Grandes Jorasses (27.07.2020)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Boccalatte hut (2,770m) |
|---|---|
| Characteristic | Alpine climbing |
| Duration | 9h 48min |
| Distance | 8.3km |
| Vertical meters | 1,437m |
| GPS |
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| Ascents | Grandes Jorasses (4,208m) | 27.07.2020 |
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Following the brilliant first week of climbing, we had two easy days down in the valley back in Evolene which I mainly used for eating, drinking and sleeping plenty while also making plans for the second week. I’d earlier hoped that the Taschhorn-Dom traverse could be an option, but after having found out from the Swiss AlpineClub website that the Mischabel bivouac hut was closed for the season, it was obvious that this idea was not realistic – at least not this summer unfortunately. Having spent the week over in the Zermatt and Saas valleys, which I felt pretty familiar with now, I thought it would be quite nice to have a change of scenery and climb some other 4000ers in other regions of the Alps I hadn’t spent much time in. I was also quite keen to climb a “cool” mountain and so the first thought that sprang to mind was the Grandes Jorasses, since we’d gotten such a good view of its south side from the Dome and Aiguille de Rochefort last summer. The Grandes Jorasses is of course a bit of an iconic mountain, so to even have an attempt at climbing it seemed like a pretty exciting prospect. Fortunately, the Boccalatte hut had bed spaces available on the sunday night we planned to head over there, so once we’d booked spaces there, a plan was made and anticipation levels began to rise once again.
On sunday morning we made the journey over to Courmayeur via the Grand St. Bernard pass and Aosta, and made a stop to buy some very reasonably priced snacks from an Italian supermarket in Courmayeur. On our way toward Planpincieux in the Val Ferret, we got turned around by some police (or maybe they weren’t police, but some authoratative people of some sort) and told to park further down in town and take one of the free buses going into Val Ferret, presumably to reduce the amount of traffic heading into the valley. Anyway, we found the free car park in Courmayeur, but soon discovered that there were many other people using the buses and there were no spaces left by the time they reached the bus stop we were at in the upper end of the town... After not being able to get on two of the buses (going every 15 minutes) we decided on a new strategy and started walking back into town to wait at one of the earlier stops in the hope of getting on one of the buses before they got full! To cut a long story short: we eventually managed to get on one of the buses and reached Planpincieux, but we ended starting the hike up to the Boccalatte hut about 2 hours later than first planned.
By the time we were ready to start walking from the huge (and jammed) car park at Planpincieux, it was 1pm and the hot Italian sun was at its strongest. The hike itself is fairly direct and ascends 1200m over 4.5 km all on south-facing slopes above the Val Ferret, so I was totally dreading having to be out in the sun for the next few hours... The initial part of the trail goes up a fairly narrow forest trail, but the shaded part of the hut walk doesn’t last all that long and we were soon over the treeline and into the sun again after about ½ hour. However, looking straight up the mountain gave some really cool views, with the contrasting vegetated area below the steep rocky walls and glaciers above. We took a lunch stop after about 1 hour of walking before embarking on the steeper, more scrambly ground above. Some ropes are installed in places to assist with the scrambling parts, but as we later found out, these parts seem to get a bit congested when lots of people are going in both directions. It was actually very surprising that so many people were out hiking to the hut, they certainly couldn’t all have stayed there in any case – there wasn’t that many beds at the Boccalatte hut! A steep(ish) path continued the journey up beside the Planpincieux glacier and eventually it was possible to see the location of the hut, perched high on steep rock slopes above the glacier. Martin Moran describes the last part of the hut walk as a relentless slog, but I thought it was fairly pleasant and a bit more fun with scrambling and via ferrata to finish.
Despite the delayed start, we arrived at the hut around 4.30pm which meant that it wouldn’t be too long to wait until dinner at 6pm. The hut guardian, Franco was terrifically chilled out and easy going – a pleasure to be welcomed by hosts like him. The hut itself is a bit rustic, slightly dark inside but sort of cosy. The dining room had 4 tables and next to it was the only dormitory in the hut, so it doesn’t have lots of spaces even during a normal season. Franco didn’t seem too concerned about Covid being brought up to the hut, convinced that the high levels of UV would kill the virus anyway.... After a good dinner with polenta cooked Italian style (better than Swiss style) it was more or less time to get ready for bed. We packed up rucksacks ready for the 12.30am breakfast in a couple of hours time. I wasn’t really expecting to get any sleep, not for fear of snorers but mostly because I was feeling a sense of excitement about the next morning. Plan A was to do the normal route up to Pointe Walker via the southwest flank, but leaving options open to climb the ridge up to Pointe Whymper first if we changed our mind along the way. Both were the same grade anyway, but one being a few hours longer. There were 3 other pairs of climbers also doing the same route; two fast dudes from France, an older pair of climbers from Germany (or Austria maybe?) and an Italian guide and his client who were sharing the same table as us at dinner. Not too busy really.
