Let the games begin...

May 2008. Chamonix, France

"We invite you to, somethin epic, y'all know?
Where we hustle out of a sense of, hopelessness
Sort of a desperation
Through that desperation, we 'come addicted
Sorta like the fiends we accustomed to servin
But we feel we have nothin to lose
so we offer you, well, we offer our lives, right
What do you bring to the table?"
-Jay-Z

Building on my exploits of skiing and climbing in the Sierra Nevada,
I wanted to test myself in the playground where legends are made and the reality of failure glares at you with fiery eyes at every moment. I rolled around bumping Dre and Jay rocking a headband and jersey and not giving a @#$^. The opening quote says it all.
Enjoy.

Train drop off point high in the valley. Solo. Top of the Chamonix Valley, Mont Blanc Massif


Arriving at the top of the Grand Montets.
Chamonix Aiguilles, Mont Blanc du Tacul, Mont Blanc


Looking up at the famed north face of Les Droites and Col d'Aiguille Verte


Party on the Argentiere!!! Tons of folks enjoying perfect May conditions.


Touring around the glacier was mesmorizing. The scale of the Argentiere basin is mondo. I figured I'd warm up with a descent of the Northeast Face of Les Courtes.
A dude offered me a belay over the rimeye. Sweet. A long climb up. Fantastic views. It was clicking into my skis that I began to grasp the hugeness.


The descent was challenging, I was viewing a lot more exposure than I am used to given the consistent pitch of 48 degrees for something like 2000 feet.
Tricky snow conditions kept things interesting. Its a bit of weight on your back when you have a 60m rope and two tools...After shredding down to Lognan
I ran into some Apocalypse Snow monoboarders and busted up laughing before going to chill out on the deck and eat chocolate. Then I took the train back
down to Montreux, Switzerland where I was staying with a friend to wait out oncoming weather.
Lake Geneva..."Presidential suites my resedential for the weekend"


A few days later, a weather window opened. Time to make a pilgrimmage to the Aiguille du Midi!
Early am turns down the Vallee Blanche


This time my goal was the classic Couloir Jager. Averaging 50 degrees plus for 2400 vertical feet. A spectacular line, pencil thin compared to the neighboring
Couloir Gervasutti. Passing the rimeye no problem I climbed for three hours before reaching the choke near the top...


I found some nice rocks to chill on and eat lunch. A big drop to the glacier. This is where things began to get interesting.


I waited until about 11 to begin my descent. Being only a few hundred feet from the top with a wierd mixed ice bulge to deal with, I figured this was a good place to start.
Until a roped pair with skis on their backs climbed past me. Exchanging greetings, they continued. One had a ponytail! And they were going up! I was not about to let some Euro
ponytail roped up dudes ski this thing from the top with me descending from below! Up I went. They placed some pro in the ice bulge. I soloed. I had never climbed true water ice
before. With over 2000 feet of air below, I figured this place was as good as any to learn. Well, at least I could rappel over the bulge with the Euros' rope (didn't bring mine).
I pulled over the bulge and continued up the final snowfield to the summit ridge. Exchanging high fives and top photos with my new friends, I asked if they were excited for the descent.
"Oh no, we do not descend the couloir Jager, we will go back to Cosmiques hut via the north face route (I skied this in storm conditions the day before, a fun run, but not what I came to do...)
I replied, "Okay, well I am going for it." "Good luck," they said, "Be very careful for it is late, and we will see you again here!" With that they set off and I began to prepare myself for
a very scary descent.
The Aiguille Verte and I!!!


Since we're talking about it, here is the north face of the Tacul. This avalanche path, I believe, is the one that buried quite a few folks late in the season. It is perpetually active,
as you can tell...and bazillions of people wander about in this zone every day.


Amazing first turns. Steep, exposed, perfect soft spring snow. Then to the choke. No rope to rappel. Downclimbing over the bulge scared me. I opted for the loose, steep rock with a few mixed moves
to the left. I spent a good twenty minutes downclimbing the scaryness. Getting back on snow was a great relief. Until I realized the growing shadow in the couloir and the hardness of the snow.
A long descent was about to take place.
"Tryin to keep peace like a Buddhist" on rock hard sketchiness


Wasted. Ski extreme at its finest. One and a half hours of sideslipping, SCARY turns, some ice axe belayed side slipping, and a whole lot of HOPE.
"Happy to be escapin poverty, however brief"


Woke up late the next day to slide something easier. This time the North Face of the Tour Ronde. Wasn't sure how the choke was gonna be, but I figured to go have a peek.
Touring in the neighborhood


Climbing up to the choke, I found it to be pure ice. No rope, and I was not going to downclimb all the way, not after yesterday. But the lower zone had a nice pitch to throw some turns. Note black ice.


