The 2003 trip was to start with small climbs such as the Aiguille du Tour (Graded F) and work up to the SE ridge of the Tour Ronde (PD), possibly a longer traverse from the Torino refuge and perhaps Jungfrau (Graded PD+). The team was varying combinations of me, Matthew, James and Carl (Carl and James were doing a course with Icicle Mountaineering during the first week).
Sadly, most of our plans were undone by nature. The attempt on the Aiguille de Argentiere started off promisingly enough with an 8km morning walk along the valley from Chamonix and lunch in a sort of rock bar. The aim was to spend the afternoon gaining a couple of thousand metres and, if possible, to reach the Argentiere hut by nightfall. Initially we made pretty good progress although Matt, who had been very spritely in the morning, began to slow up a bit. We cleared the tree line and the ski lodges and things started to get a bit more wild.
The glacier had retreated and the route was totally unmarked in places. I wasted a little time on climbing an unprotected route before Matt spotted a marker going in a totally different direction. He "didn't think [the route I had been climbing] was that steep" largely because he wasn't the one climbing it. However, he was the one dodging the enormous rock which, I dislodged and which squashed my rucksack, snapped my ice axe in half and sprayed a rather good scotch all over the place.
Sadly for us night fell early because of a heavy bank of thick cloud coming in from Italy and we were forced to break out the bivvy bags about 2km short of the hut. This was the first time we had used the bags and we were not impressed. By dawn we were soaked and and freezing. What was worse, the weather showed no sign of lifting, and reluctantly I agreed to turn back. Alps one - us nil.
The Tour Noir and Mont Blanc du Tacul were out of condition because of the damage caused by a hot year with little snow and the final assault on Tour Ronde was stopped in its tracks by a 100kph wind coming in from Italy. Apart from a few minor, fairly untaxing, routes the two weeks were a bit of a wash out.
Sadly, most of our plans were undone by nature. The attempt on the Aiguille de Argentiere started off promisingly enough with an 8km morning walk along the valley from Chamonix and lunch in a sort of rock bar. The aim was to spend the afternoon gaining a couple of thousand metres and, if possible, to reach the Argentiere hut by nightfall. Initially we made pretty good progress although Matt, who had been very spritely in the morning, began to slow up a bit. We cleared the tree line and the ski lodges and things started to get a bit more wild.
The glacier had retreated and the route was totally unmarked in places. I wasted a little time on climbing an unprotected route before Matt spotted a marker going in a totally different direction. He "didn't think [the route I had been climbing] was that steep" largely because he wasn't the one climbing it. However, he was the one dodging the enormous rock which, I dislodged and which squashed my rucksack, snapped my ice axe in half and sprayed a rather good scotch all over the place.
Sadly for us night fell early because of a heavy bank of thick cloud coming in from Italy and we were forced to break out the bivvy bags about 2km short of the hut. This was the first time we had used the bags and we were not impressed. By dawn we were soaked and and freezing. What was worse, the weather showed no sign of lifting, and reluctantly I agreed to turn back. Alps one - us nil.
The Tour Noir and Mont Blanc du Tacul were out of condition because of the damage caused by a hot year with little snow and the final assault on Tour Ronde was stopped in its tracks by a 100kph wind coming in from Italy. Apart from a few minor, fairly untaxing, routes the two weeks were a bit of a wash out.
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