With only one good day of weather left here in Cham, we were keen to make the most of it but avoid the avalanches crashing down everywhere. Rock climbing seemed a good idea, so "Rough" Pete, "Posh" Pete (all things are relative), Katie, Matt and I decided to go and check out the Argentiere Refuge hut crag. Matt, Peter and I had had a fairly unsuccesful attempt to climb there a couple of years back, but this time we had a bit more joy and climbed "Le Gateau de Riz".
As ever when climbing in hot weather and with good company, the whole affair was pretty relaxed and very enjoyable. The route was great, and featured plenty of easy climbing but also the odd tricky section. It's probably not quite as good as "Mort de Rire" on the nearby Genepi, but still a good route, and it seems to dry relatively quickly.
All Photos Peter Riley -
All Photos Peter Riley -
2 cool cats on the first belay
Me high on the route. The summit is the tooth on the right.
Me reaching the summit
Unfortunately the abseils down don't lead you quite to the skis. Here Katie makes a dash for it through the snow in rockboots, but still ended up suffering the pain of frozen feet.
Unfortunately Posh Pete and Katie didn't find their route further along the crag dry, but still did the first couple of pitches of our route and then came down.
All in all a great day and a good way to end one of the biggest weather windows so far this winter.
Snow, snow, snow for the next few days - Result!
Whilst watching the rain/snow fall outside, here's the latest video blog from Seven Twenty Productions to keep the psyche up!