Page 25 - 2018 AMA Winter

Approach to the Cosmique Hut
achieved, instructors lead and were, at some time, stretched also and a number of summits ticked. The rock group also achieved success, despite never actually returning to complete Lepidoptéres.
Be it snow plodding, rock routes or even roadside cragging, Cham has it all. The town buzz is all about climbing. Just don’t start giving it big licks about the gnarly route you climbed when in the bar because the chances are you’re being served by someone who does it as a warm up!
FACTS i
ACTIVITY: ALPINE MOUNTAINEERING & ROCK CLIMBING
LOCATION: CHAMONIX, FRANCE, SAAS FE SWITZERLAND
ACCOMMODATION: CAMPING
VALLEY ACCOMMODATION:
CAMPING LE GRAND CHAMP, CHAMONIX
CAMPING MISCHEBEL SAAS GRUND
HUTS:
TRIENT HUT
MISCHABEL HUT
TORINO HUT
COSMIQUES HUT
DEPLOYED PERSONNEL: 12
EXPED DATES: 15 – 27 JUL 18
TOTAL EXPED COST: £12K
PXR AVAILABLE: YES – AMA ARCHIVES, ATSYS
bolts, shinny, well placed bolts. Alleluia! Chris followed. Words were exchanged including mutterings of VS 4c. However, worried about the time, the haze of a dark cloud looming and the fear of being left with a 2000m down-climb that neither of us wanted at the end of an epic, we decided we’d suitably recce’d the route to the base of the climb and vowed to return the following day.
It seems James and Tom had a similar epic but with slightly more elevation gained. Being the heroes they are, these two managed 10 of 12 pitches before being held up by less capable/slow-as- balls-climbers struggling on the crux pitch. With the same stormy haze now engulfing the ridge they decided to rap off the entire route back to the gondola. Slick drills, inappropriate humour, and urgency got them off the climb and down to the safety of the gondola before the last went. It almost seemed like we’d intended it to be like that.
PRETTY FLAMINGO
The next day, fueled by disappointment and dejection, and with the benefit of alcohol infused hindsight new plans were formed: The Cosmiques Arete for James, Ryan and I while Chris took Tom and Rhys on a klettersteig in Passy. The klettersteig, it seems, was a bit short on equipment care and surmounted to being a couple of ‘dubious planks’ and not a lot else. Altogether it was a couple of hours of fun, a pleasant walk in, some slick ropework
protecting the seconds and a victory ice cream for surviving but perhaps not one to hang your entire logbook on.
The Cosmique Arete, on the other hand was a rollercoaster of hilarity, fine well-trodden rock and even bants with a local French guide who was clearly frustrated by his rotund and particularly lazy French client. A Brit-French fist bump acknowledged his plight at the thought of him having to lower-off his tubby client and we passed through – a tough day in the office for him.
Nonetheless, this is an outstanding route and well worthy of its stars and was made even better by typical British inconsid- eration playing Manfred Mann’s Pretty Flamingo on a phone while we waited for the blockage on the last pitch to clear; a fine song with a particularly catchy chorus that I thoroughly recommend. The finale to which got us all over the crux of the entire route: the world’s shakiest ladder that is the top out of the route and puts you back on to the observation platform of the Midi hut. A fitting end to high mountain activities on an outstanding expedition.
The final day was a mix of sport climbing by the roadside at Les Gaillands and some R&R before the return epic.
I could go on for 2 more pages at least on this trip. It was a great success, despite the Mont-Blanc-ers not making the summit. AMF was delivered and
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 25