The click in and drop zone was steep and a little bony


First turn, mmmm, second turn, ssssssssskkkkkkkkkkkttttttt along the underlying water ice!!!!! Whoa! Couple more of those before epic June powder on a perfect pitch. Notice blue ice in upper turns. A key survival
skill in the Alps is to be able to control yourself in this type of terrain when black ice lurks beneath the surface. The DRAGON...


It is hard NOT to have hairball descents here! A nice long cruise back up to the Midi in afternoon clouds


You want to kiss the ground once you step off the telepherique in Chamonix. Life is so easy down here, no worries...
This is for The FACTOR!


Another few days in Switzerland wandering around gardens and fountains as I wait for good weather to get back into the hills. A break comes and I race for the Midi. The line today is the Petite Gervasutti Couloir,
on the West Face of the Tour Ronde. About 50 degrees for 1000 feet, this one feels like a Sierra descent. Very aesthetically pleasing. Full of awesome pow pow. Feel the ambiance...


Cool double fall line action


Can I live? Yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh...


The next morning, the glow of the finest alpine Cathedrals, the East Face of Mont Blanc du Tacul, warms your soul (ahem, with fear). I am completely in love with the Couloir Diable and its little partner in crime,
the Couloir Isolee. The Diable is the dead center line, the Isolee is hidden, and to the right is the super classic alpine testpiece the Supercouloir (ED2) and the amazing Gervasutti Pillar (TD). The Couloir Diable
has two cruxes of steep ice in the lower third. I was halfway up the first crux when I was getting bombarded by debris and scared of the commitment of the ice, so I turned tail and ran.


Bad weather resumed for a long period of time. The Monsoon drenched the valley and plastered the hills for weeks. I moved life from Switzerland to Chamonix, settling in an AWESOME camping called Camping Mer de Glace.
Located in the forests of Les Praz (a 15 minute walk from Chamonix) it is the best place to stay hands down. I lived here for over two months. Relatively cheap, infinite hot showers, free internet access, indoor
places to eat and chill, and a four minute walk from the bus and train stops. Perfect. Alex is the caretaker and an awesome dude. You meet tons of folks here which is fun as well.
The weather finally improved, I wanted to ski the Couloir Diable, so we went to the Mer De Glace and practiced ice climbing. One tool. Amazing what you can do.


Get some religion.

My newfound friend Oscar really likes climbing, so we went on some hilarious adventures. Like laughing up the Voie Rebuffat uber-classic (totally reminded me of third pillar, minus the alps).
Oscar leading the S-crack pitch


We started climbing really late, finished in a snowstorm, and found that they had locked the door to get to the station. We got stuck until we called the 112 and made them come open it up. When you get stuck, you get
to sleep in the toilets. Ammonia is fun. But drying your socks in the power dryer is more fun


The best part about skiing out of the Midi station is the hugely exposed turns on a nice steep face above Chamonix on the hanging North Face snowfield. Town is 10,000 feet below. This is extra fun at 5am with the town lights flashin.


Or perhaps the best part is the colors...
Aiguille Verte


Sunset. Grands Jorasses, Aiguilles Rocheforte, Dent du Geant


Sunrise!


Chamonix Aiguilles, Aiguille Verte, Les Droites


Morning efforts...


Aiguille du Midi station


Oscar and I went up to play on the Triangle du Tacul. He went for the classic ice climb on the right side of the face while I went to make a ski descent of the Contamine-Negri route (first skied by THE MAN!!! Jean-Marc Boivin)
on the left side. It basically hugs the rock line and squiggles through the lower cliff band with the serac. 50 plus degrees, maybe 1000 vertical. It was really fun.


Another view, the line is the right side of the big snowfield. You can see the mixed zone down to the right of the serac. Sweet!


The lower serac zone. No falling, or you fall through (or off) of this stuff


Instead you have to work it through here. I took skis off for a few feet of mixed nastiness traversation. Quite exposed above and below.


Nearing the top of the line. Once again, thin snowcover over hard, sketch-tastic ice. Good thing I practiced a few weeks ago. Some scary turns, and some AMAZING ones, watching sluff cascade into the abyss


Contemplating setting up a rappel. I opted to go left and re-traverse the mixed zone.


