A long-term goal

Climb The Eiger - I know it sounds mental but hear me out. It's not going to happen this year, or the next but in a few years time I'd like climb via the classic route. I read about it constantly and have been thinking about doing it for some months now. With the continuing climbing, the project to climb the Matterhorn next year, upcoming ice climbing and with more mountaineering than I currently do going backcountry with my snowboard as well as increasing levels of fitness and endurance it's a target - a goal - for the long term.

Of course it's going to be hard work and I need to keep improving my skill levels in lots of areas but all of that is starting to build up. There's a few years of training and climbing the mountains in the valley before making any steps planning it. I need more experience high up and to do lots of training summiting peaks around Chamonix over the next few years but that's something that is building up. Insofar as training venues, there are none better in the world than here and there's experience around every corner.

Maybe it'll never happen but maybe it will.

Waiting contd...

Forgot to mention this in the last post too:

1) Really looking forward to flying to the UK this weekend to see my family and wonderfully wicked nephew. Need to get a vignette for Merv the Swerve to go on the Swiss motorways - it's going to be our longest drive together. Road trip!
b) Sold the affiliate software, when the client returns from holiday getting a load of cash for that. Going to try to resell it over the interweb and a PayPal account which will cost me nothing.
4) Working with Crampons on the chalet helping getting it sorted for the clients this summer/winter
3) Working for Crampons looking after the guests this summer - something I'm quite looking forward to.

Things are looking extremely healthy and I'm wandering around happy.

Waiting

Just waiting for my contractors to pay me. It sucks this waiting period - the money's coming in and everything's going to be just fine so I can pay off a few outstanding bils and things. I've just spoken to them and they've said they're putting it through as we speak which is good. They've also said they want a huge load of work doing which is even better.

As the time passes in Cham I'm acutely aware that everything is in place for me to stay out here - happy and contented pushing myself mentally and physically in the mountains. With this new work, another contract coming up and a permanent job in a couple of months time it means that I'm finally on track for staying for a long while.

It's taken a while and the help of friends like Chris, Wardo, Crampons, Fred & Katy, Louise, Mark & Mimi and especially massive support from my parents - for which I'm eternally grateful to all. Over the next month I'll be buying a drink or two for them!

The summer months will be set for climbing - trying new and more varied pitches and next winter I'll be busy with the seasonnaire business, transfers and snowboarding. Life is starting to fill up a lot.

Friction climbing on granite at Barberine

Chris and I decided to continue our theme of doing something constructive with our Sundays so we went chipped off to the huge lump of granite at Barberine (Google Maps) a tiny village right next to the border of Switzerland. In the Google Maps link you can actually see the rock to the north-east. Funnily enough you walk from Barberine over a gushing mountain stream that is in fact the border, then climb the rock in Switzerland! Very cool and no customs officials in sight! Barberine is only a 20-30 minute drive from Chamonix through the Col des Montets, a mountain pass at the upper end of the valley.

The first sight of the rock was impressive. Under the blue skies and fluffy white clouds this immense monolith forged its way dominating the view. Small shrubs grew on every available ledge (probably down to the fact it faces south-west) and with the recent evening rain and daytime sun the rock was teeming with tufts of greenery. Our book of knowledge told us where to park the car and we duly did and set off on the short hike to the base where we would climb from.

Looking up at the granite towering up above ready to be climbed.


We stopped by the river marking the border after leaving picturesque Barberine and noticed that some people further down were using it for white-water rafting! With the heavy scent of meadow and woodland in the air, coupled with the warm sun we really felt like we were out on an adventure.

Chris looking over the river marking the French/Swiss border.


We made our way through a meadow and into the forest that the rock is surrounded by. There were endless Swiss kids on the lower slabs so Chris and I ventured further to our right and found a quieter area to have a snack and get ourselves sorted. We actually stopped at the start of the first pitch and had a sandwich.

Grabbing a bite at the bottom of the incredibly smooth first pitch.


Both Chris and I were amazed at the rock. It was our first time climbing on granite and there's virtually no cracks in it. Climbing granite is all about friction - as much surface area you can get on the rock to work your way up. There's the odd crack wide enough to maybe get a 1/2 inch of a couple of fingers, but mostly you try to read the slight curves of the rock to place your weight.

We zipped up the first pitch (6a) practicing hauling a rucksack after the lead climber. We're building up towards a big multi-pitch route on Brevent (a mountain overlooking Chamonix) so we decided to climb today with rucksacks and practice moving them around the rock. So far so good with no dropped bags! Initially both Chris and I took a few minutes of sliding and scrabbling to "get acquainted" with the granite with it being a lot more delicate type of climbing than we're used to! Up we went though and when we were all sorted moved up the second pitch (an easy 3b-ish) to the start of the crux pitch, the third.

