Since the previous trip to Grand Combin 2 weeks ago I've learned that when Tormod asks me if I want to come climbing it involves something big. This time he was keeping it local, meaning no need for long drives or staying at refuges. Though we did end up tenting on the glacier.
Today's mission was Dent du Géant, a 4013 meter high fascinating peak pointing towards the sky. I've marvelled at it numerous times when snowboarding below it, but hadn't actually expected to climb it so soon. It would be my 4th 4000 meter peak.
At 6:15am we met at the Aiguille du Midi telecabin. After a photo-shoot and a bit of waiting for the Mont-Blanc Panoramic gondola to open we made our way over to the Italian side. Unfortunately this meant that the crowds starting from the Torino refuge had a few hours head-start as we weren't walking until closer till 9am. Tormod had brought a small media ensemble along; Erlend, a Norwegian photographer, and Lothar Hofer, who impressed me by carrying all his film-equipment in addition to the regular glacier and mountain gear.
As we stopped to put our crampons on at the upper slopes of the Glacier Géant I heard an uncomfortable noise from above. Tormod interrupted me staring at the largest boulders I'd ever seen tumbling down a mountain with a “Run!” I pulled my jaw back up, and rushed as fast as possible with one partially attached crampon. Luckily we were already on the outskirts of the debris zone, and all went well. Later we concluded that the new lack of permafrost and snow has made the scree on the ridge horribly loose, with no mention of it in any of my older guide-books.
Scrambling up the ridge was an exercise in tip-toeing up scree, doing our best not to send any loose rocks onto each other. I was pretty happy when we reached “Salle à Manger”, a snow-field below the actual peak, and where the steep climbing starts. This was also were we finally caught up with the crowds ahead of us, which resulted in almost 2 hours of waiting. I snuck in a snooze on a warm rock before it was our turn to start ascending. One of the descending teams had promised us it was quite ok to climb in mountain boots. I'm pretty sure it would've been easier in rock-climbing shoes, that I brought but never wore. However, I got to do my first rock-climb in mountain boots, a good experience. I even led one of the easier pitches, rather than seconding Tormod the entire way. It is the highest rock-climbing I've ever done, and by far the most exposed. Up-front I was worried the exposure would scare me, but I didn't mind when I was in the thick of it.
The climbing is mostly slab with vertical crack-lines at grade 4, with the steeper crux pitch at grade 5. I made good use of the fixed rope at this point. According to the guide-book it's 7 pitches, but we made our pitches longer as we wanted to move fast. Moving fast was also made easier by the enormous fixed ropes that were bolted to most of the route. They definitely came in handy, though it would've been a much nicer climbing experience without them. And possibly much less traffic. The reason for our haste was that it had gotten quite late in the day, and the forecasted 90% sunshine was being replaced with the 10% clouds. I was constantly worried about the clouds moving in, keeping a keen eye out for any thundery looking cumulonimbus clouds. The words in the guide-book stuck with me – Dent du Géant makes an excellent lightening conductor. Which was made quite clear by the look of a melted bolt on the top-anchor, and the unusual hair-do of the Virgin Mary statue at the very peak. She did make for a great belay anchor though.
Standing on the peak was magnificent. It's the smallest, most pointy, sharpest peak I've been on. Fantastic views in every direction, including, or especially, downwards. 1500 meters below my left foot - Vallée Blanche. 2500 meters below my right foot - Italy. And clouds can look really cool when you're popping in and out of them without the aid of an airplane.
So, it was about 6pm, and we were standing on the top. Which meant we were halfway. It was time to find those rappel anchors. I let Tormod deal with that while I waited. After some radioing and the occasional clear view down to Lothar, who was filming from the “Salle à Manger”, Tormod had it dialled. (Added to my wish-list: 2-way radios.) Rappelling down I was unusually relieved dangling in a rope 150 meters above the ground. The weather cleared again as soon as I touched ground.
The return went much faster, even while tip-toeing down the scree again. Down on the glacier I called Shannon to tell her I was safely down. I usually send text-messages throughout the day when I'm out doing stuff, but the networks can be annoyingly bad in the mountains, and I rarely had coverage corresponding to breaks in the climbing.
We briskly walked back across the glacier as the daylight vanished, and arrived at 10pm to a readymade camp brought and set up by Shannon, with dinner waiting. I believe we were too tired to really express our gratitude properly, so once again - thank you thank you thank you!
We enjoyed some whisky and watching millions of stars above us before I had one of the best sleeps I've had in a tent.
Update: Tormod blogged as well.