On the traverse during the descent. I was having lots of fun here! Now I get to ski again! Wheeeee!


The Aiguilles Rouges have funny signs. Don't pick flowers, yo!


One love. Aigulle Verte and Les Drus from the Aiguilles Rouges on a rainy day walk from Chamonix to Col des Montets and back. I want to climb or ski something on that face...


During a tour to the Col d'Entreves, I found this BIIIIIIIIIIIIG drop down to the Brenva Glacier. The best part of this day was the looks I got by skiing switch
everywhere with my pack on. Big switch turns on glaciers rule!!!!


"My mind is infested with sick thoughts that circle like a Lexus, if driven wrong they're sure to hurt you"
Aiguille Blanche, Grand Pilier d'Angle, and the Brenva Face of Mont Blanc


Wolfenstein 3D expansion pack...Escape from Aiguille Du Midi!


Back for another go at the Couloir Diable. 5am skiing down the north face of the Midi station. Feelin the vibes...
"Cristal on ice I like those toes I keep spillin it
Bone crushers I keep real close I got the skill for this
On my back the fliest clothes lookin ill and ***"


Supercouloir!!!! Gervasutti Pillar!!!!


With my couple of hours of single tool serac practice, I flew up the first 40 foot ice step of WI3, then up the second 30 foot zone of WI2. Topped out in around 5 hours.
Looking down...


Topped out via the Couloir Isolee, a short little bonus to the Diable. 55 degree for several hundred feet before you rejoin the Diable. The top was a knife edgy cornice
with huge exposure down the south face. Beeeeee careful!


Awesome view of the Aiguille Blanche over the Combe Maudit


Man I'm high off life, %$!@ it I'm wasted! Here comes 2700 vertical of pure 50-55 degree goodness!!!!


Once again, my favorite type of snow condition! Can you guess what it is? Powder, right. But what should be slidding along underneath? SUPERICE!!!! Yaaaayyyy


The easier of the two ice steps. I downclimbed this one and rapped over the second. A full 30 meter rappel. I was sure happy to get on the other side of this rimeye...


Here you can see the style of turn necessary for ice underlying powder. Slow, long, and VERY controlled. Or you fall. If you fall on a line like this, you will probably die.
I don't look at the consequences, I only look at the possibilities.


Evening view from home in Les Praz.

A few days later Oscar and I decided to celebrate the combination of Full Moon and Summer Solstice by spending some time at the Col de la Fourche Hut. This hut accessess the
absolute sickest ski and climbing terrain known to man. On the way, we saw what happened to the Couloir Diable...


Just the approach to the Fourche hut is rated AD. But you get a sweet view of the Petite Gervasutti Couloir and the Dent du Geant


The hut is perched upon a knife edge ridge and serves as the starting point for the Kuffner Ridge route on Mont Maudit. The balcony has a two hundred foot drop. The view is ridiculous


Chillin on the balcony


Climbing a route on the Grand Pilier is DEFINITELY on my list...by the way Pierre Tardivel skied this (accessing via a heli, which GREATLY DETRACTS from the AESTHETIC of the descent)


Oscar setting the first track up the Kuffner Arete


Chillin in the Fourche Hut.


I wanted to ski the Voie Tardivel, which starts far right, goes left above the cliffs, and then back right. He used a heli (again) and I was going to climb it. It is not extremely steep,
40-50 degrees for around 2400 vertical, but is very hazardous due to the serac hazards and clifbands.


I watched the face for three days before going for it. Rappelling off the balcony into the eerily warm night, I heard the familiar crashing sound of serac fall. This, I knew, was not from
the Brenva Arete nor the south face of Maudit, but right down the zone of my line. While not hugely exposed once you were out from the bottom, I had no idea what part of the face this
ice fell from. While I may say "I know how this movie ends, still I play" I KNEW how this movie could end, and I wasn't gonna play. Too much risk. Some French alpinists told me the line
was never skied because it was so dangerous, now I better understand. But it was about 2am when I decided against skiing it, so I went for the next best bet, the North Face of the Aiguille
Blanche. I cruised over to the Col Moore, popped over the top, and then began descending scary unconsolidated snow. I had read accounts of the Col Moore area being dangerous and unstable,
but in snowy conditions, how bad could it be? I kept downclimbing until I realized that I could easily cliff myself out or end up in some wierd rimeye zone. But I was on good ice so I
kept going down. Down until I could feel the void. Now it was getting late. I was off-route and would have to climb up and back over, then find a way to pass the rimeye. Then traverse below
the most serac-fall prone area of the largest wall of ice in Europe at sunrise before getting on my route, which was full of seracs and who knows what else. Not to mention that I had to go
back up Col Moore and back up to the hut to get to any water beyond what I had. Oscar thought I was on the Voie Tardivel, and I had a cell phone that I thought worked but actually did not.
I felt that it was a much better idea to take what I had learned and head back before getting into a super sketch epic with dire consequence possibility. "Beads of sweat second thoughts on my mind
How can I ease the stress and learn to live with these regrets"
View of cliff-outness below Col Moore (lightened given it was shot at 5am)


