4-5th May:
LONG BLOG. It was a long 28 hours.
Packed and ready the night before. Went to Munster briefly for the closing party, sad times I couldn't stay / drink. Up early to run a few errands and at the Midi by 10am to meet Tom Tom, Robyn and Steve.
We set off on the long traverse with the sun baking down on us. It was absolutely roasting and I was down to a T-shirt within 10 minutes. After a couple of bootpacks and skis with skins on (not fun), we made it to Bossons glacier. A quick break and we were skinning through the incredible, undulating mass of seracs. A couple of the bridges were particularly skinny which was interesting work when sliding downhill on the skins. Steve almost toppled straight into a gaping crevasse.
After reaching the other side and made short work of the last steep pitch despite Steve having problems with his skins. We stopped for lunch on the glacier below the Grand Mulets hut. The hut is amazing in itself. It's built on top of a large rocky outcrop between two merging glaciers. To get to it involves a bit of climbing and once there it offers some insane views... even from the toilet.
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| Climbing up to the Mulets hut |
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| The toilet |
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| The view from the toilet... |
We checked in, dried our boots and skins then spent a few hours playing cards and browsing the hut's library before dinner. Soup and cheese, chicken with rice (with seconds) and creme caramel for dessert. Delicious and filling, much better than I expected. As dinner finished everyone bar Steve moved off to bed. Unable to sleep I rested and took in the view. The sunset (~9:30pm) was stunning from up there with a layer of clouds below. Truly breathtaking. After that I laid in bed content, if a little worried I wasn't getting any sleep before tomorrow.
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| Compensating for lack of spoons |
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| A quiet hut... |
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| Steve enjoying the view |
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| Spooning in the 8 man bunks |
At 1am half of the dorms alarms went off in unison. I'd had just over an hour and a half's sleep. During our breakfast of hot chocolate with stale bread and jam we had the same discussion as the other 80+ people in the hut; which route...? No one in the hut was in a particular hurry to get out. Everyone was waiting to see what everyone else was doing. TT and Steve had chatted to a few guys the night before and found out that there were problems with our chosen route; the royale. There had been a big avalanche of soft snow the day before which turned everyone back the day before (hence the hut being massively overbooked). There was also a big windloaded slab primed, ready to go. We'd originally ruled out the Mulets route due to the lottery danger of serac fall, but we all agreed that taking a chance on the lottery was by far the better option than spending hours in serious avalanche danger.
As expected, most people set off on the Mulets route. Headtorches on, we climbed down and were on our skis by 3:10am. Unfortunately it quickly became clear that Steve was having big problems with his skins not gripping. People were going past and most importantly we were losing time. After a few stops I made it clear we had to pick the pace up or we'd never make it. He'd clearly been thinking the same. We roped up as the terrain started to open up and at the same time the track got steeper. After struggling up a steep pitch Steve made up his mind. He decided to turn back whilst still near the hut. I can't stress how difficult it must have been, especially as he was the most keen of all of us. A massive decision which deserves a lot of respect. With hindsight we unanimously agreed it was the correct one and that we probably wouldn't have made it otherwise.
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| Chamonix at night |
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| Headtorches illuminating the way |
We'd lost a lot of time so I quickly tied on with Robyn and TT and we pushed on. After another hours skinning we stopped for our final break before we entered the serac lottery. The sun was starting to rise and the views looking back over Chamonix were unbelievable. We moved quickly under the seracs, with a few very brief breaks. The skin track went straight over the remnants of the last serac fall which had swept right over the plateau and down the seracs below. These things would dwarf a multi story car park. You do not want to be in the way...
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| Chamonix and the Midi in the morning light |
We cleared the danger and had a longer stop, put some extra layers on as the wind had blown in and just admired the amazing place we were in. The weirdest thing was looking down on the Aiguille du Midi at 3847m. Crazy. It was the highest I'd ever been. Skinning on the sun broke and it suddenly got very hot. Robyn had really started to feel the altitude so we continued slowly up to the Vallot hut at 4362m, 450m to go.
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| Last push to the Vallot hut |
Most people leave their skis at this point and continue on foot. Not a chance. Skis on the pack, axes out, crampons on, food and drink, extra layers and we set off. By this point I was determined we'd reach the top and nothing was going to stop me. TT was the same. Robyn was clearly knackered so we psyched her up and I got TT to put her skis on my pack. We carried on. With frequent breaks we made our way up. I was still feeling great until ~4600m. I hit a big, thick concrete wall, quietened down and just put one foot in front of the other. Robyn kept up the positivity for us; 'I seriously love you guys, thank you' over and over. Every ridge looked like a potential summit ridge but wasn't quite...
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| Robyn and Tom Tom on the final ridge |
We came over a ridge; finally, the summit. We got there and collapsed. Midday. Just under nine hours after we started. I finally got the two sets of skis off my back. It was heaven. We just sat there, drinking in the sun and views, taking photos and laughing. The same three who we'd been leapfrogging for the whole day arrived behind us. Congratulations were exchanged, hands wrung and photos taken.
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| Sherpa Southcott laden with skis |
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| 4810m |
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| Our three amigos |
So we were done... well no. Skis on. Foot high striation for the first 400m vert - hard work. Crusty untracked snow at the edges dodging the massive seracs. Skied near a gaping hole, turned to point out to the others and drove a tip into a foot+ high piece of serac debris partially obscured by powder. Catapulted out of my skis and into a heap 30m below, probably on another crevasse. Skis back on and continued down. Crossed over more heavy icy serac debris and a very narrow snow bridge. Passed a serac a couple of hundred metres high... the biggest yet. Cruised down in fresh powder - finally - back to the grand plateau. Got three deep untracked lines far skiers right, awesome. More serac debris. More powder. Skied straight over a narrow crevasse, pointed the others to a tiny bridge. More powder down to a nasty technical choke point between seracs. Powder down to the Mulets hut. Picked up Steve and back down over the crusty snow to Bossons. Another 150m vert of skinning on the high traverse back to midstation. Some corn and two bootpacks and we were back... Knackered.
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| Clipping in after the fall |
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| TT taking in the seracs. Compare them to the people skiing |
Pizza and a movie together to celebrate. An incredible two days. Easily the most exhausting day of my life (and theirs).
A great achievement and a perfect way to end the season.
NB: Most of these photos are by TT / taken on his camera.