Surprisingly I did actually fall asleep at some point, though I wasn’t exactly bursting with energy and enthusiasm while trying to drink coffee in the dining room. Fortunately my brain wasn’t awake enough to register the terribleness of drinking black instant coffee! The French dudes were just as quick getting ready as they were walking up to the hut the previous afternoon, so I hardly recall seeing them in the morning. We left around 1am not long after the Italians, and pretty much trudged up the Planpincieux glacier in a steady pace not far behind them, all the way to the toe of the Rocher du Reposoir, a ridge of nice easy granite climbing (grade III) that provided a relatively safe route to the upper part of the mountain. A combination of climbing short pitches and moving together on the easier scrambly section toward the end of the ridge allowed us to make quite good time at the start of the next snow traverse. It was about 3 hours from the hut to the top of the Rocher du Reposoir and halfway in terms of elevation to the summit. After a quick break here to put on crampons we began the traverse across the Grand Jorasses glacier, which was somewhat icy as we reached the far side, requiring some front pointing and ice axe placements, so Tim protected this part with a couple of ice screws until the Rocher Whymper was reached. Since there was no suitable place to take off the crampons for the rock section, we continued climbing up the gully and eventually over the crest of the ridge to the start of the next snow slopes. As much as I dislike climbing in crampons on bare rock, it didn’t seem so bad this morning. Maybe it was because I was using stiffer boots and had more control over the foot placements. Anyway, it was only a short section before we were using crampons on ground they were made for!
The final traverse under the serac went pretty quickly since the snow was hard and easy to move over, so at the far side and just before dawn we took another break to admire the emerging views of the Mont Blanc massif as the sky began to get lighter. Steep snow slopes led us up to the final rock ridge, which was kind of more mixed ground with the snow cover that was there. Gorgeous orange colours starter to appear on the horizon as we looked east across the Tronchey Ridge and the first rays of sun slowly began to appear over Mont Blanc, revealing some amazing colours in the sky above it. Seemed a shame to have spent so many hours climbing in the dark and only getting views just before reaching the summit, on the other hand it was cool to have seen the sunrise from high up on the mountain too.... Anyway, more scrambling/easy climbing followed and quite soon we were on the final, slightly breezy snow slopes leading up to Pointe Walker, the highest summit on the Grandes Jorasses which we reached at around 6.30am and a whole new vista opened up with views of the Mer de Glace and Aiguille Verte, Les Droites, Petites Jorasses and all of the Swiss Valais Alps beyond. As we stood around and enjoyed the reward for so many hours in the dark, we could also see Team France making their way across from Pointe Whymper, so we did the polite thing and waved at them :-) After having spent some 15 or 20 minutes enjoying the summit moment and me contemplating that I was actually on the top of the magnificent Grandes Jorasses, we decided to start the return back to the hut, which was basically reversing the route; first by descending the mixed rock/snow ridge, at the end of which we met the older German couple (apparently the Italians had turned back for some reason or another) then traversing the easy snow slopes under the serac, abseiling as much of the Rocher Whymper section as possible and then crossing the next icy snow slopes to gain the top of the Rocher du Reposoir. By this time we managed to catch a bit of sun at the top of the ridge, so it was a good excuse for another break while we took off crampons. From there it was a mix of easy downclimbing and scrambling to reach the series of abseil posts which we used to slide all the way back down to the foot of the ridge, ready for the final plod back down the Planpincieux glacier to the hut. It was fascinating to actually see the glacier in daylight, and be able to see just how many and how big the crevasses were. I’d not noticed any of this while we were trudging up in the dark! Impressive stuff. Fortunately the snow was still firm and snow bridges not too sketchy, so the descent down the snow was fairly rapid, though it was starting to feel immensely warm once we were done with the snow and only had about 5-10 minutes more walking to the hut. After 9 hours and 45 minutes we arrived back at the Boccalatte hut, very satisfied with the morning’s activities and back to the welcome of Franco. The usual process of changing into shorts and trainers, repacking rucksacks and having a good drink/cake followed before it seemed appropriate to begin the hot and dusty 1200m descent back down to Planpincieux, where a celebratory (and cheap!) Italian coffee was enjoyed at the car park café/restaurant exactly 24 hours after we’d started the hike up from there the day before.
Needless to say: it had been a fantastic journey on a deservedly cool mountain and another experience with memories that are going to last a long time!
| Start date | 27.07.2020 00:56 (UTC+01:00 DST) |
| End date | 27.07.2020 10:44 (UTC+01:00 DST) |
| Total Time | 9h 48min |
| Moving Time | 7h 29min |
| Stopped Time | 2h 18min |
| Overall Average | 0.8km/h |
| Moving Average | 1.1km/h |
| Distance | 8.3km |
| Vertical meters | 1,437m |
User comments
wow
Written by Signar 10.09.2020 15:24I still remember decending Grand Jorasses after the traverse. quite horrible, promised myself that this was the last climb in the alps..
Re: wow
Written by hmsv1 10.09.2020 15:30I remember you telling me that :-) I didn't think it was that bad really, it went pretty quickly!