By Michael on June 25, 2005
Carrie Gibson
Photo #1: We had a great week of alpine skills and climbs and great weather as well. Starting on the Mer de Glace glacier to get foundational skills with crampons and ice axes. Here Carrie practices piolet traction and German technique (front pointing). Carrie and her friend Keith are preparing to climb Mt. Everest from the North side.
Photo #2: Here Keith is testing an Abolokov anchor. You create two ice screw holes in the shape of a V that connect at the back and thread a cord through it. Very strong.
Photo #3: Heading down the ridge from the Aiguille de Midi lift with the Grand Jorasses and Dent de Midi in front of them on the right of the picture.
Photo #4: Posing for the camera from the same viewpoint. The great thing about Chamonix is that you can live respectfully civilized in town and ride the tram up here each morning to climb over 500 different climbs.
Photo #5: Here we are at the end of our trip on the summit of a 4000 meter peak. The Mont Blanc du Tacul. By the end of the week, these two were super fit. We progressively increased altitude and difficulty each day and it made the trip easy and fun and very successful. Carrie sent me all these great photos. Thanks!
Photo #6: Here is the logo from their Everest trip. Please look on line or contact me if you would like to support them.
Posted in Alpine Climbs, Trip Report
By Michael on June 10, 2005
Warren Cook
Photo #1: Warren is my father-in-law and he is really getting into climbing and hiking. The past spring he put together a Haute Route trip with his friends and colleagues at Sugarloaf Ski Area in Maine that I guided with my wife Nina. On this day, he was in the area on business so we scheduled to spend a day in the high alpine. We climbed the Arete des Cosmiques above Chamonix . It is an easy alpine climb on snow and rock that you usually do with crampons on the whole way. You get exceptional views of the Mont Blanc range and today we were not disappointed. Here, we are walking out the snow tunnel after taking the tram up the Aiguille de Midi. You walk down this snow ridge and around to the base of the route. You then end up back at the station on the Aiguille de Midi and hop on the tram back to Chamonix in time for afternoon tea.
Photo #2: On the way to the start of the climb we stopped to enjoy the views of the Grandes Jorasses and the Dent du Geant (Giant’s Tooth).
Photo #3: Looking up at our route with Mt. Blanc du Tacul behind us.
Photo #4: Getting into it.
Photo #5: Learning how to climb with crampons on rock. You wouldn’t want to stop and take off your crampons every time you got to some rock. It is more efficient to leave them on and also gives you surprisingly good grip on the golden granite.
Photo #6: Enjoying the climbing.
Photo #7: Turning an awkward corner.
Photo #8: Up a snow couloir.
Photo #9: What a view today. We had no wind and clear blue skies. And, being early June, we so no one else on the route.
Photo #10: A pause to eat. Of the over 50 times I have done this route, this was the most relaxed trip. There was literally, not one other climber on the route and it was warm and sunny.
Photo #11: Climbing up the final north facing couloir back into the sun.
Photo #12: Striking a pose on the summit! This is one of the best climbs in the Mont Blanc Range and on almost every alpine trip I do in Chamonix , I try to get people on this route. It is not too long for doing early in the trip but has super dramatic climbing with close amazing views of the big famous peaks in the Mont Blanc Range.
Posted in Alpine Climbs, Trip Report
By Michael on June 7, 2005
Ben Stoddard
Photo #1: Ben came to rock climb and we did a fair amount high and low, despite a few days of iffy weather. Here we climbed the Aiguille de la Charlanon by the right butress, Eperon SSE de Doite. It was a great 8 pitch warm up climb that goes at 5.7.
Photo #2: Then we went to the Col de La Columbiere and saw some Bouquetin or Ibex.
Photo #3: And did some climbing on beautiful limestone. There are single and multipitch routes with interesting texture due to the sculpting over many years from the elements.
Photo #4: We also spent a day in Italy where Ben came away with a prize Piton to use as a paper weight.
Photo #5: The most exciting climb for Ben was going up high and climbing the Arete des Cosmiques. Here is a shot from that day. Ben provided these photos and enjoyed taking a high quality SLR digital camera with him on all the climbs.
Posted in Rock Climbs, Trip Report
