It was Jason and Clayton's last day in Chamonix and we were keen for one last decent tour before they left. So despite a poor forecast and a broken ski lift adding an hour or two to the time and effort, we decided to have a crack at the Col du Passon. We managed to persuade Mark and Dave to come - the Passon is a real slog at times and Dave had only been back in Town a night after his latest long haul flight - bad enough even if you're not the pilot!
Unfortunately the top lift at Grand Montets was closed. Normally we'd have more or less skied across the Argentiere Glacier - approaching the climb from the right of this shot. But on this day it was skins or snow shoes on and a little extra graft. I've marked the final boot pack approach to the Col.
Big thanks to Mark, Clayton and Jason for some of these photos. These next two shots of us crossing the Argentiere Glacier highlight the advantage of skins over shoes on the flat. I'm at the back on this shot - probably snapping away with the camera and certainly not because of excessive faffage ;)
Not long after and I'm just behind Mark at the front, on the final flat section before the real work begins.
Somewhere in the middle of the climb and we're all fairly spaced out. The Passon certainly isn't a cruise - Mark was setting the pace and then myself and the boarders chopped and changed depending on the terrain. You can just make out part of Argentiere down in the valley.
The weather wasn't a huge worry at this point - although the condition of the snow if we were forced to turn back was - some crusty nastiness...
As I said, Mark was certainly setting the pace - with a fair amount of weather forecast you can't blame him.
With the weather clagging in fast we decided to have a quick lunch at the base of the final boot pack. A slight change to the sunny picnic on top of the Aiguille Pourrie a few days before. On most tours its easy to decide on what kit you need to take along - glacier travel gear? a rope for security or access? Mark opted for the extra weight of crampons to help him in his Alpine boots on the last climb, while my boot grip tourers and the boys' snow board boots meant we could risk saving the weight.
Starting out on the final climb to the Col - with plenty of snow around and lots of people having travelled through on previous days the climb was not too nasty - although we all used an ice axe for a little security.
Although we weren't on snow all the time. I imagine that on sunny days it must become a real bun fight through here.
As we made our way up the weather really started to clag in - our progress would have been much quicker if we'd spent a bit less time snapping away!
Getting really grotty now - all adds to the ambience I guess.
A little less ambience on the Col would have been nice - and a lot more visibility... A white out as we're about to drop onto the Tour Glacier is not really what we wanted. The inability of three of us to side step and back track easily is a real issue here.
Mark was more than up to the task and with some excellent navigation it didn't take too long for us to drop out of the murk. At the time, it felt like we were in the white out for an age - especially as you have no idea when you'll get out of it till it actually happens. Our shepherded boarders enjoy being off the leash!
The snow certainly wasn't exceptional - getting really heavy as we got lower. But with some visibility, albeit a bit flat, we weren't complaining.
Just about off the glacier, but decent route finding and concentration still needed right to the end of this tour. You could tell Jason and Clayton were leaving soon - with the rest of us just happy to find the easy line out and a seat on the bus down to Argentiere - the boys were looking for the more "interesting" way home.
We were five happy bunnies to get down to Le Tour base area. While prudence would have meant staying home for the day I must point out we weren't the only group heading to the Passon that day - two fairly worried looking guys got to the Col just as we left and I think there were more behind.
