Rebuffat - Aiguille du Midi

After a long week of climbing the idea of getting up early for the 7th day in row was a little tough but Vivek and I rallied one last time and made the first lift up the Aiguille du Midi cable car to climb the Rebuffat route on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi. This is one of the most famous rock routes in the valley on absolutely perfect granite. 11 pitches to 5.10 in the alpine with a 5 minute decent to the cable car. Hard to beat!!!

the south face

Vivek on one of the lower pitches

The last 5.10 pitch

The 20m rappel back to the lift

Dent du Geant

Next on the list for Vivek and I was the Dent du Geant on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massive.  This route is a major classic and one of the most fun 4000m peaks i have climbed in the Alps.

snowy climbing on pitch 1

Vivek on the first summit

The real summit and the lady Madonna

Marchand de Sable - Envers

Back to Chamonix with the weather improving rapidly Vivek and I took a quick trip up to the Envers Hut to climb the Marchand de Sable. A 12 pitch 5.10+ in the alpine. Fantastic route and an amazing place!! Cant wait to go back

Hiking on to the Mer De Glace

 

The Dent du Geant on the right

Morning start up the glacier

First pitch at 5.10

Mont Aiguille

After Presles we traveled a little further south the Mont Aiguille. This peak i had not heard of until this week. Apparently this peak was climbed over 500 years ago under order of the king and is maybe the first event of alpinism. Seemed like we better climb it.

Mont Aiguille

 

 

 

Wild view from the summit

 

The 500 year memorial from the first ascent of the peak!!

Descending

Presles France

Again with another terrible weather forecast in Chamonix my client Vivek myself and my good friend from Canada Jen Olson headed down south to the classic limestone multipitch area called Presles near Grenoble. Lucky to hit some good weather down south we climbed a "Pillier de Nugues" and "Les Buis" at Presles befor we moved another hour south to the wild limestone town "Mont Aiguille" Was fantastic to get out of the Chamonix valley and see some more of France. Really any amazing country and limitless supply of stellar limestone cliffs!!

The ford fiesta.. whattss up!

Jen and Vivek on the pitch 1 of Pillier de Nugues

 Fog rolling in on Pillier de Nugues

 Vivek on Les Buis

 Les Buis

Matterhorn

Climbed the Matterhorn Aug 3rd. After our little visit from winter the Matterhorn has been "out of shape" and quite the topic of discussion between guides so it was interesting to go up on the mountain to see the conditions for ourselves. There is still quite a bit of snow on the mountain but it was possible to climb with out crampons until the shoulder just below the fixed ropes. From there to the summit travel was quite quick with crampons and ice axe. On the decent we kept our crampons on for a ways below the Solvay hut somewhere around the first red tower. Overall was a great day!!!

The Matterhorn

 Traffic Jam

 Lower part of the route below the Solvay Hut

 Taking a break at the Solvay Hut

Wild summit!! being above the clouds