I stopped at the top of Col Moore to eat a few chocolate bars (during my three months here I probably ate in the neighborhood of 20-30 pounds of chocolate) and watch the sunrise. Epic. Brenva Face: The Pear and Voie Major


Grand Pilier


Climbing a route on the Grand Pilier is DEFINITELY on my list...by the way Pierre Tardivel skied this (accessing via a heli, which GREATLY DETRACTS from the AESTHETIC of the descent)


A nice wander back across the Brenva Glacier and up past the hut to the ridge brought a nice position to check things out


Shadow warrior


Not to far from the col that I topped out on, I found a perfect line to shred. 600 feet of excellent 50 degree corn, mmmm hmmmm.


Then I bounced over to check out the North Face of the Aiguille d'Toule
Up the west face to the top.


The descent was frightening. Never got soft. 50-55 degrees. I got lots of ice tool descent practice. A skill that will keep you alive is being able to ski with an ice tool for the purpose of self-belay and holding your skis on the slope. I skied past some very surprised and roped up climbers on my way down. Then proceeded to make a bunch of switch turns once back in low angle terrain. Eventually I worked back up to the Midi station and rode down, ending a 16 hour cruise in the hills.
Walking back up my street


The next idea was to climb the Gervasutti Pillar on the East Face of Mont Blanc du Tacul. A classic alpine rock climb, TD, 800m. We brought the barbeque and a laptop to the bivy for extra style points.


The fridge


Clouds over the Aiguille du Midi


Oscar leading the lower pitches.


Up higher, still on amazing rock. Getting later in the day. We started up around 10am. So alpine.


Random pitons are always nice. Granjero on the sharp end. Not too many bolts, thankfully.


This pitch was where the mixed sketchiness began. An icy A1 move got us to a chilly belay. Then we started up icy ramps. Mountain boots went on here, rock shoes into the pack.


After about 18 hours of movement, simul soloing the wierd mixed no-mans land late at night. Icy chimneys, stuck rappel ropes, lots of snowy mixed slowed us down. Kinda lost here in the middle of a huge mountain face, just going up.


The final pitch was very silly. Really cold, and really exposed rock in boots. I tried to aid off an old sling about 10 feet from the top and it blew, sending me on a 20 foot whipper with 3000 feet of air below. Luckily it was dark and I didn't see anything below. Just laughter. Topping out, we were wondering why all these lights were moving around on the glacier. We thought it was like 12am. Quite a surprise to see the sun coming up. 4:30am!!! 23 hours after waking up, we stumbled back into camp and slept until noon, then did the slog back up to the midi station. Good clean fun. The next idea? To Le Tour!


Alpine hills


Camp on the Moraine. Aiguille du Chardonnet. Oscar climbed a variation of the Migot Spur to the right of the face. North face was a little icy to make a repeat of Boivin's descent.


My goal was to ski the North Face of the Aiguille d'Argentiere, a gorgeous 2200 foot face of 50-55 degrees with plenty of seracs thrown in for spice.


Intimidating approach


The crux of the route put it out of condition. Black ice revealed by constant sluffing in 55 degree terrain about 2/3rds up the route. No thanks. It was scary enough just climbing the brittle yet hard ice. Then up higher, it got to be knee deep unconsolidated goop. Odd. A fantastic climb, however, once I got up the thing. Some exposure...


I opted to descend the East Face via the Couloir Barbey, first skied by Daniel Chaucefoine. A very nice 2000 foot line in the mid upper 40s with great views of Switzerland. Dropping!


Couloir Barbey from below. A little exposed if you start skiers right and work left. There were some HUGE runnels on this thing, like 10 feet deep. I had to pick up speed and boost over them. This run was wierd in that I could feel summer creeping up on spring, high sun angle and really warm. Sierra style, oh yeah.


