The hike to our bivouac was suppose to take 2 to 3 hours.  An exposed knife edge ridge turned it into 6.  I thought for sure we were lost only to find the bivouac, a glorified portaledge, bolted to the side of the cliff.  I guess this is their way of crowd control over here.  Sleeping was pretty much useless.  I have never slept this high and with Mont Blanc out the front door cleaning itself every ten minutes the energy was like nothing I have felt before.

We dropped into the abyss at 3AM and hopes were high.  We had given the face an extra day to set up because it was more loaded from the last storm then expected.  The forecast was for clear skies but it was wrong.  The night was not cold and clear and the mountains had not locked up like we needed them to.  By 5 AM we were at our point of no return.  As much as we wanted to push on it was clear things were too warm.  This was confirmed by the distant sound of snow or ice crumbling down the mountain.

With colder temps in the forecast we retraced our steps and headed to lower ground.  Our three days of dealing left us empty handed but our hopes are high for another attempt in a few days.

heat

We were late getting to this face. It was loaded and warm so we waited 2 hours for it to cool down before hiking it.

Xavier

Xavier works his way up the knife edge ridge to the hut.

Tero

Fan Fan belays Tero to his home for the night.

the hut

The bivouac. We came from behind the ridge and left. To ride we would rappel off the deck.

The hut

Can you see the bivouac?

the deck

Xavier, Matt Heriger and myself take in the view.

scoping

Scoping our route to the peak. We will have to cross under multiple seracs to get to the base of the climb. This is our last island of safety before dropping into one of the craziest palces I have seen on earth.

heading back

Heading back to the bivouac.

Xavier

Xavier moments from safety.

Wild World

These afternoon clouds never cleared at night so the overnight lows were to warm. This is the view from the deck. Peirre Tardivel skied the lookers left hanging snowfield. He rappelled the cliff in the middle. He is on his own planet when it comes to the steeps over here.

inside
3AM

Rappelling at 3AM. No coffee needed to wake up.

The route up
The route up.  It was hard to leave this behind but it was the right call.