Monday, September 13, 2010

Its warm....

Inbetween some building work in town, Jon Griffith and myself managed to squeeze in a quick attempt at a route on the Brenva face of Mont Maudit. I've had my eye on this route for some time, as the climbing looks stunning. I've always been awestruck by the faces which span between the Kuffner and Brenva Spur. Although not huge (7-800 metres), the faces are complex and the routes are very rarely climbed.
       It was all looking great, the route, the weather, the company at Col De La Fourche. We made an early start so we could be established on the first technicalities before sunrise. Upon reaching the bergschrund it was pretty obvious that it was far too warm to be climbing a south facing ice and mixed line. It was about +2 degrees and thats 2 hours before sunrise! Although highly annoying, it was the right call, but hard to tear myself away from the schrund- even when you know somethings a really bad idea it can still be tempting!
O well, its healthy to fail sometimes.
A little known but really cool face of Mont Blanc/Mont Maudit.
      Things are generally shaping up pretty good on the big faces, i think this Autumn could be a good one. I however am going to be taking as much work as i can for the next two months, as i just bought a ticket to Bueonos Aires in mid November,  dos meses hasta Cerro Torre!

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