Bucky and my final day of climbing in Chamonix! Somewhat sad, but man we got a lot done this summer! With a variable weather forecast I voted to climb on the Brevant side because the routes are shorter and fully equipped with pro. We picked a route that we had looked at in the guide book all summer, but hadn't gotten to yet. It was relatively short, 6 pitches, but it looked sustained. Three pitches are rated at 6a in the book, one at 6a+, one 5b, and one 5c. As we were getting our packs set I wanted to bring the two double ropes so we could bail easily just in case it rained. Bucky only wanted to bring the single rope. Bucky won this debate and we got on the gondola with one single 60m rope. As we rode up the gondola Bucky read the approach description and we realized that the route started at the top. It was designed to be rappelled to the bottom and then climbed back up, but we had no idea if we could do the rappel with
a 60m rope! We debated whether or not just to loop the gondola ride and go back to the flat to get the two doubles, but we thought we could find a way to hike down around the cliffs. If anything we thought we could leave some carabiners and rappel off of one bolt down the route we were going to ascend and then we could gather all our equipment on the way back up! There is a grassy ledge/escape route in the middle of the climb so instead of hiking to the top we decided to hike to the middle and rap down from there; thereby minimizing any gear that we might have to leave behind. The grassy ledge escape route was no easy task, we quickly discovered. There were some fixed ropes, thankfully, but getting across the ledge necessitated some pretty technical moves. We arrived at the belay station for the route we were
planning on climbing and started the rappel. Luckily there were rappel stations set up perfectly for a 60m rope and we didn't have to leave any gear behind! As we rappelled I noticed that the route was not nearly as steep as I was expecting, but it looked very slabby. I decided to take the lead on the first pitch (6a) so that Bucky would have to take the lead on the second (6a+). After leading 6b and following on 6c my confidence was shaken in the Dolomites leading what I am guessing was a 5c/6a route so I have been taking it easy. I nearly fell at one point doing a tricky traverse move, but managed to pull it out. Bucky led the 6a+ just fine. The next pitch was 5c and I expected to cruise up it no problem, but I was mistaken. About two bolts in to the pitch I was flummoxed! I had no idea how to get through the undercling/slabby/wide crack mess that I was presented with and actually grabbed onto my draw
to get through! On a 5c! That embarrassment behind me the rest of the pitch went swimmingly. I decided to combo pitches 3 and 4 since it was less than 60m and pitch 4 presented no problems. Bucky led pitch 5, which was graded as 6a in the guide book, but both of us agreed that it was easier than that. It was a steeper pitch, and there weren't great hand holds, but there were foot holds everywhere! Really solid ones! I took the lead on the last 6a pitch to the summit and found it much easier than I was expecting again. There were a few tricky moves, but they didn't take too long to figure out. When Bucky met me at the summit I just said, "maybe it is 6a, but the pitch perfectly coincided with all of my strengths as a climber, so that's why it felt so easy!" When we got to the summit the weather seemed to be holding steady, despite the forecast of rain, but it was about 2:00 which is really not enough time to go for another route, so we called it quits early and headed back to Cham.
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