Chamonix Conville trip report

[Che]

Heathrow Terminal 5 is a pretty breathtaking building. From a distance it's unassuming, the big curved roof seeming simple and ordinary, and the scale lost to the eye of the observer from a distance. From inside, it is anything but ordinary. A vast space, filled with natural light. After a quick trip to the oversized bag drop (will they get it on the plane in time?) I board, and we're airborne about ten minutes late.

We pretty much make up the time, and land in Geneva around 11.30, Sat 26th. Nick awaits at the airport. My bag does not. Fortunately, it's on a plane about an hour later, and there's a while until our minibus connection, so we leave the airport on time. The alps unfold slowly and spectacularly before us as we make our way to Argentière. Camping des Chosalets is a well-equipped site, and we had already been warned that mad Bernard is fine if you speak French to him on arrival, though he was not in evidence. We receive cartes d'hôtel, offering free transport in the valley, and are told of pains chocolate and baguettes that will be sold in the morning. The smallness of the tent for two fully equipped men without a car to store things in becomes immediately apparent.

Sat 27th. A fair night's sleep, and we take the train to Les Praz de Chamonix, to catch the La Flégère téléphérique, and the Index téléchaise to around 2400m on the Aiguilles Rouges, which oppose the Mont Blanc massif across the valley. The Rouges form a nature reserve -- snowy in winter, and clear with snow patches in summer -- filled with alpine ibex and marmots. Our 400m route, La Chapelle de la Gliere is spectacular, and probably worth around VS in real money. The "razor" pitch is a hand traverse in spectacular setting with one of the best views in the entire region, across the valley to the white peaks of the Mont Blanc massif. Climbing is in shorts and t-shirts, and the sun is strong. Bit of route confusion at the end, and we realise were're already going to miss the last 'phérique back, so three 40 m + abseils follow, and some infuriating scree, until a beautiful path leads back to Argentière.

The following two days are spent cragging in the valley bottom. Le Joux is a nice crag, with odd, rough (sometimes polished) gneiss, where lessons in balance and belief in friction are readily learned. Servoz is the opposite, featuring steep, juggy schist, with some spectacular, if straightforward, moves on the overhanging headwall. Pizza on Tuesday night from a mobile kitchen in the campsite. To call it awesome would be acceptible in any other venue, but hyperbole needs to be restrained when one needs the kind of adjectives that suffice for the alps.

30th. Matthew has arrived, and he and Nick decamp to do their thing. I meet the rest of the course at 8.30. John is a climbing instructor, who lives out of a van in the Peak. He's done 7c sport in Thailand, but has no Alpine time behind him. Janet is an Edinburghian with Scottish mountaineering experiance and an ML. Dan, Tom and Andy are very recent devotees of climbing. I'm bang in the middle of the fitness and rock-climbing level (miles better than some, and miles behind others), and am not worried. Our guides are Phil, a really funny, and really awesome Mancunian BMG who works out of Plas y Brenin, and has tales of climbing the Red Walls at Gogarth with Paul Pritchard; and Dave, a Glaswegian guide living out of Chamonix, whose accent changes not one jot when he speaks in French, and who talks excitedly of heliboarding, ski touring, and paraponting. These are the guys who will be such a spectacular inspiration to me over the next three days, and beyond.

Day one of the course, and we take the 'phéreque to the Grands Montets. Out on to the glacier, crampons on, roped up, we learn to move, take coils and fix belays. A drop over a col and a steep snow slope bring us to the foot of a rock ridge, which we climb equipped, to return to the 'phérique, as a storm comes in. Back at the mid-way station, it's a sunny day, and we belay off a sign to practice crevasse rescue.

Day two is July 31st, and it's up on the Le Balme téléphérique, and the Le Tour chaise, and a walk to the terriffic Albert 1er hut. A trip to the glacier permits us to lower ourselves into crevasses and climb out, to dig in our crampons and arrest one another, and to haul one another out. Dinner in the hut, and to bed.

Aug 1st. Up at 5. The storms we were concerned about seem as distant as ever, and we set out. We follow a lateral morraine to gain the glacer, and climb a steep snow slope to cross a rock-crowned col to Switzerland. A short but nervy snowbridge takes us across a bergschrund, and we gain the foot of the Aiguille du Tour. Crampons off and an easy scramble takes us quickly to the top. Summit photos and lunch. Back by 11. Wow.

The last two days were fantastic too, and consisted of a day of cragging in Switzerland, and then two routes in l'Index itself, back up on the Rogues. Terrific, but less significant in terms of new experiences, so I won't go on about them here. Texts from Jen on Sunday night, wondering why Nick wasn't on his plane. I'm unable to answer her, but assure her that the weather was good, and he was unlikely to have come to grief. Later it is confirmed that he is safely home. As to why he actually missed his flight, only he can tell.

Monday morning. Traing to Martigny, and around Lake Geneva to the Airport. Not the quick way, but very beautiful. Home, with a head full of plans. Chardonnet. Aiguille Verte. Maudi, the Blanc, the Walker Spur ... the Dru?

The Andes?

... higher?

The Aiguille du tour:
_________________
People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.

-- Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin

[Sersh]

thats the most i've read in ages. glad you had a good time. just wait till next summer..............
_________________
Bessie Braddock to Churchill "Winston, you're drunk!"
Churchill: "Bessie, you're ugly, and tomorrow morning I shall be sober"

[Sersh]

p.s. i love terminal 5 (relative to other airport terminals)
_________________
Bessie Braddock to Churchill "Winston, you're drunk!"
Churchill: "Bessie, you're ugly, and tomorrow morning I shall be sober"

[tim]

Just bumped into che; he's still bouncing of the walls excited :)

[Che]

Alpinism is fucking awesome!
_________________
People go to church for the same reasons they go to a tavern: to stupefy themselves, to forget their misery, to imagine themselves, for a few minutes anyway, free and happy.

-- Mikhail Aleksandrovich Bakunin