Focus Mountaineering

Blustery Cairngorms Navigation

Saturday, September 26th, 2009

Back to work in the Northern Cairngorms last week where I was running a navigation course for Glenmore Lodge. We experienced some quite challenging days with very strong winds although we managed to stay dry for most of the week and it gave us an excellent opportunity to visit some of the lower more remote areas such as Glen Feshie. The team were super motivated and quickly picked up the core navigation skills required to lead me on a walk on the final day via some pretty obscure points (that I selected).

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Cordier Pillar Attempt

Monday, September 14th, 2009

I headed up to the Plan d’aiguille with Charlie on Saturday to climb the 650m Cordier Pillar route on the Aiguille des Grands Charmoz which provides 24 pitches of superb Chamonix granite climbing. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas and we caught the incoming unsettled conditions earlier than forecast. We found a superb bivi spot under a huge boulder which was just as well as it poured down for a couple of hours with a reported 3-4 cm of fresh snow at the midi. Starting up the route just after 0630, even our positive, willing attitude couldn’t hide the reality that the rock was soaking and all ledges were covered with wet snow, leaving a retreat from the top of the first pitch the only sensible option.

The coming week looks pretty grim in Cham with the freezing level plummeting and a fair bit of precipitation. Time to head home.

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Contamine-Mazeaud

Friday, September 11th, 2009

Earlier this week I climbed the Contamine-Mazeaud straight up the centre of the Tacul triangle. The guidebooks state that this mixed route is almost always in condition and it proved to be a good choice in current conditions. I’ve marked the route in red on the following picture – route finding doesn’t get much easier.

The ice and snow improved in quality with height allowing us to move together quickly on the large central snow field and getting us back at the Aiguille du Midi for 4 and down in Chamonix for tea – a major motivating factor after a cold, unplanned bivi in the Midi station last week.

The weather is still good in Chamonix at the moment although autumn is clearly around the corner with cooler mornings and evenings. The current good spell is due to break on Tuesday or Wednesday next week so I’d better get some more climbing done….

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Late Summer in the Alps

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I finally had enough of the poor excuse for a summer that we’ve had back home and headed out to the alps a couple of weeks ago. It’s blatantly apparent how warm and dry the summer alpine season has been. The fantastic, stable weather has been a welcome change but route choice has required careful consideration.

Despite there having been plenty of snowfall until the middle of the spring, there are now unusually large crevasses and bergshrunds making the approaches to many routes impossible or pretty ‘interesting’ as well as an increased risk of rock fall. As examples around Chamonix, the Frendo Spur, Rochefort Arete and Frontier Ridge have been climbed recently by very few parties but they are either bare or just dangerous with rock fall and certainly not in classic condition.

I’ve had a great time so far with rock routes around Chamonix having predominantly been the order of the trip as well as a trip to Switzerland to climb the South Ridge on the Lagginhorn. Having said that, there are objectively safe mixed routes in condition on the Mont Blanc du Tacul Triangle where we climbed two fantastic lines right up the centre of the face.

I’ll post more photos when I get a chance but in the interim, there should be more on Will’s blog.

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