skykilo

Failure? Redefine success, my friend.

Coinceurs = jammers = NUTZ.

Trip: Chamonix-Aiguilles Rouges - Aiguille du Pouce, Voie Des Dalles Date: 9/22/2009 Trip Report: Cecile and I began our Chamonix sojourn with a bit of an epic. I usually do all my glacier travel in ski boots, so I had to buy some boots. I got some La Sportivas at Snell and we organized our affairs and it was already about 10 am. What to do? I thought the Arete des Cosmiques would be a good warmup. So we hopped on the telefreak and took a glacier walk. The scenery can't be beat. There were two Brits climbing the route, too. We were cutting it a bit close to catch the derniere benne, given that we hadn't started climbing until about noon. But hey, that's why they call it the Aiguille du Midi, n'est-ce pas? Some people never learn. I didn't take a topo or pay much attention. We followed the Brits and what looked like the easiest way and ended up in a horrendous shit couloir on the south side of the arete. They were having trouble so they let us pass. I climbed something that felt like real climbing - very fun - on the left of the couloir. Then I managed to find a belay in the midst of all the choss. One more pitch! What looked like a good pitch was a world of absolute shit rock. I was afraid of killing Cecile and the Brits. Finally, I found an exit on the right. There was a good, vertical corner with cracks. It was a little difficult in boots with some ice in the crack, but I thrutched up it well enough. Freedom! I belayed Cecile to me. Then one of the Brits asked her to leave them our rope. Cecile continued to the station while I belayed the first Brit. Minutes later, it's snowing pretty good, I'm shivering, Cecile's yelling at me from above to hurry up there and catch the last benne, while I'm keeping one of the Brits tight on belay; he tells me he's stuck and can't climb because his hands are frozen. Make a long story short, we spent the night atop the AdM. But we were set for acclimation! We decided to do some test runs in the Aiguilles Rouges. Flegere closed for the season, so we actually hiked from La Joux, a small village near Argentiere. Aiguille de l'Index The views of Chamonix and the Massif are quite nice. And if the telesiege is open, it's all of a 5 minute approach. But we had the whole area to ourselves. We spent the night below the Aiguille de l'Index to do another Rebuffat classic the next day: Aiguille du Pouce, Voie Des Dalles Again, we had the place to ourselves. Except for one of these guys: I think he's saying, "Your partner's a fucking idiot and he's going to drag you off route onto some 5.hard R slab climbing" Well it is the Voie Des Dalles, isn't it? We eventually found the magnificent crack system to get us through the slabs. We had lunch on a cozy block with views. That's right, Ivan, it was magnifique, formidable, impressionant! The descent was stimulating but not too difficult. Gear Notes: Route-finding goggles. Approach Notes: Telesiege de l'Index ou de la Randonnee.

Unfortunately, I'm going to work today. I was in France for ~15 days. Vive les vacances!

Trip: Chamonix-Envers Des Aiguilles - Aiguille de Roc, Pilier Sud Date: 9/24/2009 Trip Report: I hope to return to the Envers refuge uncountable times. Nous prenons le train! We took the last train for Montenvers after sleeping late and getting our things together. We'd had a big day in the Aiguilles Rouges the previous day. Cecile takes a ladder toward the Mer de Glace. The refuge was closed for the season. That doesn't mean you can't sleep there. We took an unfortunate amount of time to get water the next morning so we had a late start on the South Pillar. Piola's book calls it 500 m of climbing but it's more like 700 m, although some of it could definitely be simulclimbed. I cut steps on the glacier below the route; it was quite steep and icy. The first pitch is an awesome 5c OW/chimney crack extravaganza. I found the best fist jam I've ever had somewhere in there. The Mer de Glace makes quite the backdrop. And the granite is immaculate. The refuge and the Tour Rouge just above it are visible far below. Despite Piola's comment indicating otherwise, I found the upper part of the route to be quite sustained at the grade (lots of 5b/c, whatever that means? In my limited experience, 5c means harder than 6a and approximately as hard as 6b...) There's certainly more granite than there is skin on my fingertips and the backs of my hands. The route was characterized by really stimulating climbing, for me, because there would be a pitch of stellar crack/corner climbing, which would apparently disappear every time. But each time, a move to the left or right - sometimes made by faith - would find another good feature to follow. It was a lot of climbing. This is not the same TD grade as the TD grade on the Voie Rebuffat. I put us at one of our most difficult pitches just below the top: a beautiful, slightly overhanging corner. (Certainly harder than 5c, but avoidable too.) We finally finished the route just as it got dark. Couldn't find the "broad sloping terrace" to regain the south side during our nuit blanche of rappels, so we made rappel after rappel until we reached the glacier on the other side of the hut. Two rappels on ice and mud and some sketchy glacier glisse in our climbing shoes put us in position to have breakfast at the hut. But our boots, crampons, and axes were at the base of the South Pillar! (By the original plan, we were supposed to descend to the base of our route.) To make a long story short, I busted a move more difficult than anything on the route, protected only by one little nut, to regain our gear and avoid the glacier. Then we returned to Montenvers .... Gear Notes: Prenez vos coinceurs. Approach Notes: Trains and Ladders

