Crochue / Aig Du Tour

Well it has been a jam packed couple of days. On Monday I took my friend Laurent up to the Aiguille Rouge to do the classic Traverse of the Crochue. Its never difficult with only a 20 metre Vdiff chimney at the start and then its just a glorious ridge traverse which in some places is extremely airy. The previous week here was pretty horrible weather wise and it was raining on Sunday evening but with a 4 day forecast of blue skies I thought the Traverse would be ideal way to start the good weather spell.

The entire south side of the Aiguille Rouge was super dry but when we got up to the near the start and moved onto the North Side it all changed to about 10cms of snow and ice! The Vdiff chimney was slightly interesting without Crampons as was the normally easy little 8 metre down climb but down climbing was impossible with snow and ice filling all the holds so we agreed with the Guide in front that an Abseil was wise.

Interesting start

Brilliant Climbing

It was perfect Blue Sky Scottish Winter Climbing every time we moved onto the North Side and then nipping onto the South Side we were in Sunshine and dry warm rock. There was a British Guide just in front of us with a client and we chatted a fair bit along the route and he couldn’t believe the difference in conditions on both sides. It was like a long curved ridge in awesome snowy conditions.

North Side / South Side

Crochue Summit 2700m

Even though Laurent is not the most confident he was fine on it and thought it was a great little route. We then made a super fast descent down snow all the way to Lac Blanc and walked back to get the lift down to Cham.

Our day was not over yet and on getting back down it was time to gather our Bivi gear and go get some food and we drove up to Le Tour to walk up to the Albert Premier Refuge(2702m) where would be spending the night in our tent and then going to do the Aiguille De Tour the next morning. Our Bivi spot was just amazing and after a healthy meal of cheap Chinese noodles it was time to sleep.

Walking to the Refuge

View from my Sleeping Bag

We were up at 4am and had a coffee then set off at 5am. Its a 10 min walk to the edge of the Glacier and on arriving there I was amazed at the amount of people. Easily 40+ mostly guided parties all struggling to put on crampons and wearing enough clothes to summit Everest. I decided there and then that we had to get past them all.



Crampons on

The Aiguille De Tour(3542) via the normal route is a super easy outing and for that reason is the perfect peak to take clients for their first Alpine Day out. I wanted to get past them as I knew there was a pretty big Bergshrund to pass and a little scramble to the Summit and with this many people it could take all day trying to weave in and around them safely whilst going up and coming down. So I set off pretty much at full speed and by the bottom of the climb up to the Col Superieur Du Tour we had passed all but one party , who we then passed once over the Col.

Heading up the Col - Next victims in my sights

Some of the groups we passed , even more are out of picture

We then slowed and in no time at all we were at the Bergshrund which was open but had a pretty bomber snow bridge going over it , once over we then took off crampons for the scramble to the top. Like the day before the scramble was easy but it was proper iced up and crampons may have helped but we got to the summit just as a cloud hit us so no view but at least we had it to ourselves.

Just crossed the Col , Now in Switzerland

Summit

Just as we got back to our Crampons the masses had arrived , there were at least 15 people taking off crampons and about 20 just waiting in turn to cross the Shrund. I decided to just do what the French Guides do and ignore everyone and just be rude and get down over the Bergshrund. We had a seat once over the snow bridge and enjoyed the views over to Switzerland. We made it back to the Tent in no time as its mostly downhill and we were back there at 10am. We then packed away our Bivi gear and I stuck on my trainers for the descent down to the chairlift at Le Tour.

Leaving the masses behind

Back at chairlift , looking down the Cham Valley

The Aiguille Du Tour is a cracking little peak to do as an intro to the Alps. Its not difficult going the normal way but does have a classic ridge on it that I will need to go back and do. The hike form the chairlift to the Refuge on day 1 is only 600m and is not that bad. Day 2 is an 840m ascent to the summit and then a 1300m descent back to the chairlift. My advice , stash trainers at the refuge for the descent.

We were back in Chamonix at lunchtime and after eating I just crashed out for a few hours then got up and went out an hour on the bike. A brilliant couple of days and was great to take Laurent out as the has been asking me for ages to do something with him.

I’m off Wed and Thurs as well and it will definitely be a run one of those but unsure what to do the other. All this Mountain stuff will be helping my legs for CCC. Well I hope so.