Dôme & Aiguille de Rochefort (18.07.2019)
| Start point | Torino hut (3,389m) |
|---|---|
| Characteristic | Alpine climbing |
| Duration | 10h 05min |
| Distance | 8.6km |
| Vertical meters | 1,015m |
| GPS |
|
| Ascents | Dôme de Rochefort (4,015m) | 18.07.2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Aiguille de Rochefort (4,001m) | 18.07.2019 |
After coming back to Evolene from Saas Almagell there was a bit of a swap with guides so for the remainder of the 10 days I was going to be climbing again with Tim Neill whom I’d had a great week with in 2018. First on the plan was to make a new attempt to do the Rochefort traverse over Aiguilles de Rochefort and Dome de Rochefort – and fortunately there were beds available at the Torino hut for the following night when we wanted to get up there. The drive from Evolene to Courmayeaur took a couple of hours via the Grand St. Bernard pass and driving around through Aosta and finally northward to Courmayeur where we did a quick shopping trip at a local supermarket. Having gotten used to grocery shopping at Norwegian and Swiss prices, Italy seemed super cheap!
We then hopped onto the Skyway lift and went straight up to the Torino hut at around 3400m. It was still only midday by now, so after emptying rucksacks of various unnecessary bits of gear we went out for a sightseeing trip up onto the Aiguille de Toule to waste a bit of time. It was an easy stroll across the glacier from the Torino hut followed by some scrambling on both looser and more solid rock up to the summit where sat around for at least an hour. In any case we got a great view of the surrounding peaks and the entire Mont Blanc massif. Down the Mer de Glace it was a bit more cloudy so the top of the Aiguille Verte was obscured, but the majority of summits were visible. After our short sightseeing excursion we went back to the Torino hut and spent the rest of the time chilling out and browsing through books in the bar before dinner at 6.30pm. Here we met the legendary British guide and climber Sandy Allan (who did the first ascent of the Mazeno ridge on Nanga Parbat with Rick Allen in 2012) and lively guide Phil Dowthwaite who is also a good mate of Tims. It was fun to hang out with both them and their clients who were planning to do the traverse of the Aiguille d’Entreves the next day. I headed off to bed at around 8.30pm in hope of getting some hours sleep before our early start the next morning.
Snoring didn’t seem to be the major issue during the night here, but the creeky beds made it impossible to fall asleep since the person on the bunk bed under me seemed to be moving around for most of the night, and all that movement got transmitted up to my bed… :( So I was pretty tired after having slept probably not more than ½ hour before having to get up at 2am. The joys of hut life……….
After some efforts to eat some bread and cereal we were ready to start walking across the glacier just before 3am. It was a bit windy and overcast, but the forecast was for improving weather so we were keeping fingers crossed that this was indeed the case. It was a gently sloping walk up to the start of the main route going up to the Dent du Geant and Rochefort Arete, though it felt like a bit of an effort at this time of the morning and probably took almost an hour. From the bergschrund it was straight into front pointing mode as we cramponed up some steep and hard snow for what felt like about 50-100m in height. We took a break at a flatter part to take off crampons. In contrast to last time I was here in 2017, there was actually very little new snow so most of what had fallen a few days earlier must have melted off super quickly. It was pleasant to scramble on dry rock all the way up to the Salle a Manger (though not all on big solid rocks, a good part of the route was of the loose type) which we arrived at while it was still dark. I’d had a hope that we’d be walking across the elegant snow ridge with an amazing sunrise in the background, but that wasn’t the case today and we walked the initial part of the ridge under the light of our headtorches, though it was light enough that I got a sense of the drop on both sides of the ridge! It was a narrow but well trodden track, plus the snow was well compacted so it was near-perfect conditions for traversing the ridge this morning. A few small descents and ascents took us over to a small slab traverse, which felt delicate done in crampons. On the plus side I was wearing my stiffer Scarpa Mont Blanc boots today, so using only the front points of the crampons on small features on the slabs felt sturdier than if I’d worn the more flexible Scarpa Rebel Lite boots which I prefer for moving on rock. After this section there was more mixed ground to cover, before we descended down an icy snow slope to a col just before the final climb up to the Aiguille de Rochefort. This part of the ridge has a short section of fixed rope, which I would guess allows people to descend and reascend this part of the ridge pretty quickly rather than resorting to setting up abseils. By now it was dawn and it was nice to be able to climb the two long pitches up to the Aiguille de Rochefort without headtorches and crampons! Shame it was so cold though, since my fingers were on the verge of going numb and I was trying to climb most of the time without using my fingers as much as possible. Fortunately the summit came into sight just as I was considering stopping to get out my mitts and I was greeted by the most beautiful colours illuminating the sky above the Dome de Rochefort. It made a great picture with Tim silhouetted against the skyline!
