95 on the highway...

Made it to Chamonix after three days! But who`s in a hurry? After dropping off my cousin at some sort of eco-village/commune in Northern France, I had a leasurely two day drive via Bourg-en-Bresse here.

Arrived yesterday, and as today is fantastic weather, I did my first ever snow and ice route this morning... the Arete du Cosmiques. (In the 4th pic below, it is the ridge running up to the Aguille du Midi from the left.)


I hired a guide - Herves - who showed me the basics of crampon travel. Two rules: one, don`t catch them in your trousers, and two, don`t fall! I have to admit, that I caught my crampons twice and took one dive high up on the ridge. Luckily Herves held me else it would have been a rather bumpy and lightning fast 400m slide down to the Glacier du Midi! One learns fast!!


Most of the route was snow with some ice, but there were also some nice rock bits, which off course is more my thing. Must say though, that climbing a 5 crack (easy with rock shoes) is a different story on crampons! The height (3800m) also got me a tad dizzy.

Anyway, was a good intro, so glad to have done it today since the weather forecast is not looking to good the coming days. In fact, the weather has been so wintry lately that one of the rock routes I want to do on the Midi is completely iced up! Herves compares current climbing conditions to that of winter! Hopefully this will be different by the end of next week. I`ll busy myself with some sport routes in the valley in the meanwhile.That`s after I have found a climbing partner in one of the bars tonight! (You think the lines I normally use to pick up girls will work??)

Campsite is bon by the way.. just below the Mer du Glace.


Off for an afternoon nap!