Only kids going to school and their teachers use the morning buses now. The nights are chilly, the trees are changing colors, and Chamonix is winding down into the off-season. The Gite is practically empty, and tonight I have my room all to myself. As I made dinner tonight I didn't have to fight for a burner even though I cooked during 8 o'clock kitchen prime time. People told me about the abrupt change from August to September, but I didn't expect this. It finally feels like a normal town here (well, minus the awesome mountains).
Maybe I think the mood has changed so much since the turn of the month because September brought the first drawn-out storminess we've had for a long time. It's been grey, drizzly, and thundery for a couple of days, and tomorrow the snow level is supposed to drop to 2200 m. The mountains on either side of the valley are perpetually hidden in clouds, which makes them look impossibly tall, like climbing them would be a horrible idea.
Anyway! It's been a while since the last update and a lot has happened since then. For one, I now know what it feels like to be homeless! About a week ago when the Italians were still at the Belvedere and after Stephan returned to Zurich, I was staying down in Chamonix at the Chamoniard Volant night-by-night. My last night I stayed out too late, forgot to book a room before the reception desks closed for the night, and became homeless! I probably could have gotten a room if I'd woken some people up, but I was also curious what the guys who sleep under overpasses feel like, so I found myself a comfortable bench in front of the church, put on a respectable woolen turtleneck and dress shoes, and put a book by my side as I curled up to spend my first night as a bum. The deterrents worked against the police, who probably thought I was a tourist who drifted off while reading, but it was cold (40 F) and I am prideful, so I got up around 2 am to find a warmer and more private place. I stole a chair from a restaurant, took it to a public restroom, which I locked from the inside, and slept sitting on my stolen chair until 7:30. I returned the chair before the restaurant opened, picked up a viennoise chocolat from the boulangerie across the street, and reflected thankfully that the bathroom was clean and smelled fresh.
I came back to the Belvedere after that, which felt wonderful. The couple of other places I stayed at were passable for a few nights, but at the Chamoniard everyone was young and I felt like I had to look over my shoulder all the time so my climbing stuff wouldn't get stolen. I think it's like that at most of the gites in Chamonix. The kitchen and showers were also pretty dingy, although there was free wifi to compensate. Gite le Moulin was more like the Belvedere in its clientele, but it was tough times without wifi and a kitchen. The caretaker was nice enough, but there weren't any characters like at the Belvedere with whom to make friends during a long stay. So basically I was glad to be back at the Belvedere.
After that I did something. I don't really remember what... but I don't think I twiddled my thumbs the whole time. Probably some bouldering, running, and hiking, since I was in between partners. Ah, right: one day I ran up to Glacier d'Argentiere starting at 3 pm under an impending thunderstorm, which was cool because I like frolicking in the rain. I didn't quite make it running all the way, but I did do a good chunk of the 4000 ft without walking. The rest was a nice stroll, and the tongue of the glacier was pretty dramatic and active. The whole scene with the cloud cover acting as a ceiling over the valley was awesome: it felt like an enormous brooding hall; walls of mountains, floor of ice, ceiling of mist. Pretty cool. There was also a mysterious tunnel into the mountainside which was gated and locked and was sucking in cold air very quickly.
Veronica got here on the morning of the 29th, and we went up to Vallorcine so she could get used to multipitch and to slab. We did a dihedral pitch there (prelude to greater things to come!) and several other pitches. That night we took the train down to Cham to meet with Sonia to plan for the Cosmiques Arete the next day. The Cosmiques is usually mixed, but this late in August it was completely dry, still very crowded, but very relaxed and social. Basically we spent the whole time talking and taking pictures with a few bits of enjoyable and easy climbing here and there. Good times! This is a great, chill climb to do with friends, a new partner, or during bad weather, provided you're patient with all the people doing the same thing.
With Sonia leaving the next day for London and with all three of us such fans, we decided to splurge that night at Annapurna, Chamonix's Indian food joint. Well, maybe "joint" isn't the right word given how much it cost... but it was delicious and satisfied a craving I've had since I left India two months ago. Naan is basically the best thing next to computers and mountains and road bikes.
On Veronica's last day we hit up the Brevent for the Frison-Roche, which I'd done with Stephan a couple weeks earlier. It's 6 pitches, 3 of 6a (5.9-5.10a), 2 of 5's, and one easy traverse; last time Stephan led all the 6's, so I was looking forward to it. It's really a magnificent cliff: shear, vertical, leading to a summit, and with the backdrop of the Mont Blanc massif. The face is cut with long splitters and dihedrals, and it's my favorite climbing in Aiguilles Rouges (the range on the other side of the valley from the Mont Blanc massif). The climb went smoothly for me, and the second-to-last off-width dihedral was excellent practice for my special Tahquitz ambition, Open Book.
