Alps 2005
Photos taken on a trip to the Petit Clocher du Portalet and Chamonix in December 2005. I originally intended to aid climb the Petit Clocher du Portalet by the Darbellay route, with Steve. Several of our other friends planned to climb various routes from the glacier du Tour. Unfortunately the snow conditions turned a simple day's walk-in (admittedly with loads of around 40kg each) into more than two days of hell plodding through deep snowdrifts covering scrub and small trees, and we ran out of time. Cutting our losses, we drove to Chamonix and aid climbed as much of the Voie Rebuffat on the South Face of the Aiguille du Midi as we had time to, sleeping overnight on a portaledge.
Walking in to the Petit Clocher du Portalet
Resting on the walk-in. The heavy loads meant we had to rest often and share the job of trail-breaking.
We encountered deep snowdrifts covering brush and small trees on the walk-in, and this slowed us down enough that Steve and I would have run out of time if we had attempted the route.
Jamie with a camera. This was the closest we got to the Portalet, having encountered deep snowdrifts on the approach.
The Petit Clocher du Portalet, with the vertical North Face prominent, seen from the walk-in.
Jamie disappears in a cloud of well-deserved smoke at our high point, before we head back to the valley.
Leaving the Aiguille du Midi via the ice tunnel, Steve prepares to climb the Rebuffat Route on the North Face of the Midi.
Steve aids his way up the granite cracks on Voie Rebuffat
Sunbeams and cloud over the Aiguille du Midi after we came down from the climb.