Extracts from Newsletter 13
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On a warm and pleasant morning the East Grinstead Four set off for the Wye Valley. After a dull journey we arrived stiff but ready to tackle the delights of the first Limestone of the season. One of our number managed not to have rock boots. (Curious fact 1 - everybody had size 11 feet and three of us had a spare pair of boots at home). We split into pairs and tackled a Diff and a VS depending upon ability and footware.
A small interlude followed, during which Pete and Derek found that however hard they tried to convince themselves that the bolted route in front of them was a V.Diff, or even a hard V.Diff when they fell off it, they were actually in the wrong place. (Curious Fact 2 - both blamed the guide book for being wrong and both have no sense of direction whatsever).
Eventually both teams moved on to the Central Ridge area to climb Various routes between Diff and VS. (Curious fact 3 - Central Ridge looks nothing like the picture in Classic Limestone).
Pete and Derek rounded off the day by top roping three routes on Black Wall whilst Steve worried about the fact that he would be very late for a dinner party and Alistair contemplated buying some rock books or at least catching foot fungus from someone's old pair.
All to soon we where in the car and heading east. (Curious Fact 4 - if you leave Chepstow at 6:30 and plan to be at a dinner party at 8:00 you could well be on washing up duty for at least a month).
Must go there and try again sometime.
If you refer back to the New Year edition of the Newsletter, you will see we made a few predictions and how spooky it is to see them coming true. Nick King is ensuring he doesn't fall on anybody by moving to the states (a bit extreme maybe) "Some trips will be so great, you will bore your friends and family for days" - ahh yes let me tell you about Easter bank holiday in Cornwall .....
The promise of fine weather encouraged members to put their money where their petrol tanks are and make those first crucial decisions - leave late, leave early, go down the A303 or the M4. Whatever way you go you will end up knackered and someone else will have got there faster. One thing you can guarantee is that, in true Club tradition, everyones tent will be pitched well away from any other members. A multiplicity (16) of club members and a few camp followers made the 300 mile journey to bask in the hot sun and go climbing. The venues included the old favourites of Bosigran and Sennen alongside a few of the less frequented places such as Point-thingy.
Needless to say too much fine climbing was done, too many conversations moved from the sublime to the surreal, too may bad jokes where told, too many Octopus' died for the sake of the bar-b-que, too many largers where consumed, one too many hat was bought, one rendition of a Rick Astly song was just too much (speak to Richard).
If you have some time to pass being bored you should speak to Trevor or Suzanne or Graham or Danielle or Richard or Sandra or Barcode and his friends or Angie or Pete or Ali or Pete or Martin or Martin.
Got a week spare early in the year? Then why not try the Haute Route, the high level ski-touring route from Chamonix (Argentiere really) to Zermatt? This route traverses some of the more remote Alpine country on the borders of France, Switzerland and Italy and is well served by conveniently spaced Alpine huts. Moderate skiing ability - or perhaps a lack of judicious fear? - is all that is required, together with a fair ability to assess avalanche danger. An appropriate window of reasonable weather is vital for both safety and effective route finding.
In the week preceding Easter this window of acceptable weather had Nick and I ascending the Grands Montets cable car to the col from which the route begins. An all too quick descent to the Argentiere Glacier and then the climb up to the Col du Chardonnet - nothing to do with fine wines unfortunately - along with a large number of other aspirants. At the col a very steep descent (crampon and ice-axe stuff unless really an expert skier) leads to the Saleina Glacier from where a ski traverse leads to a second col (Fenetre de Saleina) and then a gentle descent and traverse to the Trient Hut. Relief for me at least to arrive here since days can feel very long when most of the skiing seems to be uphill! By this point most of the hordes seem to have returned to the valley, or intended doing so the following day, so we were very much on our own from this point on - although an Austrian group did spend rather a lot of time in our company - or perhaps it was the other way round since the leader was clearly an Alpine guide!
Next day the route continued down the Val d'Arpette to Champex where our Austrian friends had conveniently - but expensively - arranged a taxi to take us to Bourg St Pierre. The long ascent up to the Valsorey Hut in heavy mist was a real challenge (I never did like this climb on foot and it does not seem to improve much on skis) and icy conditions on the top section were entertaining to say the least. At least I have proved that ski poles can be used as ice-axe substitutes, but axes definitely instil greater confidence! The following day necessitated a steep glacier climb to near the bivvi hut on the Plateau du Couloir, where another Austrian kindly offered me a welcome cup of sweet tea. Somewhat annoyingly he had climbed all the way from Bourg St Pierre that morning and was still going faster than me! Not only that, he was also missing out the next hut (Chanrion) and going on the Vignettes Hut (so were the Austrian group incidentally). Nick and I, on the other hand, were still trying to concentrate what little oxygen there was in the air and quite envied the highly acclimatised 'locals'. A pleasant descent from the col led via a traverse to the Col du Sonadon from where complex route finding in mist ultimately led to the 'only' place where the lateral moraine could be easily crossed. Straightforward skiing then took us to the valley from where a short climb led to the Chanrion Hut. Somewhat surprisingly, apart from the guardians we were the only visitors to the hut and had an extremely quiet stay. Leaving Chanrion, the whole of the next day was spent ascending the Otemma Glacier to get to the Vignettes Hut.
As this took us almost 6 hours when fresh I was rather pleased that we had not attempted this as part of the previous day's itinerary (in fact if the truth be known I never did have any intention of doing this even though Nick had entertained the idea). Arriving dog tired at huts some two hours after nightfall has little appeal. Moreover, the glacier is very scenic and for once we had the whole route completely to ourselves. Since the Vignettes hut is close to Arolla, and its attendant heliskiing peak, it contrasted sharply with the emptiness of Chanrion. It was here we met the one and only Englishman, and he had lived in Germany for 10 Years.
Because the finial day down to Zermatt is long and hard we left the hut at 5:30 a.m., in just enough light to see by. A short down hill ski was followed by a long upward climb to the Col de l'Eveque. From here another descent and climb led to the Col du Mt Brule, The final part of which was ascended wearing crampons. Another long downhill ski and traverse lead to the final col, the Col de Valpelline. This takes a deceptively long time, and completion of the ascent was real bliss. Even Better, However, were the tremendous views of the Matterhorn North face, which dominated the scenery all the way down to Zermatt. Arrival at Zermatt completed the 5 day tour, which is a significant challenge and requires (for me at least) much inward thinking while trudging up numerous long glaciers.
Derek March 1997
