JScoles - Dec 11, 2001 10:12 am - Hasn't voted
BelayAre you being belayed at this point??
Looks like no?
Is this because of Avalance Danger?
I see in the next pic you are being belayed is that one higher up?
UlrichPrinz - Dec 16, 2001 4:40 am - Hasn't voted
Re: BelayHi J,
The first thing to say is, that this is not me on those pics. It is Mathias Feil, whose Homepage is linked at each of the pics i took from him.
I have added the Droites because I fell in love with them and want to do them next spring.
Nevertheless i can answer some of your questions:
No, Mathias is not belayed here. The snow/ice conditions in that part of the wall look good enough for a free ascent.
Also I have never heard of belaying because of avalanches, but this is not a problem in this tour that high up.
The wall is VERY steep, so the snow does not usually accumulate thick eough so that it would be prone to avalanches. After the first warm days, a few Snow-slides will then clean out any rest of danger from Avalanches.
The chronological order of the pictures can be best viewed at Mathias' Homepage: www.mfeil.com
JScoles - Dec 16, 2001 6:27 am - Hasn't voted
Re: BelayI did not mean belay for Avalance what I meant was did he untie because it was a high avalance dangers area.
This can be very common in Canadian Rockeys in some areas where local snow/icefall are common. The logic being of course if you are hit you won't drag the rest of the party down.
I noticed many many differences in the EU style and Canadian.
Biggest difference, beside the lightness of the assents, is the length between roped climbers when on a glacier. I normally go with a 60m rope and 15-25 m betwteen parners but in EU 30m and 5 m seemed to be the norm. I guess some of our crevases are bigger.
Thanks for the Info.
UlrichPrinz - Dec 19, 2001 3:32 am - Hasn't voted
Re: BelayInteresting comments there.
Seems like the avalanche Danger is quite a bit higher
in Canada, because of the powdery snow.
Over here you would rarely enter a steep North Face
route if there is a danger of avalanches in it.
The danger usually settles quite fast there after
the first rewarming, thats why you don't even worry
about them any more while climbing.
The biggest problem is Rock and Ice-Fall, which
of course can hit you more, the later you are.
A rope would be nice there, but as you said,
If you don't belay (which costs too much time)
this might easily drag down the whole party.
thanks for your input,
Ulli Prinz
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