Touring around to the north face to climb back up to the col and then ski back down the Le Tour glacier, I got a view of the north face line that showed how out of condition it was...
Dark streaks=really scary ice


Oscar left me beer and a safety pamphlet at the bivy for my chillin walk and ride down to town

We made a new friend a few days later named Pete who was from Australia and liked to climb. So we decided to do a fun climb called the Frendo Spur on the north face of the Aiguille du Midi. Line goes left of center. Super classic.


We dug a bivi at the top and stashed our goodies up there for arrival that evening.


Pete cruising nice rock


The granjero getting the squeeze on. We simul-climbed 98% of the route.


1% of that was here, a nice steep dihedral. Oscar busts it out


Descending to the ledge for a coffee. Awesome exposure here


Coffee and snickers with lots of air, Oscar and the Granjero. Trippin!!!


Topping out in the sunset. French technique in the house.


Five hours after starting, we scored the sunset!!!


Pete being silly during a wander in the lower Aiguilles


Oscar and the Granjero in the grass


THE line to do next is one of the most beautiful in the world. The Nant Blanc Face, aka the Voie Charlet-Platonov of the Aiguille Verte. TD 3000 feet. Skied by Boivin, Siffredi, and Tardivel et.al. We decided to have a go. "Rather die enormous than live dormant!"


Rode the last Grand Montets, traversed and descended to the Nant Blanc glacier, then took funny pictures, blasted beats, and ate food.


Granjero and the Dru


Beatbox


Alpenglow on the line


Another not-so-alpine start. Oscar on the opening pitches. We simul-climbed about 90 percent of the route, just belaying at maybe four spots.


Oscar in the steepest ice, 85 degrees at most.


Granjero and Pete laughing at a belay


Granjero high on the route, big drop down to town!


Oscar moving up the upper snowfields


The Granjero moving through mixed zones. Really nice climbing. We topped out in a wierd cloud thing, kissed the summit, then sprinted down the regular route (blanking on the Couloir's name...blah late at night) with double person rappels and stumbled to the the Couvercle Hut rock to bivy for the night.


Dropping down to the Mer de Glace from the Courvercle Hut the following day. Envers region of Chamonix Aiguilles across the way


We went to Italy the stylish way, by impersonating Italians, of course! STYLE MATTERS.


Chilling in northern Italy


Departing the Midi station


Getting lost in hard terrain. The Granjero took a silly fall here that was kinda scary. More gear!


Morning on the Grand Capucin


The next few days saw another attempt on the North Face of the Tour Ronde, which had really hard snow so I turned around and a go at the Contamine-Mazeud Route on the Triangle du Tacul. Not in condition either. Oh well, fun to play around on the glacier. Plenty of hilarious shredding nonetheless. I was having lots of fun hanging out at Grand Montets skiing in boardshorts


And ripping switch runs down the glacier after convincing British dudes to shoot photos


Les Drus, Dru Couloir (ED2)


I skied the Petite Aiguille Verte (400 feet of 50+degrees), and had a great time dropping in, hitting ice, and self arresting with my ice tool before sliding hundreds of feet into or over the rimeye which would have sucked. Amazed that I was able to self arrest, I continued skiing the out of condition hard snow. Laughing hysterically of course.


Glacier d'Argentiere


Turns in Boardshorts and Jerseys WHAT!!!!


So happy to be skiing with my favorite mountain, the Aiguille Verte!!!!!


The next day after shralping around for the who knows how many ith time, I enjoyed a 24-hour epic flight journey back to the U.S. Really stoked. Hard to beat such a wander in the Alps, with many descents, many climbs, and MANY lessons learned. BOOOOYYYYAAAAHHHH!!!!

BOOOOYYYYAAAAHHHH!!!!

_________________
Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

My God dude. Sickness.

I love how Les Courtes is your "warm-up" run for the trip. That run is probably the proudest line I've ever done on a snowboard.

infuckincredible.

Jesus your TR's are usually gripping but this one takes the cake, I still got chills.

Chamonix is an amazing place look forward to getting back there some day to hit some slightly less exposed lines :lol:

VIVA MONKEY BAR. NO MORE KRONENBERG EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Crap!!!!!! This is amazing! Thanks for sharing.

thanks for bumpin

i feel bad for never commenting on this most awesome of trip reports. Can't even call it a TR it is so packed with unbelievable adventures.

Hope to see ya in the mtns this season granjero.