Its such a lovely time to be in the alps. Autumn brings amazing colors, lovely warm soft light and the mountains are a bit quieter.
The Grands Jorrasses to Mont Blanc du Tacul 21/10/2017
The last few weekends have provided time to get outside, sunny rock climbing in Italy and also up into the high mountains at home in Chamonix. Revisiting old classic routes and looking at ideas for new ones. We had planned to climb Mont Blanc this weekend but the weather decided to change. After a sustained 3 week high pressure system of beautiful stable weather a storm has rolled in. But we did not let this completely ruin the weekend, linking two classic Chamonix easy access routes together to make a fun longer day out just before the rain and snow roll in was great fun - Traverse of Point Lachenal and Arete des Cosmiques. Both a fun easy mixed routes with easy access from the Aiguille du Midi lift.
Sanna cruising up a 6a+ accross the mountains in italy, the countryside looked like it was on fire with the Autumnal colour change.
We sat in awe drinking tea watching two climbers work a route called Digital Crack, its one of the worlds highest 8a rock climbs, the current hardest grade is 9c, but thats not at 3800m!
Pete making short work of the crux of Arete des Cosmiques
Carlton and Pete on Point Lachenal, the first of our routes today. Massive Seracs spilling from Mont Blanc du Tacul make you feel very small...
The summer has taken its toll yet again on the mountains. Sustained high temperatures and little precipitation has leave the glaciers sweating, receding. The lower part of the Tournier spur collapsed last week, leaving the spur 100,000 cubic meters of rock lighter... we are going to need a lot of snow to fill in some of the gaping crevasses.