Saturday I went up with my English friend Dave, with whom I was in the Envers in my last TR, on a mission to seek the finest splitter with minimal approach. Pointe Lachanel is approached by a 5 minute ski from the Aiguille du Midi (~3800m) or a roughly 30 minute walk across the flat glacier. It is situated on a rock spur with front row seats to the Gervasutti/Mt. Blanc du Tacul show. The splitter here is so good it's stupid. We left our gear at the top and rapped down to the selected pitches.
Team Daves™
On the rappels.
After rapping in from the top (2x50m), we were at the choice pitches on this 250m column of red granite. There are several classic routes on this thing, all the pitches of each route are unique and high-quality. We opted to do the crux pitch of Harold and Maud as a warm up.
Dave leading the Contamine crux, note the climber to the left, he's on the first pitch we climbed, Harold and Maude.
It's a nice wide 6b (10c) crack that starts off as splitter hands and then goes into a slightly overhanging wider section that got me sucking air as a first lead in the morning. I left my crack gloves and tape in a puddle of blood and tears at the bottom of "All along the watchtower" at the Dylan Wall in the San Raphael Swell. I paid dearly for this. After this stout warm-up, Dave took the lead on a meandering finger crack on the Contamine Route (6b) that was so good and positive that it felt honestly like 5.8. After that, we climbed the finishing several pitches to the Contamine Route which are all easy but fun granite cracks on an amazing and exposed arête.
Aret-arded
A few days later, a small disturbance arrived to the Alps, bringing about 30cm of fresh pow with minimal wind. My Swedish friend Olov and I headed up to get some quality skiing sans conneries on the N. face of Mt. Blanc du Tacul, the first peak on the standard route up Mt. Blanc via the Aiguille du Midi cable car. A leisurely 10 am lift up got us hiking around 11am. Temps were cool, probably in the upper 20s most of the day.
This 'schrund proved somewhat problematic for me with one axe. It involved a heel-hook.
Olov nearing the summit ridge.
Summit (4248m) with the Mont White in the background and the Peuterey ridge. It's no fourteener, that's for sure (13 937 feet 3⁄32 inches).
Looking down the Gervasutti couloir from the summit. You can see Pointe Lachanal. It's the prominent greyish arête with a nipple.
Le Mont White.
Icy turns in the Gervasutti. We couldn't track down the skiers.
From the col du Midi, it's about 800m vertical of good skiing with some objective hazard (seracs, falling brits). After a small scramble to the summit, we skied down in smooth, stable pow. It was a refreshing change.
Olov ripping the buttery pow.
Some steep skiing practice zones.
Then, a short glacier skip and a 15 minute hike back to the Aig. du Midi lift.
The evening was topped off by a fantastic sunset beach party in Lausanne, where I unfortunately lost a sandle to a demon-wolf German Shepard named Umlaut, or ¨
Full-circle these summer days are.