That night Steve Gubser, a string theorist from Princeton stopping in before a conference, and I met at the Belvedere to figure out what to do over the next week. Unfortunately weather has been screwing with our plans badly, but we've still managed to do a couple things. On the 1st we attempted Chapelle de la Gliere, which is an awesome climb that I did with Dave a while ago. I say attempted because I thought I remembered the approach, didn't bother to read up on it again, and as you can imagine turned upslope one couloir too early where we ended up scrambling on class 4 and low 5 for an hour before realizing we were in the wrong place. The terrain looked easy, though, so we continued, gained a ridge, and decided to traverse onto what I thought might be the climb. Got there, roped up, and after two quick pitches we were on a peak from which we could see the end of Chapelle de la Gliere a rappel beneath us. So we rapped down and climbed the last couple pitches to the top of the needle, where we finished way ahead of schedule: two hours from start to finish versus about four to five. Here we're just below the last two pitches of the climb messing around on some pinnacles. The top block actually budged when I shook it, so we had to stand up rather gingerly.
We had planned to do the Papillon Ridge out of Refuge Plan de l'Aiguille along with other climbs in the Chamonix Aiguilles, but alas weather changed plans and we decided that we'd rather get on something snowy or icy instead of wet rock. I arrived at the Aiguille du Midi telepherique with my ice gear prepared for the Chere Couloir, or, if that was in bad condition, a mixed repeat of the Cosmiques, but I found out immediately that they weren't running all to way to the Midi because of bad weather. So I met Steve up at Plan de l'Aiguille and we decided to give Aiguille de l'M a shot instead; it's a rock climb, so we decided to hike to it (2 hours), find some shelter, and see if the rain would stop long enough for the rock to dry. After sitting under an enormous, precarious boulder for a couple of hours while it drizzled, we realized it looked impossible for today so we parted ways, Steve back to Plan de l'Aiguille, me to Montenvers to catch the train back to Chamonix. Here we're half a mile from Aiguille de l'M on a piddly little baby peak, our consolation prize for the day:
A quick lesson on the topography of the area: a ridge leads up to a col where we sheltered under the boulder, and from there the ridge continues to the base of Aiguille de l'M. Montenvers is on the east side of the ridge just above Mer de Glace, and Plan de l'Aiguille is on the west side past some old moraines. There is a trail which wraps around the ridge and leads from the base of Aiguille de l'M back to Montenvers.
OK, Being the clever man I am, I asked myself why I should circle the long ridge when I could just cut a direct line from the col to Montenvers, which is on the eastern slopes of the ridge. Because there are probably obstacles, dumbass... Not realizing this, I started down from the col on moderate terrain with enormous, slick boulders everywhere. After I got below this the terrain steepened and got loose, but it was still easy enough to downclimb (although I did it quickly to get out of the line of fire...). After this sketchy, slippery downclimbing, I finally got to grassy slopes, which I thought would lead down to Montenvers. I couldn't see more than about fifty feet ahead because of the mist. After a few hopeful minutes walking quickly downhill, the mist cleared and I saw the grassy slope continue beneath me. But there was the grassy slope beneath my feet, and then there was the grassy slope several hundred feet below me. Something was wrong; I was probably on the edge of a cliff. I looked around to see if there was an obvious way down, but it was clearly a dead end, and I didn't have ropes. So I did the only thing I could: climbed back up to the ridge. Now, I had two choices: go down the other side and join the known trail, or stubbornly find my direct line. Naturally I continued down the ridge looking through clearings in the mist for a promising line to Montenvers. After 30 minutes of downclimbing on more slick boulders on the windy ridge crest, I saw a good candidate and starting descending quickly. I dropped below the cloud ceiling at this point and had a clear view to Montenvers, and it looked like my slope joined up! So I angled left downslope and walked over scree, talus, alpine meadow, chamois shit, marmot shit, game trails, and thick brush towards the train station. Except about a mile before I got there an enormous gorge of a couloir cut right across my path and there was no way I could descend into it from the side because it was flanked by long vertical cliffs. I just sort of stood on an observation post hoofed out by chamois on the edge of the cliff without knowing what to think. I'm not the sort of guy who gets angry when stuff like this happens; I was just sort of blank. I couldn't continue going down because the terrain steepened, and I couldn't continue to traverse the valley wall because of the gorge, so I had to go up again. It was at least 1000 vertical feet of steep, loose, soily Chamois trails. When I finally returned to the ridge, now broad and grassy, I at least had the pleasure of seeing a thirty-strong herd of Chamois, who were running away from my noisy clawing and breathing, and of knowing this slope had to lead to Montenvers. I was right, and a half hour later I joined a beautiful trail and walked into the Montenvers tourist crowd--very thin compared with a month ago--sweaty, streaked with dirt and poop, and drenched from several slips on slick rock or brush. And a couple train rides later I am back at the Belvedere getting sorer by the minute.
Tomorrow there is bad weather all day with snow at low elevations, so Steve and I might do something higher up on Saturday instead of crossing our fingers for the snow to melt out and leave dry rock. We're still thinking about it. Anyway, woo! Almost time to go home! I love Chamonix and all, but I'm really looking forward to my bike, to school, to my new baby cousin Emily, to immature dinners, to old friends, and to Tahquitz and the High Sierra. See you all soon.
Hamik