Catching Up!
My opening alpine gambit for 2006 involved Alistair and Sarah who had a three-day ‘quickie’ course with me before going off and doing their own thing.
After a training day in the Aiguille rouge where Ali led Athena, a great four pitch route on the slabs of the Grande Floria. We then did the classic route on the Aiguille du Tour in fine stlye.
Richard arrived and we had eight days of great climbing and good weather. On various days in the Aiguille Rouge we climbed the Index Nez Rouge Athena and the ascent of the Grande Floria. Leaving the valley on the first cable car from Le Tour we went straight through to the summit of the Tete Blanche and returned to the Albert Premier
Hut for three oclock. Next day we climbed the Aiguille du Tour returning to the Albert Premier Hut at three oclock. The following day we climbed the Aiguille du Tour also in fine style.
The ascent of the Tour Noir did not happen because of a storm but we did get the Table du Roc ridge also on the Aiguille du Tour done. One of the great classic routes of Chamonix.
The weather here has changed for the good, with clear, cold nights and hot sunny days. Yesterday Richard from Yorkshire and I went up on the first cable car to Col du Balme (it was supposed to be at 9am (still late but…) and we didn’t get going from Le Tour until 9.30am. We went straight past the Albert Premier Hut and topped out on the Tete Blanche in under 2 hours from the hut. Back there for the night, we did the Table du Roc spur on the Aiguille du Tour this morning , from 6.30am (at the hut) to around 10.15 (on the summit - guidebook time 4 - 6 hours from the hut, without any big haul the previous day!)
A great few days with Richard.