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You are here: Home > ClimbHome > France - Chamonix - Sep09
Site Last Updated: 02/Apr/2011
The trip to Chamonix was part of our training week with Icicle Mountaineering Co. for climbing the Matterhorn. Icicle are based in Chamonix and so the training is centred around this wonderful climbing & mountaineering area. We arrived a day before the course started in order to acclimatise as much as possible. A good introductory easy hike in the area at a good altitude is the Traversee plan de l’aiguille Montenvers. This hike starts from the Plan de Aiguille which is the halfway point up the Aiguille du Midi cable car.
The weather was fantastic, a very warm 25oC. We pushed it quite hard along a well trodden fairly busy path, arriving in 1.25 hrs. It wasn’t necessary to descend all the way to the Mer de Glace station so we sat on the hill overlooking the glacier and had lunch. What a fantastic spot to eat. After half an hour, we left at 1 pm and returned to the cable car station at 2 :15 pm. We then caught the cable car to the Aiguille de Midi & immediately embarked on to the Helbronner cable car that took us across the Geant glacier over to Pointe Helbronner in Italy. We arrived just in the nick of time as the return cable car leaves at 3 :30pm, so there was just enough time to take a few snaps and then enjoy the ride back. I stayed on the Aiguille du Midi for a further half an hour to acclimatise as much as possible and then was back down by late afternoon..
The final training day was a rock climbing day and we left at 08:30 for the ½hr drive to Vallorcine. There is parking just off the road at ‘La Reserve Naturelle des Aiguilles Rouges’. This was a lovely hour walk-in through partly wooded area which was quite welcome as again it was another warm day. This area has around 50 rock routes on limestone slab. Our first climb was a fantastic four pitch 80m route of 5c named 'Fete des Druides'. I really enjoyed it with wonderful fluid, pinchy moves. After abseiling down, we climbed on the pinnacle opposite ('Aiguille d'Argentiere') that towered above the valley; first along the easy right ridge and then the north face at 5c. These were again both fantastic climbs, particularly the latter.
The first real training day was up in the mountains above Brevant so after breakfast we left for the short drive to the Brevant cable car. We disembarked at the midway station at PlanPraz and then roped up for a short hike along a rocky ridge for about an hour. The weather was sunny with blue skies, the temperature still in the low 20’s. The rocky ridge is an easy scramble along a sharp edge that is a good indication of the type of scrambling required on the Matterhorn.
At one point on the ridge we then abseiled down to a wide path (serves as a cat ski trail in Winter) where we then practiced climbing back up the wall in Mountain boots. The grade was no more difficult than 5c, but this is a completely different scenario when not in rock shoes! After playing around on a few routes for a couple of hours we then continued back on to the ridge up to the Brevant cable car summit. We stayed for about an hour to rest and acclimatise further.
The following dayy was an early start leaving at 07:30 in order to catch the first cable car to the Auguille du Midi at 08:10. Our main goal today was further acclimatisation & fitness. Once at the station we geared up with crampons and ice axes and descended the snowy ridge into the glacial bowl. We hiked across the bowl (Vallée Blanche Traverse) passing over the snow bridges of the crevasses and up to the base of the Aiguille d'Entrèves for a traverse of the ridge.
This was to provide us with more experience in scrambling and exposure. This ridge separates the French/Italian border and is a fantastic climb. The climbing is not difficult and the exposure not too daunting though slings are required. In the difficult places there are bolts. We weren’t able to complete all of the ridge but climbed down to the glacier and hiked back up to Helbronner Pointe to catch the last cable car back to the Aiguille du Midi at 3:40pm. The weather was extremely hot even at this altitude with the bowl acting like a giant oven as the heat was reflected from the white glacial slopes.
