The climbing was sustained, and we knew there was a storm coming in some time in the afternoon, but we kept on going, knowing we were very close. Eventually, the top less than a rope-length away, we were shut down by an insanely steep wall. Apparently it went at A2 or something, god knows what free, but either way we weren't going any further. We began a series of 5 abseils off manky tat and old pegs to get off the summit pyramid, then shuffled back down the normal route to our tent. It was a bit disappointing to back off so close to the top, but ultimately a great day's climbing.
After waiting out the storm, reading and eating in the tent for a day, Cam and I got up super early to attempt the Cordier Pillar of the west face of the Grandes Charmoz. This epic 600m trad route was sustained at grade V rock, with a couple of VI cruxes - around HVS in UK terms.
We were both really apprehensive as we plodded up the sketchy Nantillons Glacier, the face looming over us. The second pitch was one of the hardest of the whole route, and it felt nails early in the morning with cold hands; I hung off old pegs and grovelled my way through a committing layback sequence to reach the belay. After that it never got much easier. We followed cracks and corners, split by decent ledges with fixed anchors of tat and pegs.
Next up was a sustained corner which i led in a huge 50m pitch. It looked mental from below but there were loads of small edges you could bridge off, hidden crimps and flatties that just about kept me going. The scale of the wall, the unrelenting steepness was incredible. We climbed on, following crack systems, until it all went wrong.
Above us was a mess of overhangs split by micro-seams, a series of corners all leading into dead ends. I thought we'd followed the route pretty well, there was tat and pegs everywhere, but there simply wasn't a way through that looked feasible - for us, anyway.
We tried the three options we could see. I climbed up, hard free moves, aiding off cams when it all got too much. Each time i was shut down and had to do exposed pendulum abseils to get to the next stance to try again. Eventually we threw in the towel and started abseiling off. I don't think we were that far below the big ledge system 2/3rds up the face. Had we reached it we would've had a clear run at the summit.
However, not long after we finished the last abseil and reached the Nantillons glacier, the weather came in, and in just a few hours the peaks were plastered in snow. We would've been caught out right in the middle of it had we not descended when we did.
We headed back down to Chamonix to regroup. I managed to send a 7a pitch at Les Gailands that i'd had a play on a few days ago. Once I figured out the hard sequence linking two pockets the rest of the route was pretty straightforward.
Now the mountains were covered in snow, and any rock climbing was out for a while, but maybe ice higher up would be coming into condition. We kept an eye on the forecast and waited...
We were both really apprehensive as we plodded up the sketchy Nantillons Glacier, the face looming over us. The second pitch was one of the hardest of the whole route, and it felt nails early in the morning with cold hands; I hung off old pegs and grovelled my way through a committing layback sequence to reach the belay. After that it never got much easier. We followed cracks and corners, split by decent ledges with fixed anchors of tat and pegs.
Next up was a sustained corner which i led in a huge 50m pitch. It looked mental from below but there were loads of small edges you could bridge off, hidden crimps and flatties that just about kept me going. The scale of the wall, the unrelenting steepness was incredible. We climbed on, following crack systems, until it all went wrong.
Above us was a mess of overhangs split by micro-seams, a series of corners all leading into dead ends. I thought we'd followed the route pretty well, there was tat and pegs everywhere, but there simply wasn't a way through that looked feasible - for us, anyway.
We tried the three options we could see. I climbed up, hard free moves, aiding off cams when it all got too much. Each time i was shut down and had to do exposed pendulum abseils to get to the next stance to try again. Eventually we threw in the towel and started abseiling off. I don't think we were that far below the big ledge system 2/3rds up the face. Had we reached it we would've had a clear run at the summit.
However, not long after we finished the last abseil and reached the Nantillons glacier, the weather came in, and in just a few hours the peaks were plastered in snow. We would've been caught out right in the middle of it had we not descended when we did.
We headed back down to Chamonix to regroup. I managed to send a 7a pitch at Les Gailands that i'd had a play on a few days ago. Once I figured out the hard sequence linking two pockets the rest of the route was pretty straightforward.
Now the mountains were covered in snow, and any rock climbing was out for a while, but maybe ice higher up would be coming into condition. We kept an eye on the forecast and waited...
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