50-70 cm of snow around 3500 m

A snowy situation in Chamonix




North face of Peigne



North face of Midi

Kuffner Ridge D, 50, 700m, IV

On the 8.th of august, Pernille and I climbed the Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit.

It is a route that I have been wanting to do for a very long time, so it was nice to finally climb it. The Brenva side of Mont Blanc is spectacular and the views from the bivi and the route are really amazing. We arrived pretty late at the Fourche bivi hut, around 6 pm, just to find out that the bivi with a max of 15 people, was already housing 20. We ended up staying 24 people in there, I sat and got a bit of sleep on a bench with three others and Pernille slept on the floor with another six. We got out of the hut around 5 am and topped out on the Col du Maudit at 10 am.

The walk from the Midistation took around two hours, the Tour Ronde north face looked to be back in pretty good conditions, Gervasutti couloir looked dry.

There were quite a few people on the Pointe Lachenal rock routes. 20 cm of new snow.

The Combe de Maudit, on the approach to the Fourche bivi hut. There were a lot of people, on the rock routes of the Tacul satellites. The climb to the bivi was in ok conditions, a fair bit of loose rock and gravel, but pretty easy.

The start of the ridge, can be seen in the middle of the picture.

Sunrise over the Geant basin, a lot of cloud passing over in the morning, as day came it became almost whiteout with light snow.

After the snowridge, the route climbs some rockbands and small snowfields. Good snowcover throughout.

Pernille high on the snowridge of the Kuffner, Tour Ronde in the background.

Me climbing one of the snowfields before Point de l'Androsace. Beautiful ridge climbing.

The snowridge just before the traverse under the l'Androsace. Very photogenic scene.

Aiguille Peuterey´s in the background.

Traversing under the l'Androsace, easy climbing around a great granite tower. This is the last photo from the route, as it clouded over and started to snow.

Trois Monts PD+, 50, III, 1660m

Mathias, a mate from Copenhagen is training for Cph Challange, which is an Iron Man in the city centre this August. He thought climbing Mont Blanc would be a great way to test himself and some of the gear, that he uses on his ski expeditions.

The goal of the trip was to climb Mont Blanc over the Trois Monts route, which crosses Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit, before summiting Mont Blanc. It was a great trip with great views and great winds. It is not technical, it is just long.

The headchef cooking up some very tasty freezedried stuff. There had fallen around 30 cm of new snow on the mountain, made for pretty hard bootpacking on the route.

Room with a view, tentcamp on the Col du Midi. Jumped in the bags at around 8, to get up and out around midnight. It was a very nice and clear night with lots of shooting stars.

Mathias resting on the Col du Maudit, just as the sun starts to come up. We did not feel the warmth, as the winds picked up.

Sunrise, Matterhorn, Grand Combin and Monte Rosa massif in the distance.

People struggling to get to the summit in the strong winds. We summited as the second team from the Midi, a lot of teams turned back.

Summit at 8 0´clock, in 50 kmph winds. But very clear weather, you could see the Grand Casse and Grand Motte over in Tignes. It was very cold, so we did not hang around for long.

Looking back at Maudit and Tacul from the summit, Kuffner ridge next weeks goal coming up on the right.

When we arrived back at the Col du Maudit, some guy was choppered off, quite impressive to see how fast and effective the PGHM guys work.

Mathias had some prototype of a new solarpanel with him, he wanted to give it a test on the hill before taking it on an expedition. You can read more about Mathias and his adventures on www.whiteout.eu

Some of the crevasses on Tacul has opened up so wide, that the PGHM has put up ladders to make the glacier passible.. Soon the gap will be to big, and you will no longer be able to cross.

There were quite a few people on the normal routes to Tacul and Maudit, a few came up from the Kuffner and Brenva spur as well as people on the Tacul Triangle. Pretty good conditions all over.