Rich and Rare; Autumn Ice Conditions

Dropping the first pitch of the Grand Envers, photo courtesy of Cedric Bernardini. These recent bountiful snowfalls have filled in crevasses at altitude and have plastered the steep granite walls of the Massif with sticky white ice. Alpinists have been busy gorging themselves on goulottes and mountain walls. The last few months have seen numerous ascents of the North faces of the Grand Jorasses, Les Droites, the Grand Pilier D'Angle, the East face of the Tacul, the NE Couloir of Les Drus and the North faces of the Cham Aiguilles. I was lucky enough to find the rarely formed Rouse-Carrington (on the N face of the Aiguille de Pelerins) in superb condition.

L'île aux Razmokets - Vallon de Bérard

cragging
A fast 12 pitch 621 meter bolted climb with easy grades up to 5b+. Climbing with Toby we managed to overtake a party of three on the approach path which takes around 25 mins from the Bérard waterfall and buvette. Once on the crag and ahead of the first group we were left the whole wall and valley to ourselves. We managed to summit just as the rain started with the direct abseil back down the route. Perfect autumn easy climbing with no crowds. Charlie Docherty

Summer is Over for Real

It was around 90 days since we had last skied powder, and with recent substantial neige, we decided it was time to put an end to this dry spell. For this end, the Aiguille du Midi telepherique was quite helpful in whisking us up to 3800 before we had time to finish our coffees.

Images courtesy of legendary ski photographer Davide de Masi and www.skisickness.com.

Les Dômes de Miage

With 2 days off I decided to head up to the refuge Durier at 3369 metres: the most remote manned hut in the range with the intention to attempt Les Dômes de Miage Traversée, which has been on my wish list after many years.

Setting off from the top of the Bellevue cable car from Les Houches in glorious Chamonix Autumn sunshine, leaving the crowds of Mont Blanc climbers behind. The path descends below the snout of the Glacier de Bionnassy then rises up to the perfectly formed Col du Tricot a 3 hour gentle walk. There I met a couple from Briançon walking from their home to Thonon: an impressive mission.

Next you take the high mountain path that leads to the refuge du Plan Glacier at 2700 metres using via ferrata and scrambling for 3 hours. The Glacier de Miage is easilly crossed about 300 metres wide then it is a scramble/climb up for 700 metres to the hut. The rock here is particularly loose and there is no metal or wire in place for protection so a fall could be fatal. Nearing the top there was some new snow which required more care. On reaching the unmanned hut? I decided against using the tent as the wind was picking up and it was brutally cold.

During the night the weather deteriorated and on awakening at 4,5,6,7,8 and 9 am to more and more snow with winds up t0 8okm per hour there was no possibility of attempting the Traversée, stuck in the hut for the day waiting for the weather to break: it did not, so much cold sleeping was had. That night and the following morning it was snowing again heavily and the temperature was -15 with now 40cm of fresh now, but the weather broke about 11am and I could see the vallee for the first time. I decided to descend rather than spend another few days in the hut, the descent was on my limit of downclimbing on changing losse snow and ice and the serac, rockfalls and avalanches did not help, but finally made it down to the Chalets de Miage and Le Gruvaz then Contamine where my good friend Alun Gwilym picked up a rather exhausted and soggy Charlie at 8pm. On this adventure the weather forecast was 50:50 so next time hopefully will catch the better weather and take a climbing partner.

Midi - Plan Traversée, Charlie D Docherty & Sandra

A Chamonix classic high mountain ridge route that is accessible from the Aiguille du Midi and returns to the lift station, located between heights of 3673 metres and 3842 metres. Graded AD III, with slopes up to 40 degrees and usually takes between 4 and 6 hours. We decided to go for a sunny day in August which was particularly busy but we overtook many slower groups on the steeper ascent sections. The route starts down a spectacular set of ever narrowing, and sometimes corniced, snow ridges, and then weaves its way on both the north and south sides of the ridge through various mixed rock and snow sections. Route finding is mostly fairly simple and the general direction is along the obvious ridge to the NE of the Aiguille du Midi and towards the jagged row of Aiguilles. The route is as follows: Descend from the tunnel exit at the telepherique station and follow the snow ridge to Point 3626. The ridge steepens and crosses some rock sections to reach the to the Col du Plan at 3475m. Continue the traverse along the rock on the north (Chamonix) side and up a colouir to gain the snow field on top of the Rognon du Plan. Traverse the rock on the Rognon du Plan and then descend through a series of small rock gullies / diedrals to the abseil point above the Col Supérieur du Plan. (3535m). Abseil down and then follow the snow ridge up to the base of the Aiguille du Plan's rocky summit. An easy scramble leads to the top. Return is the route in reverse. Gaston Rébuffat rates the route number 21 of 100 in his book "The Mont Blanc Massif. The 100 Finest Routes" the exposure is quite high on some of the rock sections but you are rewarded with amazing views, a fine day out!

Northern and Southern Alpine Cycle Tour

More road touring from Charlie Docherty in the Haute Pursuit team along with ex Chamonix resident Phil Miller this time we decided to cycle up some of the most stunning and steepest road cols in the northern and southern alps starting from Chamonix for 4 days and 470km.

Day 1
Unfortunately the first 8 hours in the saddle of the tour were in driving rain from Chamonix to Moutiers via the Col du Saisies, though there were few other cyclist around. The col rises from Flumet for 15km to 1633 metres and ends close to Beaufort then a fast flowing descent to Albertville before heading easily up the impressive steep glacial valley to just before Moutiers, the rain ended as we found our perfect wild campsite for the night beside a loch teaming with trout facing up towards the following days challenge.

