Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: July 5th, 2005
Climbed the Petit Aiguille as part of training for the Mont Blanc- took the usual way down the Point de Vue piste until Lognan. First time hiking on a glacier.
Bivvied on the scree below the Grand Montets station through a crystal clear night.
Left the bivvy at 06:15 and ascended the path towards the normal route before traversing left underneath the face to the rimaye.
Good screws below the surface layer at the rimaye and the the lower 2/3rds of the face (Good ice! ). Top 3rd of the face poorer snow/ice but with the angle easing. Face feels a lot steeper than 50/55 degrees, steeper than it looks. Managed 4 screws in the face but could have placed more.
1st party to summit that day. Descent via the normal that was then getting crowded.
Route Climbed: Left hand ridge Date Climbed: June 05
Drove for 9 hours straight and then started the climb with no sleep. Went straight up the middle to the bergschrund and then over to the left ridge. Less crowded and a lot of fun. Mixed snow/ice/rocks.
A fun little ice route in conditions more like Patagonia than France in the Summer! Fairly easy apart from a large bergschrund, then joining the NW Ridge to the summit.
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: summer 2004
Had a late start and meet a lot of returning traffic in the lower part of the rocky ridge so we turned back. Camped the night and intended to climb the ENE colior the next day but was not in good condition so opted for a little rock climbing.
Route Climbed: From Lognan via Glacier du Argentiere Date Climbed: August 10, 2004
It was my first climb this summer so I wanted to give it an extra effort for the sake of proper acclimatization. To accomplish this, I started from Lognan (end of first telepherique) as opposed to taking both telepheriques up to Grands Montets and starting from there. From Lognan is a vertical height gain of 1500 mts. I soloed the route in 4.5 hours. Nice view of the Drus...you can hear from summit ridge the almost non-stop rock fall happening in the Petit Dru.
Route Climbed: Ordinary Route Date Climbed: July 29, 1977
Climbed the ordinary route then went on to climb the Grands Montets Ridge and the Aiguille Verte. A nice area to go to when the other areas are crowded.
Route Climbed: North West Ridge Date Climbed: Tue 28 Jul 2003
This is a great training peak and there is no need to get up early for an alpine start. It only takes a couple of hours from the top of the cable car station, and it can be done in the afternoon. When we came down from the climb we descended all the way down to the Argentiere hut to climb the Tour Noir the next day.
Winter 2003: With Tom Fralich, I climbed the little but nonetheless fun peak. We were overconfident and we followed some steps that took us in direction to the ridge, but a bit earlier that what the normal route requires. So we have to solo-traverse snow at 80 degress!. We tried to gain the very rocky ridge to correct the route but this proved difficult, so we rapeled and traversed back to the normal route.
When we got back to the beggining of the climb, we realized that the nromal route was pretty obviuos! It is a fun climb, worth doing it.
Winter 2004: Chevalier Couloir (March 18) Climbed with Tom "Doctor" Fralich. The conditions in the Mont Blanc Massif were not good on this season, with faces with unconsolidated snow and or black ice.
In spite of starting the climb very early, the conditions where not excellent. The couloir presented unconsolidated snow, some 30 to 50 cmts deep, plus small rock and snow avalanches. Once on the ridge, 10 cmts of snow or less covered a slab of alpine, hard ice, making necessary a running belay on screws. The ridge itsefl was very snowy and loose.
NW Ridge -- March 15, 2003 -- Climbed with Juan Valderrama as a warm-up on our first day in Chamonix and skied back to Argentiere at the end of the day. The short rock step on the summit ridge was fun and the very thin snow crest just before the summit was really exposed. I really enjoyed this route.
ENE (Chevalier) Couloir -- March 18, 2004 -- Climbed with Juan Valderrama in a very poor season for climbing in Chamonix. We slept at the Grands Montets top station so we could start early and find good snow conditions. Even so, the snow in the couloir was deep and unconsolidated and it was a struggle to make progress. Some very small avalanches and stonefall added to the fun. On reaching the NNE Ridge at the Demi-Lune, some hard water ice led to the NW Ridge (Normal Route), which we descended back to Grands Montets. Descent by the normal route was also more difficult than usual due to the poor snow conditions.
philippe bridgeman - Nov 29, 2005 7:35 am
Route Climbed: North West Ridge Date Climbed: July 2004Nice easy short route with a variety of skills used. The French guides kept removing every ones gear which made the route a little more interesting.
am89 - Oct 10, 2005 10:19 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: July 5th, 2005Climbed the Petit Aiguille as part of training for the Mont Blanc- took the usual way down the Point de Vue piste until Lognan. First time hiking on a glacier.
steveej - Sep 18, 2005 10:37 am
Route Climbed: NW Face Date Climbed: 17 July 2005Bivvied on the scree below the Grand Montets station through a crystal clear night.
Left the bivvy at 06:15 and ascended the path towards the normal route before traversing left underneath the face to the rimaye.
Good screws below the surface layer at the rimaye and the the lower 2/3rds of the face (Good ice! ). Top 3rd of the face poorer snow/ice but with the angle easing. Face feels a lot steeper than 50/55 degrees, steeper than it looks. Managed 4 screws in the face but could have placed more.
