Col du Tour Noir

Weds 16th: We called off our plan to go for Mont Blanc the night before. A few of us were unsure we were 100% ready. Personally I was worried about either the 1200/1800m vertical tour at altitude having not done anything of that length before. Instead Tom Tom, Robyn and I did the Col du Tour Noir. For me it was a nice way to just get some more training in. It's only 750m vertical but its all training. When we got up the top of the Grand Montets the wind was relentless. Stronger than when we did the Midi in high winds earlier in the season. Must have been well over 150km/h (though that was on the Col).

Tommo on the thick layer of crust

Argentiere basin stunning as always

As soon as we were in the basin the wind relented. The ski down and transition was good. The wind came in gusts over the bottom of the glacier and it we saw a few people get knocked over by it. On the way up I powered off as I knew it'd take me longer; it was icy and unlike the others I had no couteau (ski crampons). The first steep skin was a balancing act attempting not to slip back down. It was the same for two of the steep sections later.

Far left of picture - our route up

TT and Robyn getting ready to skin

The rest of the skin was pretty nice until were 100m vertical from the top. The wind suddenly came in stronger than I've ever experienced before. EVER. It funnelled down over the col and was enough to knock anyone who wasn't bracing straight over (and a lot of people came cropper anyway). TT and Robyn had already seen over the Col so whilst they headed for cover I headed up the last section, fighting the wind. As I reached the top the wind died completely. Perfect. Few photos and we headed back down.

Me on the Col

Looking over the Col

Perfect views of Switzerland

The way back down was heavy crust for the first 500m vertical then corn the rest of the way. We skipped the Pierre a Ric as the coverage in places is non existent. Really happy with the day. I powered up (whilst fighting against the lack of crampons) and felt like I had a lot more left. Looking forward to some longer tours and hopefully the big MB.