(I made this post a few weeks ago but was having trouble displaying the images for some reason and it took me this long to sort it out)
Last weekend I got to have a pleasant change from my normal routine of taking a train alone 2 hours each way to boulder alone. Our friend Rene graciously offered to drive myself and Erica to Chamonix for a little bouldering/ sight seeing day trip.
I had purchased the guidebook for bouldering in the Chamonix region over a year ago but had not gone yet due to lack of a ride. I chose the area in the guidebook with the best recommendation and we headed there. The driving directions ended up being pretty straightforward and we soon found ourselves walking into an almost magical feeling forest with a carpet of fallen leaves. Almost immediately upon entering the forest we found ourselves surrounded by boulders with surprisingly flat landings given the density of large rocks in the area.
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| I check to see what looks good in the guidebook while erica checks to see what looks good in the picnic basket. |
The classic problem of the area is called "La Proue" french for the prow which is exactly what it is. Sit start then squeeze your way up an impressively angular arete. After a quick warm up this was my first objective.
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| "La Proue" with Rene trying out some climbing in the background. |
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| Warming up |
"La Proue" either tops out straight up at v5/6 or traverses left along a sloping rail before toping out quite high for v7. I managed to get to the lip on my flash attempt so I decided I should try the v7 exit. I made it through the traverse but by the time I got to where you need to mantel out I was so pumped I didn't want to commit to the top out over one pad with inexperienced spotters so dropped off.
After a long rest waiting for my arms to de-pump I got back on and did the straight up version.
It was a super fun problem and i'll have to come back for the traverse top out with either more pads or more endurance.
I didn't know any of the other problems in the area so next I just wandered around until I found a boulder that caught my eye. I found a steep face with interesting incut holds that the guidebook seemed to indicate was v6 from a stand start or v8 from a sit. It turned out to be another very fun problem and I managed it from the sit in a couple of tries.
Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of the problems and the area in general. There are several other areas listed in the guidebook for the Chamonix region and if the others are even half as good as this one then I am quite looking forward to checking them out.
Our non-climbing plan for chamonix had been to go up the "Aiguille du Midi" which is the worlds highest vertical ascent cable car, but when we got there they told us it was closed due to high winds. As there was not a breath of wind we suspect this was just a cover for the fact that they weren't busy and so wanted to close early.
This was re-inforced by the fact that on the other side of the valley a separate gondola was still open.
(from here on the photos are back to my standard ipone quality)
Going up.
Having beers and hot wine at the top.
Erica doing some climbing of her own.
Pretty pleased with herself.
Giant meringue reward.
