More Chamonix

On the second outing to Chamonix endless rock zones, we visited another long-planned objective - first, Pointe Adolphe Rey and the Bettembourg route, a beautiful climbing with incredible views and tasty granite cracks. Sustained and pleasant. We climbed in three, with Xavi, a Spanish friend who took some very nice pictures, for instance the below one of the trio:


Here is the start of the route, a very sustained 6b layback:


Next, me starting on easier ground that I made harder going up cracks on the right of the line of the route:


And Ren following this incredible second pitch below:

Actually the best climbing is in the first part of the route, the second part is more cold, meandering in chimneys and around towers to finally reach the summit. Here is Xavi on the summit with Grand Capucin, the second objective, behind him, with Mont Blanc as the background:


As the last word we did screw up the rappels and finished 200m higher from our shoes and backpacks, up the crevassed glacier...2 hours later we finally reached the backpacks, the crux of the day.

The second day saw us camping on the cold and lonely plain of the Maudit Cirque, in front of the second objective, - Grand Capucin. I have tried it already 3 times, summitted once (by a mix of what mostly resembled la Directe de Capucin), and this made it my fourth time up the wall. We chose Sourire de l'Ete, a very little equipped route, recommended by a friend (Manu) and that proved as good as expected, although difficult to find the line due to the lack of in situ equipment.

As my camera died half way up, pictures above and below are courtesy of Bartosz, the Polish climbing the Swiss route near-by with whom we successfully rapped afterward, more of their pics here. Above is myself painfully leading the supposedly 5+ pitch on the Swiss route, just as Sourire de l'Ete joined it - one of the most underrated leads i ever tried - probably around 6b+... and below myself again, hanging in one of the lower belays of the route:


Lastly, to finish en beaute, we went up to Torino refuge with our tent, and strove up for Dent du Geant. Here it is, as viewed from the top of Capucin:

First, we did the traversee des arretes rochefort, and next climbed the Dent itself by the South face, a route soloed by Alex Hubert last year. Here is Ren coming up the summit pitch with the bad weather setting in on the Mont Blanc behind and the end of the trip coming in with the mist: