Very pleasant mild and sunny conditions again today high in the mountains with a strong inversion and hard frost persisting all day in the Chamonix Valley floor. Lots of teams out enjoying the decent mountaineering conditions around the Aiguille du Midi. A good stiff snowy track ran all the way along the Cosmiques Arete and gave enjoyable conditions for this and the traverse of the Arete Laurence.
Many teams were also heading over to, and climbing, the Chere Couloir although this looked very lean, grey and fairly unappealing. The line of the Perroux to the left was even dryer but a team was starting up this route also. Other teams climbed the normal route on Mont Blanc du Tacul and both boot and ski tracks were also heading over to Pointe Lachenal. The Abri Simond hut is open and has various mattresses but not many blankets by the look of it. I think I would take a sleeping bag if heading there at the moment!
Tracks were also seen topping out on Vent du Dragon, which also looked pretty dry, but has been climbed. The North Face of the Midi also looked generally quite dry and icy at the top although apparently the Mallory Porter has been climbed albeit in very lean / mixed / icy conditions. Tough conditions were also found on the Tour Ronde North Face which has just had an ascent from Kyle who described conditions as “Not ideal. Pretty icy, lots of unconsolidated snow and hard, brittle ice in the upper section. Ice in the gully pitches was helpfully stepped out though!”
Having climbed the fine icy lower corners this mixed pitch leads up towards the final steep section before reaching the Cosmiques Arete
Ice conditions for cascade climbing are generally also pretty poor with just a few of the more reliable ice lines in Cogne complete and climbable like the Patri’s and some reasonable lean ice at the Cremerie in Argentiere, but generally not much to write home about at the moment.
Slovenian Ranger John & partner climbed high on Mont Blanc a couple of days ago, and found reasonable conditions for the ascent via the Gouter Hut – but then were forced to turn around in high winds at the Vallot Hut.
Ski conditions around the resorts of Chamonix are currently poor with no fresh snow for over a month and this week has seen busy / icy / rocky pistes with the need also to download in the lifts as the home runs back to the valley floor are not open. The Midi snow ridge is completely devoid of any equipment / ropes due to the poor conditions for skiing the Vallee Blanche.
Better snow conditions have been experienced on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc Range, although even the pistes of Courmayeur are showing the hammering from a busy Christmas / New Year week and no fresh snow. Better snow has been found for those ski touring in Val Veny / Feret and further down the Val d’Aosta.
Happy New Year and please send us any mountain conditions info if you have been out. Bonne Année!
