Chamonix, August 2004
by Steve Shackleton
Last Thursday morning at 0645 local time (0545 BST), Jack Cusick and
myself reached the summit of Mont Blanc. It had snowed the day before making
the going up hill very difficult and along with a very cold wind blowing at
over 30 mph it made it extremely hard work. The route up was blocked in
places with more crevasses than usual, making us walk directly uphill for a
lot of the time. Just before we reached the summit, the sun rose and we had
a lovely blue sky, but it stayed freezing cold. We stayed on the summit just
long enough to take a couple of photo's each and then started the walk down.
For those coming up as we were going down, the snow was getting more and
more chewed up making their ascent more difficult. Looking at some of the
faces, a lot of them were having a hard time with the conditions and the
altitude. It was hard not to feel sorry for them.
We got back to the tent just after 0900 for 2 hours rest before having
breakfast and heading back home. The wind however had different ideas and at
1030 we got up with very strong winds blowing, having had little sleep. The
wind was far to strong for the cooker to work in, so its was time to pack up
and head down with only a litre of water each and no food. We got back down
to Nid d'Aigle in time to just catch the 1600 train, however it was fully
booked and so was the next 2 trains. We caught the 1800 train just as it
started to rain heavily. For those that had to wait for the next train,
mainly people on sight seeing trips there was no shelter from the rain and
most were only wearing light summer clothing.
The trips to the Albert Premier hut and to the Petite Aiguille Vert went
as planned, but the cable car to the Aiguille Midi was not fully working
which meant a change of plan. We decided to take a coach trip thru the Mont
Blanc tunnel to Courmayeur and take the cable car to the Torino hut where we
would stay for 2 nights. The routes we had decided on doing were the
Aiguille de Rochefort Ridges traverse and on our return to climb the Dent du
Geant (Tooth of the Giant).
As neither of us had been to the Torino hut before, when we arrived, we
dropped off our gear and went out onto the Glacier du Geant to get familiar
with the layout of the land. The visibility was very poor and we had no real
idea were we going, but just followed a path in the snow. Slowly the
visibility got better and we walked as far as a crevasse at the base of the
Dent du Geant before returning to the hut (about 3hrs in all).
Next morning we got up at 0415 for breakfast at 0430. Outside it was
snowing heavily, so after breakfast it was back to bed. We got up at 0620
was off at 0630. It was mainly very cloudy with one small area of blue sky
that got bigger as we approached the Dent. It took us 1.5 hrs to get to the
base of the Dent and another 1.5 hr scramble (with rucksacks on) to get to
the "la salle a manger" (dinning room) which is the start of both the
Aiguille de Rochefort Ridges and the Dent. It was now to late to be able to
get both routes done and decided not to do the Rochefort Ridges. Just then a
group of Italians returned from the Rochefort Ridges saying that there was
to much snow to complete it and were going back to the hut!
The guide book says, that as the route up the Dent faces west, it is best
left till late in the morning when the sun warms up the rock. The route is a
180 metre rock climb at grade IV and V (about English 4a to 4c, but I
thought the hardest move was about 4b). There was 5 long pitches (the 2nd
pitch had a lot of ice on it as it was still in the shade) to the first peak
(4009m) then an 15m abseil down to climb the 2nd peak (4013m). It was a
great view of the Alps, a shame as I had left my camera in my rucksack.
We had taken longer than we should have and we now started the business of
getting off. Getting back up to the first peak proved a bit difficult. Then
first couple of abseils were a nightmare as the 60m ropes we were using
managed to get caught around and jammed on it seemed every bit of rock.
People still coming up did not help either. After the 4th abseil, I decided
that due to the time, we would not retrace the route up and used a different
abseil point, although I didn't know where it would lead to. It was a good
decision, as the next abseil was 45m long to the next point and then a 55m
abseil back to where our rucksacks were. We then had the long scramble back
down and the walk back to the hut and after getting lost for awhile on the
glacier in the dark, managed to find our way OK, unfortunately to late for
evening dinner.