| Mont Blanc de Tacul: 1st climb in the alps Trip Report |
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| Mont Blanc de Tacul: 1st climb in the alps   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Haute Savoie (Mont Blanc), France, Europe Lat/Lon: 45.85730°N / 6.88760°E Date Climbed/Hiked: May 31, 1997 | Page By: tor Created/Edited: Apr 2, 2003 / Object ID: 168873 Hits: 1374 Loading... Page Score: 0% - 0 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Mnt. Blanc du Tacul (4248m) -- Left Edge of North Triangle Face
AD -- 350m from base -- 3hrs estimated time
“One of the nicest routes on the face -- sustained mixed climbing”
5/31/97 (Saturday) Susan and Tor
Beautiful day!! We had planned a short easy climb before trying to do a ski ascent of Mnt. Blanc the next day. We took the 1st (8:30am) Aig. du Midi telepherique with Carl and AnnaMarie who were visiting. Hung out with them at the top looking at the view until 9:30 or so -- after all a 3 hour climb, who needs to rush! We descended to the Mer de Glace from the Aig. du Midi without plummeting to our deaths, although after starting Susan decided that she wanted to wear crampons. Skied to below the Triangle face, left our skis and walked to the base of the route at about 10:15. There were two people ahead of us just starting the route and several people headed up the easier North Couloir (should have followed them!)
Our route headed up a couloir headed right with ice at the base and snow at the top. We started moving towards were the previous party had crossed the bergshrund (sp?) -- a small (1 foot diameter) rock dropped from the left-hand (upper) rock buttress, skidded across our path 50m ahead, and into the snow below. No problem -- if it had been closer we could have easily dodged it and even if it hit one of us it probably would have only left us severely maimed and not dead or anything (fortunately we were not wearing helmets since they would not have been much good against such a rock). We continued up. Five minutes later another rock fell from the same place. This was slightly larger -- the size of two or three Chevy minivans. It skidded down the ice for probably 100m towards us -- we ran. We probably covered 3m before it passed 5m away or so -- it dug a trench 2-3m depth and 50m+ long when it hit the snow. Tor was covered with the plume of snow that it kicked up. Yikes! It missed one of the two people ahead by about 2m -- he was anchored, could not move and probably was less than happy! I guess we were too late and too warm in the day!
We moved right away from the fall line and climbed the ice under the right-hand rock buttress were we anchored. While Tor lead the next pitch up ice and snow, the other party came rappelling down saying “we do not want to die today!” Continued moving up the couloir using rock belays and into the very soft and mushy snow -- thank god for the deadman (it was the only easy protection to get in). About three pitches (with some simu-climbing) up the couloir to the ridge with one hardish (i.e. 5.6) rock move onto the broad ridge. Climbed up through mixed rock, snow, and ice on a series of short ice gullies using the occasional ice screw for protection until we arrived at a wide expanse of ice 30m high. Although not steep, it was difficult because the ice was very brittle and we had our old (circa 1980) axes, hammers, boots and crampons. Finally, up more ice gullies to easy snow and rock. Summitted (about 4000m) at about 5 pm in clouds and snow flurries and finally stopped to eat and drink -- we felt pushed all day because we were so slow. In retrospect, conditions were not ideal, we unnecessarily belayed every pitch (about 11), and we were using lousy gear -- we ended up buying two new axes and one new hammer before our next climb.
The direct descent looked difficult and uncertain in the fog, but in retrospect was probably all right. We continued up towards the summit for about 1 hour until it was possible to traverse right and reach the standard descent/ascent. Reached our skis at about 8pm and the Cosmique hut about 8:20pm. They gave us dinner even though we were 2 hours late!! We were too exhausted to consider ski plans for the next day. Thank god it started to snow! Awoke to 1 foot of new snow and had a interesting ascent up the ridge back to the telepherique in snow, wind, and Susan tottering on the ridge as Tor tried to put her crampons on! Last rental of randonnee skis which we used for about 1 hour during the whole weekend!
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