Pics; 1st- Me on first pitch of Grand Cascade
2nd- Damo on the second pitch of Grand Cascade
3rd – Le Free Standing WI6 In the morning sun
4th – Me checking out the attachment point of the pillar
5th – Me leading the pillar just after the ice hit me in the face
6th – The pillar, showing how steep it is!
7th – My bust up eye befroe it got swolen
After our very lazy rest day yesterday, today Damien and I headed up to Megève to check out some of the less well known Ice falls. Despite the fact that it has not been mega cold the ice falls were super fat and longed to be climbed :-P. We leisurely put on our climbing kit and jumped on a WI 4+ called “Grand Cascade “ 120m. It was a good route with just enough steep ground to keep you interested.
Once we had finished the route we abbed back to our bags and checked the reading on the temperature gage on my watch. It read +1, much better than +4 which it had been when we arrived. As the temperature had dropped we decided to go for the route “Le Free Standing” WI 6, the name says it all! It was a 30m free standing ice pillar/fan that was only touching down on the right hand side. Feeling psyched to give it a go I headed up to the base of the route. The climbing was steep and the ice was technical due to the pillar being plastered in hanging icicles. I felt really good as I moved up the route until a dinner plate of ice smashed from my axes and hit me square in the face, this took the phrase “take one on the chin” to a whole new level! As the shock and the pain wore off I gathered up all my psych and headed for the top. Once on the snowy ledge above I shouted to Damo that I was safe and we sorted the ropes for him to second. The look on his face when he pulled over the top of the pillar reassured me that it was not just I who had found the route steep and hard.
Once again we abbed down to our bags and after willing our ropes not to get jammed in the surrounding trees, which thankfully they didn’t. (But it was touch and go for a moment when they were hard to pull) We then sorted out our stuff and headed for the car. It is amazing what awesome routes you can find if you’re willing to go to the less well known areas.
