May 16, 2016

Voie Rebuffat - Eperon des Cosmiques

  Taking advantage of the approaching "summer"- in fact the Alpine Summer would be more correct. Climbing the classic Voie Rebuffat at Eperon des Cosmiques 



With a 7 day window with no work we tried to get the most out of a week with combined activities of skiing and climbing. With the weather gods a little against our planes and ideas, working against us sort of, we decided to make at least one good try to get an alpine rock climb in there...somewhere.

Eperon des Cosmiques

The easiest and best plan would be Eperon at Aiguille du Midi and the Voie Rebuffat. A 6 pitch route up les Cosmiques with old style UIAA grade VI maximum, over the small roof.
A great rock climb but in our weather condition turned out to be more of an Alpine adventure. Just a great day out!!

The approach or actually pitch 1, just snow at this time.



High quality rock. Anna follows on pitch 3 over the roof

Belay at top of pitch 4, already occupied by locals



Topo
Le Topo du massif du Mont Blanc - Michel Piola
Camptocamp

You need
1 set of nuts
1 set of friends Green-Red Alien, #0.75-3.0 BD
50m rope
Iceaxe
Crampons
  1. //Never give up, it's such a wonderful life

May 12, 2016

Maladiere – Indiana Jaune


  This week we had some good climbing and skiing activities going on. One of the better was the classic limestone route at Maladiere, Vallée d´Arve, Indiana Jaune. A 270m 9pitch climb. Sustained climbing with mostly high quality climbing with a maximum at 6b+.

Indiana Jaune 6b, 6b+, 6b, 6b, 5c, 6a, 6a+, 6a+, 6b - Fini.
  The easiest approach, as I find it at least, is to park at La Croix Verte and walk to the far right hand side, skiers right, (follow a yellow arrow/sign) and make two 50m rappels down to the base of the rock. Walk some 10-15min east and you will find the route just to the right of a black stain coming down from a small cave just above. There is also a carved sign "INDIE" at the first bolt nowadays...

An other approach is to walk to the top of les Tropiques and make 5 rappels down the face, from there its only a 5 min walk. But have a good look on the GPS track at Camp to Camp before taking on to that if you don't know the area.


La Maladiere, Indiana Jaune , 3rd pitch (© K.Jonsson)Grades: 6b, 6b+, 6b, 6b, 5c, 6a, 6a+, 6a+, 6b.
Anna on the "Part Jaune 4th pitch"



Its a very fun and sustained route with really solid rock and nice features. Good bolts and belays.

Gymnastique at Indiana Jaune

  From the top of the route, follow a small trail on top of the cliff to the rappels of Tropiques. From there follow the good trail back to the parking.  


And as always on a good route, the best is saved to last, the cave passage...



Make sure to take a deep breath and just squeeze...

Cliff : Maladiere 
Route : Indiana Jaune
270m, 9 pitches
Max 6b+
You need : 
2x50m rope for rappel, 10QD´s
Topo Vallé de l´Arve by Gilles Brunot and http://camptocamp.org