This morning as Ally was out with his Mum and Aunt for the last day of their trip to Cham, I headed up on to the Plan de L’Aiguille ready and psyched for my chosen objective.
A bit of snow never hurt anyone.
As the weather forecast for today was so good, I decided to go and solo the uber classic “Frendo Spur” on the Aiguille du Midi North Face. This is a line that I have wanted to do for a while and thankfully it didn’t disappoint!
The view below me from mid crux
When I left the station at the Plan de L’Aiguille I started the timer on my watch, as I was interested to see what sort of time it would take me to ascend this 1200m mixed route. I then passed two parties on the approach and another just before the bergschrund, after that I was on my own for pretty much all of the route. Apart from one last party that had bivied at halfway and they let me past just before I started the last third (rock crux).
Another little crux section
Approaching the snow arete
The line was very enjoyable with a good selection of interesting rock pitches and some cool slabby crack sections. The rock crux was pretty straight forward, and after that you move up and onto the immaculate snow arête that is such a distinctive feature on the Midi North Face. After a short while moving up the arête, I decided to take the left hand ice variation around the rock buttress, which involves a short ice pitch that I found pretty enjoyable. This little ice pitch got me mega psyched for the swiftly approaching winter season!
One man and his axe!
The beautiful upper section!
After the ice pitch it was up a snowy face and then you pull onto the base of the Midi arête. As I pulled over onto the arête, I startled two Italian climbers that where sorting their gear after a couple of days in the Vallee Blanche area and after a quick chat, one of them offered to take a couple of photos for me, then is was off up the Arete and Into the famous midi ice cave.
