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« ROYAL SEQUENCE », achieved march 2006, Mont Blanc massif
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Details of the ascents |
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It took us 8 days to climb the north face of the Aiguille Verte (Nant-Blanc
side) via the Aiguille Sans Nom and the north face of the Grandes
Jorasses via the Pointe Marguerite.
Despite bad weather conditions throughout the climbs, we still revelled in
this adventure. In this newsletter, we want to convey our personal
successes of the expedition, notably the solidarity of our team in the face
of incredibly difficult decisions (not to take on the third stage of the
challenge).
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>>> To launch the portfolio gathering a
selection of the best pictures taken during
the Royal Sequence, click on the portfolio. |
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2 days of difficult climbing on the Aiguille Verte (1000 m face) |
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After setting off at full steam on the 14th March we climbed the Aiguille sans nom in 2 days and
reached the summit of the Aiguille Verte (4122m) on the evening of the 16th March.
Adapting our dry-tooling techniques from our training to this climb, we managed to reach the
summit in good time.
The first part of the climb (350m) was by far the most difficult. It was a dry tool climb which
required resourcefulness on the most technical parts (6C / M9 at 3500 m). At nightfall we had
to bivouac in the middle of the face on a snowy ledge (-20° sheltered from the wind, which
we weren’t!) before attacking the second section of mixed climbing the next day.
At sunrise on day 2 we started by climbing a black
ice slope several hundred metres high
followed by an ice couloir which had dried out and which was
at times overhanging.
The exit of the route was onto a ridge covered in ice on
the north side and snow on the south side.
Our lack of
acclimatisation coupled with the bad ice conditions meant that by this stage we were
physically suffering.
On the descent down the Whymper couloir, night fell.
At the bottom we dug a
hole to shelter and melted
some snow to drink. At daybreak we made it down to
the Couvercle
refuge, rested, then continued on down
to the Leschaux refuge the next day. Our friends taking
the
weight of our equipment helped us to recuperate.
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3 days of storms on the north face of the Grandes Jorasses (850 m face) |
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2 days of recuperation later (19th march) we left for the north face of the Grandes
Jorasses
via the Marguerita peak. We followed a small group of climbers who kindly took
a diversion
from their own climb to mark out the route up to the foot of the face for us. The
first 500m was
up a thin film of ice covering the granite underneath. After 8 hours of
climbing, we
bivouacked at the foot of the Marguerite peak. The good weather window we
had had was
short-lived; the clouds were already starting to close in…
The next day it was still snowing, and a light sprinkling of
snow covered the rock face. After
‘sweeping’ each metre
of the face we had to climb most of it ‘artificially’ and
with few
tools. At 6pm we finally reached the bottom of
the key part of the climb: a magnificent
50m long
overhanging groove that shot up diagonally to the left
of us. It would have been
out of the question to climb it by
night, so we bivouacked again without tents. We slept
10m
away from each other sitting up on a block of rock and
a snowy ledge. We just had to wait out the night. We
managed to melt a litre of snow and tried to swallow some
dried
Chinese noodles, not an easy feat!
21st March: At 5am it was still snowing, and it took
nearly
2 hours to melt 2 litres of water.
After hydrating ourselves,
we started to climb and just as we expected, the groove
was
incredibly difficult. We didn’t have enough suitable
equipment, just 3 blades and a micro-
gripper.
I was forced to re-use each of the previous picks that I had
used further down the
groove. It was really technical and
at times pretty dangerous. |
It took over 4 hours to conquer
this part of the climb and Christophe should have been
awarded the prize for patience as he stood watching and
encouraging from down below whilst being snowed on from
above. Christophe heaved himself up with much difficulty as I had taken out most of the picks
on the climb up. He took the overhang and climbed the final and most difficult part of the
face. At 6pm we reached the Marguerita point (4065m). The clouds cleared, as if to
congratulate us, but it was a sign that the wind was rising up above the valley. The powder
snow that had accumulated up until that point started to whip up around us and lash against our
faces. The snow storm started and no, unfortunately at this point, we weren’t finished.
The climb down from the Jorasses started with 2 abseils followed by a risky traverse to cross
the gap to the Young point. At this point night fell and Christophe realised that the batteries in
his headlamp were dead, he was now climbing blind. We roped ourselves together, and just
at that moment the snow gave way beneath his feet, he fell straight towards the precipice on the
Italian side. Fortunately the rope held well and Christophe got away with just a few cuts and
bruises. This just added to our already mounting anxiety and whilst climbing towards Young
point, Christophe dropped his axe; we decided it was time to call it a day! It was hard to find our route in the storm. We did 4 more abseils before taking on the ice
slopes of the Jorasses pass. At 4am on the 22nd March and after only 2 further rope lengths
we reached the Canzio refuge. We woke up Bertrand and Simon, cameraman and guide.
Thanks to our faithful team, the tea was already brewed by the time we set foot into the refuge.
At 7am, and after 26 waking hours, we climbed into bed to catch a few hours much needed
sleep. We made the decision to go back to the Leschaux refuge as the weather was not going
to improve over the next few days. |
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The decision… |
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On Thursday 23rd March we woke up in the Leschaux refuge after 13 or 14 hours
sleep. The
signs were not good: pins and needles in the fingers, lack of
sensation; the first signs of
frostbite. We really wanted to finish the challenge that
we had started 9 days before. At that
stage, we still hadn’t climbed the 3rd north
face. It would have been a kind of final point, and
the last great ‘Angle’ route up to
the Mont Blanc.
Nothing seemed right though, we had the beginnings of frostbite, our friends were
telling us it
wasn’t worth it and the weather was not getting any better. Everything
was telling us to stop
before reaching to the point of no return.
One thing is clear to us today: to continue would have been a pure ego trip. In the
mountaineering world, the egomaniac is doomed to fail. So on the 24th March,
we descended
the valley. We savoured the memory of what we had achieved,
and
just this once said to
ourselves ‘ok, so we didn’t make the three peaks,
but what we did achieve was already
massive, that was enough this time.’
The harsh snow storm had secured our friendship and
trust and most importantly
we knew when to stop. It was all great experience for the Shining
Wall project,
but it was only the first step.
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We have some great photos taken by Pascal Tournaire by helecopter. The moving images from
Migoo are also in the box.
Sincere thanks to all those who have supported us
through this adventure, Gilles, Pascal, Bertrand,
Simon, Arnaud, Tulio, Did & Co, les Grenoblois, Claude,
Patrick,
Lafuma, Petzl, Tirawa, Béal, Scarpa, Crispi, FFME,
Primus, Les Deux Ponts.
Next episode in May : "The return to the Moose’s tooth", Denali, Alaska.
>>> To launch the portfolio gathering a selection of the
best pictures taken during the Royal Sequence,
click on
the portfolio. |
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