By now we were well away from the schoolkids and in fact didn't see any other people at all until we returned down to the bottom. We truly felt like adventurers as we looked up the smooth dark rock and slowly climbed out of the forest and into the sun. The third pitch looked tricky (6a+) with it being vertical and with only a bare minimum of holds visible. I tied in to lead and worked my way up feeling surprisingly comfortable for most of the way. I placed around 5 quick draws and then started to feel my arms ache getting over one section. I didn't want to lose too much strength as we still had farther to go so I shimmeyed down and swapped with Chris, belaying him up. We were really using every available tiny hand and foot hold, as well as all the equipment to work our way up this pitch. Chris scrambled and slipped up to where I had gotten and then after a few minutes managed to work his way over the ledge! Great stuff! He carried on up to the anchor point another 10m or so further up and clipped himself in with a sling. I managed to get a shot of the pitch before seconding up.



I followed next retrieving the equipment and barring a small slip on the water dripping down the rock quickly made my way up over the crux of the pitch and up to Chris. Every ounce of effort was worth the view! Just incredible down the valley seeing the eastern end of the Aiguilles Rouge overlooking the Col and down towards Vallorcine. Truly awe-inspiring. We could even make out the small blue dot that was our van parked by the street in Barberine!

Looking towards the Aiguille Rouges in the distance with Barberine the tiny hamlet far below us.


Chris and I were really taken aback by the landscape. We stayed up there for more time than any other pitch so far and had a drink and a smoke. We were so pleased with each other and ourselves!

The boys up high!


Looking down the third pitch. The shelf you can see the rope resting ononly had a few thin cracks! The drop-off is the crux of the pitch.


So we stayed up there a while before abseiling back down to have a quick go at a very short but difficult single pitch on one of the very smooth slabs lower down. No dramas with the descent but on the next climb I led and had happily clipped in about 3 or 4 quick draws into bolts when things went a touch sketchy.

I clipped the next quick draw in and reached to clip in the rope and my foot just completely slipped on the smooth rock. I knew I was in for a "special moment" because the rope was slack - Chris was very rightly giving me enough rope to pull above my head and clip into the quick draw but my foot hold had given way at the worst possible moment. I started to fall backwards and the whole thing went slow motion. I looked over and saw the last quick draw I had placed disappearing upwards at a rather increased rate of knots and realised that I was going to continue to fall for the same amount again - the total fall distance being twice the distance from the last quick draw to the one I slipped trying to clip in. Of course there's a bit of stretch in the rope too and what with me not weighing exactly the same as Kate Moss I was going to give Chris at the bottom a bit of a pull too. Luckily I managed to back pedal faster than I can run on the flat forward and kept my body horizontal with my feet on the rock. Chris stopped the rope exactly as he should and got lifted a bit into the air, with the rope stretch and everything we nearly ended up on the same level!!

All was good though apart from a very minor bit of rope burn on one or two fingers. I was pleased to not panic too much too and organise myself as I was going down to be in the optimum position. Even more pleased that Chris was doing his job well and the all the equipment did as it should. My first major tumble and came out of it with only a bit of friction burn. Wicked.

We both climbed it again a couple of times (with no further incidents!) and then walked home through the forest and the meadow before bumping into one of the Chamonix bar owners who had been out hiking. We dropped him off at one of the local train stations with the very generous offer of a free pitcher or two of beer next time we go to his bar.

Chris in the meadow on the way home.


As I type now there are thunderstorms rolling around the Aiguilles Rouges and the Mont Blanc massif and the valley is trembling with the booming cannonade in the malevolent skies up above. I'm pleased to be inside after an epic day's adventuring watching the rain fall with a cup of tea.

Once more again, with feeling

Good day today - boshed a load of work this morning, sold some software, legged it down to the crag at Servoz for a spot of elevated fun and activity before heading back to the office. Plus I climbed with a new partner today - Brian who's an american lad that's been out here a while and a fellow geek. Turns out he's one seriously gnarly climber too. We decided to do a variant route to the top of the crag of the multi-pitch climb Crampons and I did yesterday.

Crampons, myself and Brian made light work of the starting 6a climb that we struggled with the other day (still can't figure out why) including whisking straight over the overhang with no probs first look. Very cool. With the longer rope we were using we were able to cut the 3 pitch climb to the top down to 2 and joined Brian perched on a ledge 10m below the top of the crag ready to have a look at a 6b pitch that would take us up to the top of the rock.

