Not sure on conditions we skinned up to the hut on Tuesday afternoon after a bit of preparation in the morning. The winter hut of the Chabod Refuge (2750m), to our pleasant surprise was awesome! Gas, mattresses, log burner, wood everything we needed. The hard work was put to rest with a good feed and a great view over the North Face. First thing we noticed was that it was 'in ice', not sure what we were expecting really - perhaps hoping for a good neve covering to make the ascent quick and easy? Maybe late march but not in February!
So the route is a 400m 55/60 Degree ice slope and tops out on the summit ridge, in the shade all day and bloody cold. Fortunately we still had 2 days of good weather window.
On wednesday we set the alarms for 3am and set off from the hut at 4am after a good breakfast. We skinned up to the bottom of the face then crampned up to the bergschrund. This took us nearly 4 hours alone... hardly the alpine fast we were looking for. Still, we were within budget.
Crossed the bergschrund without difficulty and Plum took the lead on the face. We decided upon a tactic of pitching and moving together, so we would end up doing about 100-120m between belays on a single 8.1mm (half) rope. After pitch 2 I was pretty knackered! It was hard going with ski's still strapped onto our back and the relentless brittle ice meaning one knock of the ice axe was never sufficient. Still we, kept on going - hours passed.... we budgeted to be at the sumit by 1-2pm..hours passed, ice got more brittle, lots of dinner plating and lots of sketchy placements. We got tired, exposed and cold...
It was about 4pm when Plum lead a pitch over onto a ridge above the ice boss (on the right of the face) finally this put us in the sun and I took the last pitch to the summit ridge. The summit ridge was a pleasant mix of airy scary knife-edge snow and a few rock steps. Time had passed us by. It was 5pm.... we had been fairly British and fairly slow...something I always try to avoid! Bugger.
Still... for once in my alpine career...we had ski's on our back, this meant a possible 3+ hour descent to the hut could take us less time. A lot less... we strapped them on and razzed down to the hut in just over an hour. Just as it was getting dark! No Epic here!
After such a long time (8-9 hours) on the North Face due to the quality of brittle ice and our fitness I am now tapping away with about 4 numb fingers! All in all a great adventure without a soul in sight!
Thanks Plum! Bon Hiver Alpinism!
