Friday, 25 September 2009

Cordier Pillar (take II)


David Hasselhoff called; he wants his shorts back.

Byrons Guest Blog:

Holiday synopsis so far:

- Fly to Geneva
- Drive to Cham (5 pitches climbed)
- Drive to Saalbitschijen (1 pitch climbed)
- Drive to Val di Mello: too tight to pay for guidebook + Guy's rope broken = 2 pitches climbed.
- Drive to Bregaglia (0 pitches climbed)
- Back to Cham where we had a little fun from the Midi.

Not quite the super alpine holiday we had planned!

So...Guy suggests the Cordier Pillar on the Grand Chamoz. "Great!" I say.
"You need a number 5 cam to avoid a 10 metre run out on the final hard pitch" Guy says.
"But they're like, £60 aren't they?"
"£80. We'll just have to man up."

A quick walk from the middle station across some moraines to the bivvy site see's us eyeing up our obvjective and making our beds for the night. A few rocks roll down the glacier but they don't matter as it will all freeze overnight holding them in place.

9:00: The usual pasta dinner to the sounds of some more rockfall doesn't deter our spirits before an early bed and hard day's climbing the next day.
9:20: More rockfall.
9:30: More rockfall
9:35: More rockfall
9:37: Lots more rockfall; getting much more frequent now.
9:38: Pan fall (stove falls off the wall)
9:39: BOOM! Sit bolt upright to witness a shower of sparks sliding down the glacier. "Errr, we have to go across that in the morning" says Guy. "I don't like playing Russian Roulette with a mountain" says I.


The look of delight on Guy's face at another failed route.

9:40: Back down to Cham to a comfortable bed and Guy's drunken housemates.

Plan aborted. Not to worry, next morning Guy hands me a book with our next possible objective - 1200metres of TD climbing. Yeah right, I say...

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