On friday the 3rd of august Pernille, Simon Lund Jensen and I climbed a line on the north spur on Aiguille du Chardonnet.
We started from the Albert 1 refuge at around 02.30, with no clouds and were climbing the first pitches on the actual spur around 05.00, about an hour later the clouds rolled in but with no change of temp and no wind we did not turn back.
The whiteout meant that we had around 20 m visibility for the whole route, and we must have been off route climbing several 70-75 degree steps and only finding one piece of in situ equipment on the whole 600 m climb.
After summiting we had some trouble finding the right abseilline, again it was very time consuming finding the right way down in the clouds and we ended up abseiling a waterfall on the last three abs, which meant that we were soaked on the last abseil when a thunderstorm rolled over the col from the Argentiere basin with pretty full on thunder and lightning.
Things were getting interesting, and Pernille and I were on a hanging belay in a chimney for 45 min. while it hailed and Simon were on the bergshrund uncoiling the ropes getting close to hyperthermia. We all got so cold that we after pulling the ropes, had to cut off the knot to seperate the ropes before crossing the very open Tour glacier and the maze of giant crevasses.
We got some valuable assistence from the Albert 1 guardien, who could follow our headtorches with binoculars and guide us over the phone. The guardien had called the PGHM who laid a message on our phones that they wanted to pick us up, before a new big front arrived, but we managed to get to the hut by ourselves, 21 hours after leaving.
Other teams had been in trouble on the glacier and two days later a team were rescued off by the PGHM.
It is advised to stay in the far left side of the glacier as you are coming down, and not crossing until you are almost straight beneath the Albert 1 hut.
On the approach from the Col de Balme.
Sunset over Le Tour glacier.
Simon Lund Jensen leading the first pitch over the bergschund, the ice on the right is the "Aureille Feutren TD-", did´nt really look climbable.
Simon belaying me on the first pitch.
Sunrise over Le Tour basin
Simon Lund Jensen following the first pitch on the spur, while the weather was still sweet.
Pernille belaying Simon on the last pitch before the summit ridge.
Simon leading the last pitch and the weather is beginning to look a bit moody, everything got a bit involved once we summited, so no photos from the descent.
From the summit.
