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Just a few day's after the trip up to the Couvercle, it was back up the Midi for a day tour with Mario and his friend Lorenzo.
I was keen to repeat the Breche Puiseux - especially the steep boot-pack marked in red. I first did the tour in 2003, had little experience at the time and really made heavy work of it.
Mario enjoys some reasonable snow as we head from the Midi to the start of the climb via the Vrai Vallee Blanche. |
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Sorting skins, etc. at the Salle a Manger, with the Seracs du Geant behind.
Maybe here isn't the best place to realise that your old skins might not be compatible with your new skis. I think Mario had 5mm of ski exposed either side of the skin...
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With the snow firm underneath it was pretty difficult for Mario to avoid his skis slipping back - having been there in the past, I can testify to how tiring this is. For a while he resorted to walking.
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Like many of the relatively easily accessible day tours, the Breche is becoming increasingly popular. With skin issues, most groups got well ahead - which was fine as the final couloir can be a real bottleneck and we figured the snow on the other side would benefit from some time in the sun.
The Breche isn't the only route up here and in future seasons there are a few other options I'd like to head for.
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Lorenzo with the Dent du Geant behind.
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Eureka! Not the first photo I've posted of adapted skins - always handy to carry a knife.
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With the 'new' skins working well Mario was back on track.
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Great view for our lunch stop at the base of the boot-pack.
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Lorenzo leads the way up the couloir. The large group in front were Italian and of course knew Mario and Lorenzo!
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Great shot looking back down the couloir - nice and steep eh? |
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Out of the couloir and we could either rappel straight down the other side or climb up a little to an alternate rappel point. The Italian group head for the higher entry - Mario and Lorenzo followed for a look, but decided to come back down. |
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It didn't cost us any time as a French group just ahead of us were still faffing at the lower rappel point. Theres plenty of tat to hook onto and even a fixed rope in place - so with no need to sort out ropes, these guys were making a meal of it...
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Mind you - off the end of the rappel it is a little exposed! But with good snow in there, we made light work of it - even Lorenzo, who has a lot of ski touring experience but has done little ski mountaineering. |
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The rappel dealt with and its time to sort out the skis. You can just make out Lorenzo at the end of the fixed rope - Mario and I scrambled down from there without a rope, but Lorenzo opted to use one of our ropes - if I hadn't followed Mario's lead I'm sure I'd have done the same!!
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We rapped off the obvious break in the centre - the Italian group came down the slabby section half way between our decent and the right edge of the photo. By the time we had our skis on and ready to go only two of their group were down - time was getting on and we wondered if they would make the last train... |
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Some fantastic scenery on this route. |
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And interesting outcrops. |
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For most of the descent we stayed close to the left hand side of the Mont Mallet glacier.
The snow got better as we descended - 'do-able' crust higher up and real spring mush as we hit the Leschaux Glacier below. |
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Most of the pitches were at a great angle for the conditions and I had a great time all the way down. |
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Good to keep that in mind as we hit the bun-fight of tourists and other skiers heading for the train back to town... |
