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
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