Its been a few days, as we decided to go for an overnighter, staying at the Fourche bivouac on the Italian side of the alps. This 15 person shelter is not maintained and does not have a three course meal like our stay at the previous hut! It was a smelly and crowded high mountain shelter that is meant as a launching point for a few big climbs. Despite this, we had a great time and got to see what the locals do rather than paying 50 euro to stay in a posh hut.
Our trip started with a long glacier crossing on a sunny day, bringing us to a steep mixed climb that leads to the Fourche Bivouac. The shelter is literally bolted to the top of a knife edge ridge about 3300 meters up on the frontier ridge between France and Italy. The bivy is actually in Italy, so technically, I climbed in two countries on this trip. It is impressive and was difficult to get pictures that did it justice!
After little sleep, we woke at 3:30am to start our climb, the north face of the Tour Ronde. This climb required that we get back down from the bivy to get to the base of the climb. We woke to very cloudy/foggy conditions and it was clear that our climb was not safe due to rockfall and lack of frozen snow overnight. We were dissapointed, but knew we were making a safe choice in leaving that climb behind. On our crossing back across the Vallee Blanche to the cable car, the sun began to shine and we decided to do a classic and relatively fast ascent of the cosmiques arete. This climb literally leads back to a platform at the lift station and finishes up a ladder on to the observation deck. Its a funny scene as tourists stand next to you as you get off the ladder to get their pictures taken with the Chamonix mountaineers!
Tonight is the start of the Chamonix Ultra Trail Mont Blanc race that sends adventure runners over 166km of distance and 9600meters of ascent for three days! Its a crazy race, but fitting that it takes place in this town, the epicenter of adventure sport.
We have one more full day in Cham tommorrow, but it is raining.....again. We will see if we can squeeze in one more climb.
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| Route leading up to the ridge and the Fourche Bivouac |
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| Dad on the small balcony at the Fourche Bivouac |
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| No go on the NF of Le Tour Ronde (behind me). Scary rockfall, bad ice and a general sense of "bad idea". Maybe another day.... |
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| Two new Italian friends at the bivy. |
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Cosmiques Arete is the skyline leading from left to right,
ending at the observation deck of the Aiguille Du Midi. |
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| Finish of the Arete des Cosmiques |
Look at the roof on that hut! It's as thick as a bank vault (probably quite necessary).
ReplyDeleteHopefully you made plans for *us* to visit your new Italian friends next summer!
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