1st party to summit that day. Descent via the normal that was then getting crowded.
Good acclimatisation route.
davis13 - Aug 2, 2005 3:18 pm
Route Climbed: Left hand ridge Date Climbed: June 05Drove for 9 hours straight and then started the climb with no sleep. Went straight up the middle to the bergschrund and then over to the left ridge. Less crowded and a lot of fun. Mixed snow/ice/rocks.
fdoctor - Jun 12, 2005 2:11 pm
Route Climbed: NW Face Date Climbed: July 2004A fun little ice route in conditions more like Patagonia than France in the Summer! Fairly easy apart from a large bergschrund, then joining the NW Ridge to the summit.
noah - Oct 16, 2004 5:54 pm
Route Climbed: normal route Date Climbed: summer 2004Had a late start and meet a lot of returning traffic in the lower part of the rocky ridge so we turned back. Camped the night and intended to climb the ENE colior the next day but was not in good condition so opted for a little rock climbing.
flearreta - Sep 8, 2004 12:38 pm
Route Climbed: From Lognan via Glacier du Argentiere Date Climbed: August 10, 2004It was my first climb this summer so I wanted to give it an extra effort for the sake of proper acclimatization. To accomplish this, I started from Lognan (end of first telepherique) as opposed to taking both telepheriques up to Grands Montets and starting from there. From Lognan is a vertical height gain of 1500 mts. I soloed the route in 4.5 hours. Nice view of the Drus...you can hear from summit ridge the almost non-stop rock fall happening in the Petit Dru.
cherokee - Jun 2, 2004 2:00 pm
Route Climbed: Ordinary Route Date Climbed: July 29, 1977Climbed the ordinary route then went on to climb the Grands Montets Ridge and the Aiguille Verte. A nice area to go to when the other areas are crowded.
Dan Bailey - Feb 10, 2004 11:51 am
Route Climbed: various Date Climbed: summer 2001good fun
il.rocciatore - Dec 6, 2003 10:50 am
Route Climbed: NW Ridge Date Climbed: july 2002My first mixed route and a worthy climb. Nice acclimatisation trip.
Chamonix Man - Aug 12, 2003 6:39 am
Route Climbed: North West Ridge Date Climbed: Tue 28 Jul 2003This is a great training peak and there is no need to get up early for an alpine start. It only takes a couple of hours from the top of the cable car station, and it can be done in the afternoon. When we came down from the climb we descended all the way down to the Argentiere hut to climb the Tour Noir the next day.
mtselman - Jun 6, 2003 12:27 pm
Route Climbed: NW Ridge Date Climbed: August, 2002A good begginer climb + acclimatization climb.
Andy Kennedy - Apr 19, 2003 2:32 pm
Route Climbed: NW Ridge Date Climbed: 1st August 2002Climbed with Matt Owen and Helen Taylor to bag our very first Alpine peak. Easy enough but the route was a little too crowded to be overly enjoyable.
tne - Mar 30, 2003 10:48 pm
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: 30 March 2003Looked like we where the first one to climb Petit Verte since the last snowfall. Had to make our own tracks.
Fun but a bit tricky at times.
El Tigre Valderrama - Mar 26, 2003 1:17 am
Route Climbed: Normal Date Climbed: March 15 2003Winter 2003: With Tom Fralich, I climbed the little but nonetheless fun peak. We were overconfident and we followed some steps that took us in direction to the ridge, but a bit earlier that what the normal route requires. So we have to solo-traverse snow at 80 degress!. We tried to gain the very rocky ridge to correct the route but this proved difficult, so we rapeled and traversed back to the normal route.
When we got back to the beggining of the climb, we realized that the nromal route was pretty obviuos! It is a fun climb, worth doing it.
Winter 2004: Chevalier Couloir (March 18) Climbed with Tom "Doctor" Fralich. The conditions in the Mont Blanc Massif were not good on this season, with faces with unconsolidated snow and or black ice.
In spite of starting the climb very early, the conditions where not excellent. The couloir presented unconsolidated snow, some 30 to 50 cmts deep, plus small rock and snow avalanches. Once on the ridge, 10 cmts of snow or less covered a slab of alpine, hard ice, making necessary a running belay on screws. The ridge itsefl was very snowy and loose.
Fun climb as well.
Tom Fralich - Mar 25, 2003 9:44 am
Route Climbed: See Below Date Climbed: See BelowNW Ridge -- March 15, 2003 -- Climbed with Juan Valderrama as a warm-up on our first day in Chamonix and skied back to Argentiere at the end of the day. The short rock step on the summit ridge was fun and the very thin snow crest just before the summit was really exposed. I really enjoyed this route.
ENE (Chevalier) Couloir -- March 18, 2004 -- Climbed with Juan Valderrama in a very poor season for climbing in Chamonix. We slept at the Grands Montets top station so we could start early and find good snow conditions. Even so, the snow in the couloir was deep and unconsolidated and it was a struggle to make progress. Some very small avalanches and stonefall added to the fun. On reaching the NNE Ridge at the Demi-Lune, some hard water ice led to the NW Ridge (Normal Route), which we descended back to Grands Montets. Descent by the normal route was also more difficult than usual due to the poor snow conditions.