Trip: Chamonix-Aiguille du Midi, Face Sud - Voie Rebuffat Date: 10/1/2009 Trip Report: The south face is the beautiful, obvious face. It's a choose-your-own-adventure TR! 1. It looks like a beautiful morning in Chamonix after the alarm rings at 7 am for the "alpine start." Do you: A. Make some coffee, B. Enjoy the view from the window, C. Eat yummy crêpes salées with sausage and eggs, D. Walk two blocks to the telepherique for the première benne, or E. All of the above? Hint! Here is the view from the window: ... but from another day, today it's nicer than that. Il fait tellement beau. Cecile got a little bit spanked on the first pitch, the 5b/c start from the right, with lots of traversing and some slab moves. There's a party ahead of us, a party behind us, and apparently 20 rabid teenagers are also rappeling to our location from the top instead of making the short glacier walk and climbing the first pitch. 2. What do you do? A. Bail, this is fucked. B. Chill, wait and see. The famed S crack with some mad double-rope steeze: I quit, this test is too easy. The only hard part is getting to class. The superb steep slab finish: Gear Notes: BUY THE PLANE TICKET!!! Approach Notes: BUY THE TRAM TICKET!!!

Hey Players, I'm flying home to Vancouver right now and I'd love to climb at Squamish on Sunday, 4 October. Please send emails to skykilo@(google's email domain!).com I have rack and rope and rove to read. Got to keep the Mont Blanc Massif/Gorge de la Jonte/Calanques mojo rising! Merci de votre reponse! Sky

It's pretty cheap and easy to catch a Greyhound from Squamish to Seattle. They stop by the drug store next to the Save-On Foods.

why leave the executables? try "delete C:\*" Mike, that'll work better.

Quit dropping the good doctor's name Paul, you fawking chestbeater.

Heard the same from Monika. She finally had luck when she called them. Have you tried the telephone?

Looks like some spectacular climbing!

Sounds kinda like what I heard from a boulderer at the Stawamus Chief Campground on Saturday night. Those guys don't use bolts!

PhDs are for loosers!

You should bike your ass up to Squamish and let's throw you on some granite, Jeff.

^^That seems like a sincere post from Raindawg with no vitriol. Bravo. As far as what some "big stud" climbers do and how that affects these bolting debates: it shouldn't matter at all, right? Would you want kids who play basketball and football to emulate a lot of the superstars in the NFL and NBA!? Retro 'd

Well, my condolences and amusement still apply, regardless of your partner's initials.

No rappels necessary. Does your partner have the initials NG? If so, sorry for your epic but hearing about it was hilarious.

Well the rock is so consistently good, guess that makes it fair.

Damn, bolts already scare me. I don't need to hear this! I get way more scared climbing on bolts than gear. I considered it irrational, but now....

Joseph, do you alpine climb? When I find myself in wild country on something where the climbing takes most of the day, I could really give a shit about ever pulling the rope. Ideally I'd always fire any pitch I lead in good form, neither hanging nor falling nor pulling gear, but if those things happen, so be it. The goal is to climb the mountain by a stimulating route; pulling the rope would be tossing the baby with the bathwater. Would you feel bad about using a tree? 'Cuz I'd monkey up a tree in a heartbeat to avoid some slabby moves that were me. Where is the nuance in your position? Why do so many climbers suck so bad at skiing? Why do so many skiers show no interest in climbing? Mother, mother, mother... what's going on? -A confused skier

Not that I can climb for shit, but I've never carried any chalk.

Google map - note the road Cougar Divide => Hadley Peak => Roosevelt Glacier Not far and much less glacier travel.

The route varies, depending on where you climb it and conditions. You can encounter vertical-to-overhanging ice for a very short while, or rambly 60 degree ice. The best approach right now is probably from the north, from Cougar Divide or Skyline Divide, given the late-season Coleman Glacier and the washout on Glacier Creek Road.

And that somehow makes it all better on the peninsula!? And don't you work at MRNP!? Don't get me started.... At least you're not in California yet, Porter.