Day 2
Blue skies and sun for the 26km climb up the Col de la Madeleine with plenty of other friendly waving cyclists: though none with panniers or classic 70’s racing bikes like us. Myself on a Mercier and Phil on a Gitane. The climb was hard, but beautiful. Views of the Mont Blanc range behind and the forthcoming Ecrins more than made up for the sweat ,tears and blood. The descent was fast with speeds up to 74km with a lot of car overtaking by team Chamonix and a few lost spokes. The descent ended in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne which is a great cycling town with all the major cols surrounding it, spot of lunch and many espressos before the Col du Télégraphe a 12km uphill with a following 26km uphill with the Col du Galibier tagged on top, we decided to cycle the 6km down from the Télégraphe to Valloire for a huge dinner and camping spot under a ski lift. We decided to not attempt the Galibier that evening as we were dragging tents and supplies and the sun was setting.

Day 3
24km uphill with gradients of up to 11.5%, more cyclist on the road than cars and cars that were well behaved which is what we like. The last kilometre was extremely hard at 2642metre high with biting winds, mist and rain. At the top there were perhaps 70 cyclist from all nationalities all posing for the obligatory summit photo. The descent was huge some 48km through the Col du Lautaret down through La Grave which looked like a mini Chamonix for glacier skiing then still down all the way to Le Bourg-d’Oisans another great cycling town. We managed to dump our heavy baggage and cycle up the 21 hairpins of the L‘Alpe-d’Huez, I recorded a time of 65minutes which was not bad considering we were booming in 100km a day, we arrived as the sun was setting and blasted down at break neck speeds. We then visited our friends Alex and Will who have a new 2 month son called Max, they run the EcrinsLodge.com for ski and cycling holidays. A shower, bed, some drinks and large meal ensured two happy sleepy cyclists.

Day 4
Rolling or flat all the way down to Grenoble for 54km with a unexpected wasp sting around the saddle area at high speeds made for nearly the second high speed crash. Huge lunch with wine before the last afternoon slogging past Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse and the Chartreuse mountain range which has smaller 5 to 7 km Cols but hard all the same in 32 degrees celsius. The final downhill of 15km to Chambéry was one of the finest descents I have ever ridden as the sun was setting and the huge alpine vista opens up before your eyes, next up our first level section of the tour at 35km per hour for 20km straight to Aix-Les-Bains slipstreaming each other until the car and a much deserved dip in the lake before the celebration dinner and sleep in a park before returning to Chamonix: which is still the most visually stunning and interesting of all the places I have ever visited. Haute Pursuit and Charlie Docherty can help organise your tour with extensive on and off-road cycling knowledge around the alps and beyond, email or call the office for details. Next up cycling wise is a wee jolly to Gibraltar via Nice: 3000km

Tour de France 2010

Le Tour du France Station des Rousses to Morzine-Avoriaz. 189 km in total.

Haute Pursuit and 15 happy clients visited Morzine in the Portes du Soleil for étape 8 of le tour. An early start from Chamonix at 7am ensured a good spot on the final hill climb from Morzine to Avoriaz a 13.6 km to 6.1 %: category 1 in blistering hot heat. The winner of the day was Schleck with a few riders coming off their bikes earlier on and a quick visit to see Lance at his hotel afterwards before catching Spain win the world cup final back in glorious Chamonix.

Epic Alpine Rock

With some stable weather and dry rock, its been a perfect time to get out and climb long rock routes in the mountains. Thanks to Davide de Masi for the great pics and company on the Cordier Piller of the Grand Charmoz.

A few days later I climbed the Walker spur which was quite dry (good rock climbing conditions) but subject to some serious rockfall. Our camera broke but here is a pic of the north face of the Grand Jorasse, the Walker being the prominent spur on the left. The scale of the face is huge, rising from 3000m altitude to 4200 at the summit.

Summer Powder Skiing and Mixed Climbing!

Check out this video of us on the Frendo Spur, an ultra classic on the North Face of the Aiguille d'Midi.

http://www.vimeo.com/12989626

And taking advantage of a mid-summer dump!

http://www.vimeo.com/12820593

The City Golf Championships!

Haute Pursuit is proud to present the inaugural City Golf Championships! Click above on the photo Check out our new website and the Championships blog on the right.

Tales from the Interseason

May and June are two of the best months to be in the Alps, when the streets are quiet and the high mountains are still fresh with snow. Whether you come for the views from the Midi (see above sunset on Mont Blanc) or to enjoy the greatest playground on earth for alpinism and snowsports, its the place. The top of the Aiguille d'Midi from which this pic was taken ranks as one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world and has the highest vertical ascent of any cable car in the world.

On the famous arete leading up to the lift station with the cable car in the background.

On route to another alpine failure. The legendary north face of the Grand Jorasse.

Soaking up the exposure on the easy ultra classic Cosmiques Arete. This route is incredible accessible with great climbing and is a superb introduction to the range.

Chamonix Springtime Steepness

The last month has many of the classic big lines come into condition with heavy May snowfalls. There aren't many places (probably nowhere else) in the world where you can one minute be sipping a cafe au lait, and the next minute be dropping into a 50-55 face of snow, ice and rock. Thats freedom.Vive le Chamonix freeride. Below is a brief selection of some springtime skiing, and some exquisite alpine granite.

Unplanned bivi at 4000m. Chilly but with a nice view. Entrance is by my feet.

On the way up.

On the way down.

Pow on the Midi north face.

Granite as good as it gets.