the topo, the normal route looked like it was around a small corner at the top of a "breach" below the Col du Peigne (a col is like a pass, but more like the top of a couloir, at a low point on a ridge.  I don't know if we have an equivalent word in English).  We saw what we thought was the top of the Col du Peigne, and something that we thought could have been the "breach" as we turned the corner from the North face to the North-West face, so we thought we were on the right track.  The guide book described the normal route as rated around 4/4+ (or 5.6-7) and the author also says much of it is down climbed on the descent.  So we were looking for a relatively easy and simple route to the top.

This was the only picture I took, not much to look at when
you are inside a cloud all day!

Around this same time the skies went from mostly cloudy to us inside of a cloud.  So we don't really know where we are, and then we can't see any further up the face than 50' or so to tell if we are on the right track or not.  Under these circumstances Bucky tried heading up another promising route, but quickly determined that it was also not correct.  I thought a route to the left of where I was standing looked promising, but after another quick try at that we determined, once again, that this was not the normal route.  The only place to go from there was to, what we thought, was the top of the Col du Peigne.  We scrambled over and the cloud cleared for long enough that we were able to fairly certainly ascertain that we were indeed standing on the "breach", the Col du Peigne was off in the distance, and the normal route was just to our left!  After wasting probably two hours trying to find the route we were finally (almost) positive that we were in the right spot.  All of my hopes of making the last tram down, however, were dashed to pieces.  Rather than climb the normal route, we thought the South East arete looked like more fun so we stayed on the corner instead of heading diagonally up the face.  Bucky led the first pitch, then switched to me for the second, and so on until the fourth pitch, at which we were at a crossroads of sorts.  The route looked like it could go right or left.  With no apt description in the guide book, and all faith in the topo dashed, I decided to go to the right.  After a fun pitch with a couple of tricky moves, I came to a fixed belay point at the base of a huge overhang, with no easy way around.  I lingered there for awhile, trying to see if there was another way around, but ultimately just set up the belay and brought Bucky up to me.  While all of this was going on the cloud we were in just got thicker and thicker, the wind started to pick up, and little ice crystals started spitting around.  Even with a long sleeve, shell, and pants on I was pretty cold.  Bucky had a fleece, shell, and shorts, so when he got to the belay station, and I floated the idea of turning around and heading down, he did not resist.  I was so discouraged with all the route finding mishaps that one more and, combined with the weather and the time (we had been out for about six hours at this point), I was certainly ready to leave the summit as unfinished business for another day.  We rappelled down into the relative unknown with the idea that the normal route was not far below us.  The cloud would lighten a little now and again so that we could see what looked like it could be the normal route about 40 meters below.  Whether or not we were ever on the normal route, I don't think we could fairly determine.  There were slings and pitons and jammed cams and nuts strewn about all over the place!  From the landing zone of our fist rappel we were able to down climb a little bit until we got to another fixed belay with a rappel ring.  After this belay we found ourselves about 20 meters below the breach where we had started.  I scrambled up the fourth class gully to the top and the clouds had broken enough that I could see all the way down into the valley of Chamonix.  It looked glorious.  The sun was reflecting of L'Arve river, the grass was green, I could almost feel the warmth.  Then a hole opened up so that I could see straight across the valley to the Brevant side, where it also looked sunny and warm.  I joked with Bucky when he got up there that the Aiguille du Peigne was just messing with us and trying to live up to it's name (Peigne is pronounced pain).  From the top of the breach we knew exaclty where we were again, and how to get down.  Eight hours had gone by from when we left the mid-station at 8:00 that morning and we still had almost the entire descent in front of us.  When we neared the top of the Papillons ridge section of the Aiguille we swore we could hear voices floating up to us through the clouds.  It being very late we were surprised there were other people wandering about.  At the bottom of the first rappel from the ridge we looked up and there was a British party heading up the ridge.  It being 6:20 at the time, the last tram leaving 10 minutes before, they were wisely planning on staying at the Aiguille d'Plan refuge.  Bucky and I, on the other hand, were once again walking the two hours, and 4,200 foot descent to Chamonix.  On the way down we ran into a chamois goat, or at least I think that is what it was after looking at some pictures online.  It was standing in the middle of the trail, staring us down, and blowing it's nose in a high pitched warning.  As we got closer I assumed it would run away; rather, it looked like it was going to charge!  I raised my arms above my head and yelled in the most bear like voice I could muster.  I am happy to say that the chamois backed down and did not decide to head butt me off the mountain!  At around 9:30 we stumbled into town, feeling haggard and very foot sore.  As soon as I sat down back at the apartment I did not want to get back up.  Leaving the packs still packed, the blog unwritten, and dinner uncooked, we went to very welcoming beds, resolved, now more than ever, to never miss a tram down again.

8/4/14 - Poeme a Lou

Working up the 2nd pitch (6a+)

Bucky was feeling a little aggressive yesterday.  He says to me, "you know, neither of us have really fallen on any route we've done yet, I think we need to challenge ourselves more."  So last night he picks out a route up the South face of the Brevant called Poeme a Lou (TD sup., 200 m, 6a+).  The route is only five pitches, but the first three are 6a+, 6a+, 6b, then a section of 6c+ that can be aided with a fixed rope.  I know we have climbed some single pitches of 6b, but I was nervous heading into it with so much sustained difficult climbing.  It didn't help matters that the forecast for today called for thunderstorms in the afternoon and it by the look of the clouds in the morning I thought the storm rolled in early.  Bucky remained undaunted and off we went.  I was not comfortable leading the 6a+, so Bucky led the first four pitches while I topped out the last pitch of 5c.  The first pitch was very long and very sustained.  After the pump fest of dry tooling yesterday both Bucky and I needed to take breaks mid-pitch to give our forearms a rest.  The second pitch was both easier and shorter, which was a nice reprieve.  The third pitch was the one I was most nervous about.  I have only climbed two pitches of 6b, both on top rope, and neither was easy.  Either I am getting stronger, or it was a little easier 6b, but I made it up without having to press off any bolts or grab on to and quickdraws!  It was still very difficult, and both of us needed to take breaks as we climbed.  The 6c+ traverse was a real doozy.  Unfortunately we don't have any pictures, but there was essentially an old, tattered, fixed rope that spanned about 10 feet across a 500' drop.  Needless to say, both Bucky and I were a little nervous as we crossed about the rope holding our weight!  It was really a spectacular move; like nothing we have done before.  I just wish we had some pictures.  The last two pitches were 6a and 5c and I have to say it felt so nice to feel comfortable on the rock.  I felt like I was near falling almost the whole time we were on the first three pitches.  Getting on that slightly easier terrain was like crawling under a warm blanket for me!  Thank God the weather held out the whole time; all we felt were a few sprinkles of rain.  We are now out on the deck, waiting for the half priced cheeseburger sale to start at the Monkey Bar.  I love half priced cheeseburger Mondays!

Resting my forearms on the pitch of 6b