Bring the Thunder

It feels like ages since I last updated even though it's less than a week. First, here's a quick photo:-

More about that later. Lots has happened in the last few days.

Thursday:-
Sam got up early and left to meet the guys for a few rock routes on the Plan. I spent the day doing a few jobs and then decided to try a hike for the first time in almost 2 weeks. I headed up the valley toward the Argentiere glacier on a 2-3 hours walk using trekking poles. The knee felt ok initially, but fairly weak by the time I got down, plus it was roasting so I had plenty of stops to rest my knee. I got down just in time for another thunderstorm, there has been one each afternoon for the past 2 or 3 days like clockwork. A few more photos uploaded, been using the compact lots recently with pleasing results.

Friday:-
A slow start, mainly due to rain on and off, a long morning of brews and talking crap until that evening we headed into Chamonix. Spent a while on the internet in McDonalds with Ally and Alex as they looked for jobs and replied to emails. Then we met up with the others in a bar for happy hour and a few games of pool. We were in Chamonix to witness the start of the UTMB, a trail run of the tour du mont blanc, 100 miles. The start was delayed due to incoming bad weather - and they were right about that! The beer continued (I was driving) and we headed to Poco Loco, another gourmet burger joint just down the road from Midnight Express. Very impressive, and very filling! We headed to the UTMB stand and the sillyness escalated:-

After a few hours standing in the torrential rain, Ally and Alex headed off to camp, I headed back before the campsite closed, leaving Sam, Joe, Phil and Stuie to it. The drive back that night was not a nice one. For some unknown reason, the French don't think it a good idea to have cat's eyes on their dangerous winding mountain roads. A great thing to deal with during a huge storm while driving on the right in a right hand drive car and mental French drivers all around with fog lights ablaze. The thunder continued into the night but I actually managed some decent sleep.


Saturday:-
Woke up starving, so drove to Argentiere to pickup some food, bumped into Alex and headed back to camp for a brew. Joe and Phil turned up in the van, with an extremely ill and hungover looking Stuie in the back who was later dry heaving.

Sam had disappeared and the only clue was an English woman he was talking to in a bar. It turns out after I left, more drinks continued and somehow Stuie ended up at a Swiss girl's place, and Sam wandered off with an English woman. After an hour or two waking up we all headed into Chamonix to see if we could track down Sam, we guessed he might head to the carpark where the van was but had no idea what might've happened to him. We found him wandering down the road looking worse for wear after staying at the woman's flat.

Sam and Stu spent most of the day sleeping in the van while we all went for a wander around Chamonix. Later on the way back, due to some heavy driving and snaking bends, we were all in side splitting agony laughing at Sam who shot to the nearest side window of the van to do the big spit. The Audi driver behind looked highly concerned. That evening, plans were made for their next few days up on the Valle Blanche.

Sunday:-
After lots of deliberation I decided to go up with the guys and do the Cosmiques Arete, hoping my knee would hold out. After sorting out gear, the plan was I'd go up just for the one route and head back on the lift with plenty of time to spare. However, due to a family emergency, Joe has had to drive back to the UK for a few days. We're hoping everything is fine and he'll be back soon, but this left us with a van full of stuff to empty as well as gear to organise for their few days up on the glacier.

Eventually, we ended up catching the lift at around 2 - 2:30, and suddenly I found myself stood at the knife-edged snow arete, roped to 3 mates with a dodgy knee and only them, an ice axe and a walking pole between me and immense drops either side of my feet to either Chamonix or the Valle Blanche.
We took it slow, Stuie first, me next, then Phil then Sam. The knee felt weak, but not painful, probably due to the adrenaline and the prescription Diclofenac that Joe had given me (he's a Paramedic back home). Step by step we made it down the steeper section that winded south toward the towering peaks and slices of crevasse, stopping occasionally to allow climbers heading up hill to pass. Some were more thankful, some were out right rude, as well as being overtaken down hill by non-chalant French guides dragging rich terrified looking tourists past us. The arete wasn't that bad, the exposure was more exciting than scary, the main fear was my knee giving way and walking in the crampons that until then were never used...The ridge levelled out, and we headed to a flat spot to pitch the guy's tent and dump their food and gear.

Then we plodded up to the start of the Cosmiques Arete route. Running out of time, Stu and Phil decided to give it a miss and stay back at the camp to arrange things and not risk being locked out of the station with no easy way back down to the tent, while me and Sam would go full bore and 'bring the thunder' on the route so I wouldn't miss the last lift down and doom myself to a cold sleepless night without a sleeping bag crammed in with 3 other people in a 2 person tent on the glacier. The going up was tiring at first, the altitude is noticeable when you're rushing, as is the short temper when ropes get tangled. The lift was due at 17:30 and it was now around 15:30, with the guidebook time of the route being 2-3 hours we moved together fast placing little gear. After catching up a team in front, we took in some of the views and got a couple of shots, then abseiled down to the next section which traverses across to the lift station.

We stepped on the gas and managed to over take 2 or 3 teams and got bottle necked behind a guide dragging a British couple up the last section. He assured us we'd be fine to make the lift, so we relaxed a bit and took in the atmosphere. The knee was far from my concerns at this point, and I realised after nearly 4 weeks of staring up at this chunk of rock I'd now almost done the route easily. The climbing was great, easy ground and good rock, and the exposure was pure joy. We made it to the rickety ladder that led up to the platform, for smiles and adoration from the wide eyed tourists. I then rushed off to get the lift, but was faced with a half hour wait due to the amount of sight see-ers up there.
Back on the ground, I headed back to the tent for a bite. Eventually I turned on my phone for the first time in a few days to find that Ant, Drew, and the others here for the next 2 weeks had arrived so I went and met them for a quick beer and let them know about the recent happenings.


Monday:-
This morning another mate arrived after a long evil coach ride down, and now I've finally sat down to get all this in black and white and develop photos. No plans for the next few days, Paris may well be still on the cards, but for now I'm resting a bit easier having finally stepped on rock, ice and snow at 12604ft.