We left Chamonix early and arrived at the Aiguille du Plan with frost still covering the grass – the north facing cliff we’d selected for today’s adventures was going to be cold! Ian and I had the Eperon Nord in our sights and Laetitia and Astrid had Les Lépidoptères in theirs.
After gearing up, grabbing a few mouthfuls of the super-tasty sandwiches we’d bought from the boulangerie near the Aiguille du Midi station in Chamonix, and agreeing to rendezvous back at the buvette by the lift station, Laetitia and Astrid headed off further left to the start of their line…
Ian and I then set about the first pitch up the right side of the massive detached flake which marks the start of our line…
It was very cold, so I started climbing in my warm puffer layer.
Meanwhile Laetitia and Astrid were getting stuck into the delights of the slabs…
Unfortunately the climbing on Les Lépidoptères became too serious and committing for Laetitia and Astrid that day so, soon after this, we saw them abseiling from above the second pitch, having escaped into the corner system to their right.
On the way down Laetitia captured this cute marmot that Astrid had seen ahead of them on the path…
While the sunbathing was going on Ian and I were still battling with the Eperon Nord. I’d removed my puffer to save it being ripped to shreds in the various deep cracks of the route. But what I hadn’t factored in was the state of my ageing trousers. The seat of my trousers were in tatters by the end of the day! 🙁
We drifted off route a little here and there. In particular we managed to get to the red-granite-tower, which needed to be turned on the left, a fair bit too high. This meant we ended up doing two much harder pitches than we should have had to do…
Eventually we reached the ridge-line of the Arête des Papillons. Unfortunately we joined the ridge in the middle of a rope of a Guide and two novice French lads. Although as it was now 5PM and our chances of catching the last lift were vanishing, I carried on climbing and Ian led on to find the abseil station at the top of Les Lépidoptères.
Laetitia and Astrid could just see our antics from their sunbathing spot and were rooting for us. Could we make the last lift? It had been a gloriously sunny day and thousands of tourists had used the lift to the top of the Aiguille du Midi, all those tourists had to come down too and the lift was running very late…
We despatched the abseils as quickly as possible, got back to the sacks, guzzled some water (we were parched), stuffed our gear and started boulder hopping and running back to the lift station.
We just made it, the last lift should have been 5.40PM, it was now 7PM! 😎
Series - Chamonix '12
- At last a day without paint – L’ile aux Razmokets
- Eperon Nord, North West slabs of
Aiguille du Peigne - Aiguille Rouge
- Alpine Flower Quiz
- Shutter Renovation
- Aiguille du Tour
- Last Day of Cragging at Gaillands
Did the cute marmot make the lift ❓
Oh yes. He’s now a house guest, but he may become pair of slippers later. 👿
“Bendy, stuck-on” hold ???!!!
it was a perfect flake for a crimp, but when weighted it flexed 😯 In the end I resorted to 2 hand jams and tom and jerry feet 😀
Les Lepidopteres is a hard, serious route 🙂
We certainly thought so… harder than we had planned for the day. Me and Astrid want to go back one day, when we’re a little more psyched for it.
But it’s always hard to commit to climbing in the shade when it’s glorious sunshine on the other side of the valley. 😛
The marmot was so cute :love: