Contamine Mazeaud AD+, 65, 350m

On the 27th of July, Pernille and me climbed the Contamine Mazeaud on the Tacul triangle. The night before it had snowed around 15 cm. We had pretty harsh conditions on the route, with 40km winds and heavy spindrift. Apart from that, the route was nice and varied. We abseiled down the couloir Chere.

We had the Mazeaud to ourselves, but there were people in the Grisolle and the Chere. We counted over 70 people on the Tacul normal route. Quite a few teams on south face of midi and the Eperon also.

Approaching the route, it goes pretty much straight up from there.

Third pitch in the entry couloir, pretty windy stuff

Belay after the third or fourth pitch, these are the only two pictures from the route, after this we came onto the main face, where there was a lot of spindrift going on. Good climbing though.

The first of five abseils down the couloir Chere, which seemed to be in ok conditions after the first pitch. There are in situ anchors for every 20 meters or so.

Very nice sunset from the col du midi.