So it was 6.30am and we were already on the day’s first summit. We dropped down about 20m to take a short break and put crampons back on before continuing the descent to the col between Aiguille de Rochefort, Mont Mallet and Dome de Rochefort. It was an easy snow slope and we’d soon arrived at the next section of the ridge leading across to the Dome de Rochefort. Initially we were front pointing up a steepish snow ridge, but it eventually gave way to rock again, followed by another walk along a narrow snow ridge and more rock before we were finally at the foot of the Dome de Rochefort. Crampons got taken off again here and we scrambled and climbed easy ground up the right side of the peak, which ended with a fine narrow ridge across to the summit. A stunning view of the Grandes Jorasses welcomed us at the summit at 8am and we took yet another breakfast stop here :) Looking back at the ridge we’d traversed it felt like we’d walked miles from the Salle a Manger and the prominent tooth like feature of the Dent du Geant. Good thing it was still early in the day then so we had plenty of time to reverse the whole route and get back to the Torino hut for lunch. After some 20 minutes enjoying the views from the summit of the Dome de Rochefort and making some live updates on Instagram we said farewell to the Grandes Jorasses and started to make our way back, first with a few abseils, then descending on a short rope back to where we’d left behind crampons and ice axes at the start of the snow. Then it was back along and up the snow ridges, down the mixed ground and back to the col; then a short stop here to put on sun cream and take off a jacket before trudging back up to the Aiguille de Rochefort, where we met two other climbers – the first people we’d seen all day until this point. It was nice to see the Rochefort Arete in all its glory now as we peered down under the brilliantly blue sunny skies from the Aiguille de Rochefort. Two (maybe three?) abseils got us back down to the snow again and we met several more climbers here who had left behind crampons, presumably because they were only going as far as the Aiguille and not the Dome de Rochefort.
The remainder of the traverse was basically the same as before, though in reverse we got a better view with the Mont Blanc massif in front of us the whole time :) And walking back along the narrow snow ridge in the daylight was way more pleasing than doing it in the dark. I like to get a feel for the exposure when I can actually see the whole drop beside me! It had been a relatively long time spent at around 4000m since the ridge keeps you high the whole time, and by the time we got to the final snow slope going back up to the Salle a Manger, the legs were definitely feeling heavy again! At least it was only downhill from here…. The descent from the Salle a Manger back to the glacier went pretty efficiently, though the last part felt like it went on for ages because the trail was covered with sand and gravel in places and some extra care was needed not to go sliding down the rock. Plodding back down the glacier to the Torino hut felt very satisfying and it was a bit of a relief to finish off the day with an easy snow plod knowing that from the Torino hut there was a very short walk to the lift! What a great day – an ace guide, great weather, excellent conditions and two new 4000ers ticked off the list, very pleased! :)
| Start date | 18.07.2019 02:53 (UTC+01:00 DST) |
| End date | 18.07.2019 12:59 (UTC+01:00 DST) |
| Total Time | 10h 05min |
| Moving Time | 4h 30min |
| Stopped Time | 5h 35min |
| Overall Average | 0.9km/h |
| Moving Average | 1.9km/h |
| Distance | 8.6km |
| Vertical meters | 1,014m |
User comments
Looks amazing
Written by Skippy 18.07.2019 20:38The photos you posted from the summit today are incredible! Hope you are having an awesome time!
Re: Looks amazing
Written by hmsv1 19.07.2019 08:23Yep, it was a fab day but feeling slightly sleep deprived after having to get up and eat breakfast at 2am!