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Written by Richard Apps
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Page 4 of 4
Alps 27/07/03
After a good night in the Office with a couple of aspirant guides we were still up and queuing for an early lift.
It was only coming out out of the back of the lift station that it was possible to see the route. A simple if steep glacier walk up to the Bergschrund and then break out onto the ridge on the right.
We had been warned that the Bergschrund at the top of the Glacier was steep and would need to be pitched. I lead off and found it quite steep. Not having any technical tools with me I was hesitant to stop and place a screw directly above the crevasse whilst only on my front points. But stuck one in as soon as I was able, unfortunately. The rope didn't reach all the way to the rock so I had to take a stance on an Ice step with only the one remaining screw. Andrew arrived at the stance fully understanding why I'd taken my time. We strengthened the belay with another screw as I didn't like the look of the rock. There was evidence of recent rockfall and worryingly there was a new rope caught in the rocks which looked like it had been served by the fall. The rock was sharp and a bit suspect on that first pitch and subsequently we pitched the climbing although we could have moved together. There were many parties on the route, and we were even treated to climbers knocking down a boulder that trundled right past the belay point for the bergschrund pitch (this would be the only point that a climber couldn't jump out of its way). The climbing was awkward and slow owing to the number of people on route.
When the guide and his client who had been just above us, turned around I came to the same conclusion. It looked like the weather was coming in, and the last thing we wanted was to be stuck behind thirty people when we were rushing to make sure we made the airport. We turned around and headed back down the mountain, teaming up with a couple of Brits for the monster abseil over the 'schrund. Andrew was first down the abseil (ze very brav man). Kim, myself and Kim's partner, we scuttled down, and even had time to shower and even have a ckeeky pint in the Office.
A fantastic trip, four days three routes, no epics. A good score.
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