Euro trip part 2

The amount of snow up high all looked a bit too much like hard work to be honest and the idea of climbing sunny, snow free rock was way more appealing, well we were on holiday after all! Coming off the Lagginhorn in the afternoon we picked up the bivi gear we’d stashed when we got off the lift that morning and headed back down the lift to Saas Grund and drove over to Andermatt with a borrowed guide book to the Salbitschijen.

Six years ago Andy Turner and I had gone up to try the long West Ridge. Unfortunately the weather got the better of us that time but I think the quality of the climbing we did do must have erased the memories of the approach. Either that or the old approach to the bivouac hut has got a lot worse over the last few years and scrambling up a very loose gully with lots of rock fall debris in it we were wishing I’d remembered about it. For future reference, although probably 1.5 hours longer I’d definitely approach the bivouac hut via the Salbit hut and the new bridge (which is pretty cool in its own right).

Approaching the Bivouac hut with the South Ridge in profile (photo - Cat Freeman)

GCK, one of the classics on the 2nd tower of the West ridge wasn’t the pure crack climb we had anticipated, instead following a number of bolted slabs between the cracks, but gave 10 pitches of really good quality 3 star climbing none the less. The next day we walked over the new suspension bridge and around to the 600m South ridge which gave pitch after pitch of endless fun climbing on solid sunny granite ending at the very pointy summit of the Salbitschijen.

Final pitch of GKC

On the South Ridge

Looking back down the South Ridge

With Cat busy working in Saas Grund for the next couple of days I hitched over to Chamonix to get one last day of climbing in with Max and Zoe before a few days of catching up with friends in the valley and driving back to the UK. Looking at the number of cars at the lift station and not quite managing to get up in time for the first cable car we headed over to the Red Pillar on the Blatiere hoping the sun drenched warm rock on the South face of the Aiguille du Midi would have drawn most of the crowds.

The shady, and pretty chilly, west facing rock of the Blatiere was virtually deserted so we racked up below L'Eau Rance d'Arabie. The initial slab felt desperate with numb hands and feet, virtually impossible to feel if the rubber of my boots was sticking to the granite smears. Gradually it warmed up and the climbing got better and better the higher we got. Pitch after pitch of perfect cracks. Max led the final off width pitch in light drizzle with rumbles of thunder echoing off all the walls around us. A rapid abseil decent back down the route deposited us back on the ground just before the full afternoon summer storm started.

Zoe on L'Eau Rance d'Arabie

Max on the penulitmate pitch of L'Eau Rance d'Arabie