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.