24/09/2011.
Who can be naive enough to believe that they've climbed a new line on the north face of Grandes Jorasses in 2011? Still, whether a line has been undocumentedly climbed or not doesn't change the adventure and fun of heading up into the unknown.
Last weekend Michael and I were back at the Jorasses planning to either have a go at the Bonatti/Vaucher or a line that I'd spotted on Pointe Young last year. I couldn't find the route in any topos but it looked like it could go. Since the Bonatti/Vaucher wasn't looking that great, we decided to have a go.
Right hand side of the north face ©Ben Tibbetts
We were both unacclimatized and felt like shit on the bivy. The next morning I had no motivation to climb so when Michael came down after an attempt on the sketchy bergschrund my mind was already having brunch at Elevation in Chamonix. but...he had left an ice screw up there thinking I'd also like to have a go. I went up to retrieve it and after a few meters of climbing motivation was back...
Conditions were generally great but with some longer sections of thin unprotectable ice. About 400 meters up (where the routes splits into Knez-Skok & Desécures/Robach) we continued straight up through a system of narrow steeper gullies with thin ice. After ca 350 additional meters we topped out at a notch on the NNW spur of Pointe Young. Two 60-meter abseils and a short traverse lead us to the col des Grandes Jorasses and a smooth descent down to Italy and good coffee.
We simul-climbed the route in 5 pitches encountering no difficulties higher than M5. It goes without saying that we found no traces of previous ascents but that can of course not be excluded. In an email, Grandes Jorasses expert Luca Signorelli writes:
"It looks like you did the continuation of Cristal Palace originally missed by Ivano. I doubt it has been ever climbed the way you did, but the problem with the R flank of the North Face is that it had a lot of undocumented or poorly documented activity by locals. You may safely claim it as a major variant and see what happens! Keep in mind that there's a lot left to do on GJ particularly on the Italian side, so a new route claim.wouldn't sound outrageous! "
The approach is a bit trickier this year
It looked liked four people had climbed the Colton/MacIntyre but after that we had to break trail
Perfect conditions on the lower parts
Approaching the crux pitch
Canzio
Italian descent
Michael's German guide book talked about the approach to the Bocalatte hut via the glacier...
Who can be naive enough to believe that they've climbed a new line on the north face of Grandes Jorasses in 2011? Still, whether a line has been undocumentedly climbed or not doesn't change the adventure and fun of heading up into the unknown.
Last weekend Michael and I were back at the Jorasses planning to either have a go at the Bonatti/Vaucher or a line that I'd spotted on Pointe Young last year. I couldn't find the route in any topos but it looked like it could go. Since the Bonatti/Vaucher wasn't looking that great, we decided to have a go.
Right hand side of the north face ©Ben Tibbetts
We were both unacclimatized and felt like shit on the bivy. The next morning I had no motivation to climb so when Michael came down after an attempt on the sketchy bergschrund my mind was already having brunch at Elevation in Chamonix. but...he had left an ice screw up there thinking I'd also like to have a go. I went up to retrieve it and after a few meters of climbing motivation was back...
Conditions were generally great but with some longer sections of thin unprotectable ice. About 400 meters up (where the routes splits into Knez-Skok & Desécures/Robach) we continued straight up through a system of narrow steeper gullies with thin ice. After ca 350 additional meters we topped out at a notch on the NNW spur of Pointe Young. Two 60-meter abseils and a short traverse lead us to the col des Grandes Jorasses and a smooth descent down to Italy and good coffee.
We simul-climbed the route in 5 pitches encountering no difficulties higher than M5. It goes without saying that we found no traces of previous ascents but that can of course not be excluded. In an email, Grandes Jorasses expert Luca Signorelli writes:
"It looks like you did the continuation of Cristal Palace originally missed by Ivano. I doubt it has been ever climbed the way you did, but the problem with the R flank of the North Face is that it had a lot of undocumented or poorly documented activity by locals. You may safely claim it as a major variant and see what happens! Keep in mind that there's a lot left to do on GJ particularly on the Italian side, so a new route claim.wouldn't sound outrageous! "
The approach is a bit trickier this year
It looked liked four people had climbed the Colton/MacIntyre but after that we had to break trail
Perfect conditions on the lower parts
Approaching the crux pitch
Canzio
Italian descent
Michael's German guide book talked about the approach to the Bocalatte hut via the glacier...
Well done lads!
ReplyDeleteNIce work!
ReplyDeletecheers
Dane
Bra jobbat Olov! Kul att höra om dina äventyr!
ReplyDeleteHa det!
Gustaf
Well done, guys. I posted a link on ChamonixInsider.com. If that's not cool, please let me know and I'll take it down ASAP.
ReplyDeleteKeep chargin'!