Crampons had a bash leading first up. I'm pleased he did because my arse was making noises like a dolphin due to the intimidating look of the pitch. Pretty much the whole thing was overhanging with wide holds putting enormous stresses through the arms. High up on the crag and in the beating sun with hands slippery with sweat just added more difficulty to an already hard climb. He managed to get 3 quick draws in before coming back down for some R & R. Beaten back by the rock. Brian went up next and got to the top before abseiling back down dangling on the end of the rope in mid air like bait on a fishing line. I couldn't not have a go and surprised myself by making it up to 4 quick draws. I really should have pushed myself further but my arms were getting really tired and with all the pressure going through my hands I was starting to feel like I could do the climb if I had more strength. Damnit - the first climb in weeks that I couldn't do. But I felt really good to have got to that stage and realised that only condition was preventing me, not the technicalities of the climb.

Crampons had a visit to the vet to attend to (his dogs, Crampons has had all his shots) and so abseiled down on the second rope whilst Brian and I remained up at our perch for Brian to have a go at an extremely overhanging 6c. No chance I was going to try it but I was happy to belay him so he could shimmey up. We needed to do a high-level traverse to get from our current anchor under the 6b to the anchor under the 6c about 8m to our left. That was pretty fun - delicate foot placements and working along the ledges with a little bit of climbing for good measure, lots of fun. Really strange to be working sideways over a big drop but we were all roped up and clipped into a couple of pitons. Brian even managed to snap a quick photo of me easing my way over to the starting ledge of the last pitch looking rather calm too!

Me on the traverse (click for a bigger image).


When Brian started the last climb I've never seen anyone close-up tackle such a difficult pitch so well - he worked his way over the huge overhang to the smaller overhang that led up the rest of the way smoothly easing past the difficulties with arms trembling with effort at the more strenuous parts. Hugely impressive and I was in awe as I belayed him from a rather uncomfortable sloping ledge under the overhang. Pleased to be part of the team!

We abseiled down swiftly then grabbed a beautifully cold beer at the bisto opposite the crag before coming back to Chamonix where the heavens decided to open! Good day.

Keep going up!

I've recently been doing quite a bit of climbing later afternoon/early evening. Good for working beforehand and it's nice and quiet. Normally it's Chris and I by ourselves but I've been climbing for the past 2 days with a mate Crampons. We're a pretty similar level to each other so it works well.

Explanation: On the French grading scale they rank the difficulty of a pitch with a number followed by a letter (then an optional + if the rank is slightly harder). So it starts at 1a, then 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, and so forth up to 8. It does go higher but I've never seen any 9's in books. An average climb would be around in the 4b, 4c, 5a, 5b territory. Above that and it starts getting harder with overhangs and minimal holds coming into the equation.

Yesterday we set off to the crag at Les Gaillands (Google Maps) for a quick climb - we intended on doing 3 pitches of around 5c to 6a. The first pitch ("L'arête des bûcherons" - 5c) was on a corner with a small chimney and it went OK. Just OK. A few sketchy moments coming over an overhang but managed it and sped up the chimney well.

The second pitch ("La Vipérine" - 5c) was spectacularly good. A small crack and needing precise footwork with some good strength needed. Really climbed it well balancing carefully and using good technique to really scale it quickly. Obviously the first pitch was needed as a warm up and after we both climbed the second pitch well Crampons suggested something a little trickier.

Here it is (move mouse over for the pitch route). It's taken over Crampons shoulder as we're looking for holds and route before we get stuck in. It's a 6a+ called "La Zig sans Zag".



A very cool pitch, really testing and exhilarating to climb. Technical but needing lots of strength with a two or three moves that really tested us. It marked a turning point in my mind to be able to do these harder routes and feeling much more confident about climbing on a different type of rock than normal. The pitch looked hard, it was hard and we still managed to get up - and well.

So today again late afternoon we grabbed our gear and headed down to the crag at Servoz (Google Maps). Crampons and I had the intention of doing a gnarly multi-pitch climb. Essentially a climb that's longer than the rope by a long way and requires 3 consecutive pitches to get to the top. The first pitch was a pretty tricky 6a, the second an easy but unprotected 3a and the third a technically difficult 5b. We'd looked in our climbing book showing the route up the crag, got our gear sorted out just so and then decided to set off.

The going was tough with an overhang to climb in the first pitch. There were good holds but for some reason Crampons and I made the going tougher than it needed to be. Up we went however and I reached the top of the first pitch feeling reasonably happy and helped Crampons sort out the rope for the next pitch as we hovered on a small ledge clipped into slings halfway up the face. I led up the second pitch after having clipped a quick draw into a bolt as protection and scurried quickly up to the start of the third pitch. Crampons duly followed then took over leading the last pitch up to the very top of the crag.

Me belaying Crampons up the second pitch. The chimney is the dark patch of rock in the top-right of the photo.


There was a small flake to put your right foot on at the start of the pitch and it was necessary to access the chimney by working around a pillar. This meant a left hand hold around one side of the pillar and moving your body into a position where you could reach around with the right hand to find a hold. As you were doing this your entire body was hanging over a vertical drop of some 300 feet straight down to the grass below. Hairy stuff! Safe enough with all the gear but it made my heart tick a little quicker than normal. The route from there up the chimney was littered with good holds and quick progress up to the top of the crag followed and then the deep exhaled breath of happy success! A truly awe-inspiring climb with delicate balance high above the ground. We sorted out the ropes and admired our manliness then abseiled down to the top of the second pitch dropping down into an overhanging chimney again got the heart going at a solid speedy rate. We re-organized the rope for the second abseil and down we went, then another organization for the final abseil. Minutes later we were down on the ground looking up, feeling exhilarated with ourselves and with big cheezy grins all round. I'm still smiling about it hours later.

Here's the crag and if you move your mouse over the photo and wait a sec, you can see our route up.



All in all a very good multi-pitch climb. Really pleased to feel like I've stretched myself a bit more in what can be done. Crampons was delighted too - he climbed and led very well and we did the whole climb safely and securely making sure to double and triple check the equipment at every stage. Awesome stuff!

Nice concept

I got sent a link to a website today, made me really chuckle. I like quirky websites - I think it appeals to my slightly weird nature. This website that an author is using to sell her book through has a really funky concept to it. I like that. It's given me an idea for doing a small site here using just a few web pages and a minimal amount of time.

Cheers to Wardo for the link.

Climbing the Aiguillette d'Argentiere

Click on any of the photos to bring up large ones.

The Aiguillette d'Argentiere.


Chris and I climbed the Aiguillette d'Argentiere today. Very cool. Decided to do something constructive with our Sunday. It's a pretty strenuous 1 ¼ hour hike to get there - especially carrying rope, harness, water, etc. There were the most amazing views of the valley on the way up and the weather held up well so we had sun and a few fluffy clouds all day.

Chris sitting on top of the Aiguillette.


We did a warm-up climb on one of the crags behind the Aiguillette then did a couple of pitches on the Aiguillette itself.

The first pitch Chris led, and the second I led. Wasn't easy I've got to say with an overhang and required some concentration at a few different stages. Managed to get over the overhang with a swift non-technical manouvre - hands together on a small 'jug' (a type of hold on the rock) then let my legs go hanging free mid-air and haul myself purely using arms over the lip onto a slab. Not really a smooth technique thing - a big grunt of effort and then lots of power. Happy with it though, got over it first time without falling! Was very pleased with the whole climb and even more pleased to lead it. Chris' lead today was it's usual graceful move up the rock and I felt pleased for once to feel like I held my own on the technical pitches and feel that I was also moving fluidly and smoothly. We're certainly working well as a team and really compliment each other well.

Move your mouse over the photo of the Aiguillette to see our two routes up.


Looking directly across the valley on the hike up. Argentiere on the valley floor with its glacier above it. Also visible is the Grands Montets on the right.


A very graceful, sure-footed ibex wandered around our bags on the rocks before disappearing off up a crag. In the background is Le Tour/Montroc and the Domaine du Balme ski area.


Here's the flickr photo set for the day.
Here's Chris's flickr photo set for the day.

78kg

Down to 78kg (12 ¼ stone) now. First time in a long time being consistently below 80kg. In London I weighed up around the 90kg (14 stone) marker. Way too much and looking at old photos I'd really piled it on without realising it.

Feeling a lot leaner than in previous years and it's cool to know that there's a load more to come off and that it's happening. Kinda groovy to feel muscle too where wobble previously used to exist.

Bruised knees

Was having a bath this evening and was trying to clean my dirty knees. Thought they were dirty at least until I realised that they're just covered in bruises from climbing and knocking against the rock. So duly got the arnica cream out and applied P for Plenty in the hope that they'll at least go back to some normal colour.

The bruises don't hurt at all - it only hurts where my knee was damaged before from snowboarding anyway so it's no bother - just a little weird to have playground knees again. I've noticed that I've got a good few bumps and bruises elsewhere from climbing as well, there's not much room for error up on the crags and they seem to just nip away at you when you have the small falls and when you knock yourself against the rock on the way up and down.

Should get sponsorship from Elastoplast =)

It's all good though, I climbed at Servoz yesterday with Chris and Louise from MountainGirl who runs a climbing company here. After a few words of technical advice I found I was climbing an immense amount better - smoothly and strongly tackling harder pitches. Chris and I also did our first multi-pitch climb where we went up more than one section of the crag. One person climbs up to a safe anchor point on the crag, then the other climbs up and past them to the next safe point and so on and so forth. It means you can climb any size rock face and are not as limited by the length of the rope.

It's good because it means we can tackle more stuff now and can do longer climbs rather than the briefer single pitch climbs. Also we're climbing that much better now that we're gaining experience slowly and our technique is getting much better. Watching Chris climb is pretty amazing as he fluidly moves up the rock, and I'm pleased that we compliment each other as we tackle and overcome what often looks daunting and difficult.