Mont Maudit - Kuffner Arete (26.06.2023)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Cosmiques hut (3,663m) |
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| Endpoint | Aiguille du Midi (3,784m) |
| Characteristic | Alpine climbing |
| Duration | 12h 15min |
| Distance | 13.9km |
| Vertical meters | 1,940m |
| GPS |
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| Ascents | Mont Maudit (4,465m) | 26.06.2023 |
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The Kuffner ridge on Mont Maudit has been sitting on my “wishlist” for a number of years; not just because Mont Maudit is also on the 4000m list, but because of what I’d heard from other people and seen cool pictures from the route. Moreover, the route description opens with “This is one of the finest ridge climbs in the Alps, combining snow aretes with interesting mixed sections and unfolds amongst scenery of the highest order....”. After a binned attempt in June 2022 (we only got as far as Cirque Maudit after a night with no decent refreeze) I was super keen to make the most of any opportunity with good weather and snow conditions this year. Since the Col de la Fourche bivouac hut got swept down off the ridge and destroyed last summer by rockfall, our only options were to start from the Cosmiques or Torino hut, or take bivy gear; the Torino hut appeared to be permanently full, and the Cosmiques hut was full until the Sunday night after we’d just been to Nordend, so we booked bed spaces on that night while we had the chance, but it meant not getting much rest from an already big day with little sleep before embarking on another big day with even less sleep :( Anyway, from somewhere I’d have to summon up enough energy since I really wanted to climb this route.....
We were joined by an aspirant mountain guide, Polly, who had been in contact with Tim and was keen to get some extra preparation before her final exams later in the summer. After we’d travelled over from Zermatt to Chamonix (via Evolene) we met her down at the Aiguille du Midi station before catching the last lift up at 5pm and pottering down the well used track to the Cosmiques hut. My legs didn’t mind the descent down the ridge, but I could already feel they were still not fully recovered while going up the small hill to the hut from the glacier, which kind of concerned me given that we didn’t have much time to rest before having to get up again at midnight to begin the approach to the start of the route. We arrived at the Cosmiques hut at around 6pm and were welcomed by a very full equipment room. There were no empty boxes left to stash our climbing gir in so we ended up having to shove most of our stuff under one of the benches. The dining room was equally packed with people but fortunately the dormitory we were staying in wasn’t too crammed; at least it didn’t look like it was. The dinner was supposed to be at 7pm, but we didn’t get served anything until nearly 7.30pm, then when I tried to pay for the overnight stay after dinner I got told that they wouldn’t be sorting out payments until everyone had finished dinner and tables had been cleared.... This was kind of stressful as it was already 8pm and we didn’t have many hours until we needed to get up again, so this system was pretty suboptimal for everyone who was getting up early. Despite being in a practical location I can’t say I will be rushing to go back and stay at the Cosmiques hut any time soon.
Anyway, despite the relatively late bedtime I managed to sleep a couple of hours before getting nudged by Tim (or Polly, I can’t remember now) to get up at midnight. Fortunately it was only the three of us who were getting up so early, so we had a relatively chaos-free experience having breakfast (a bit of bread) and getting ready in the gear room. Tim managed to liven up the atmosphere by keeping us all amused with some hilarious stories of a fellow mountain guide who both Polly and I also knew (who shall not be named here :D). I was definitely much more awake after laughing so hard! We eventually left the hut at around 0045 and began the long walk across tthe glacier, skirting around the east side of Mont Blanc du Tacul and ascending into Cirque Maudit to the start of the route. Along the way we passed what seemed like a lot of tents, people seemed to be camping all over the place with the huts being so fully booked this summer.....In the guidebook this approach from the Cosmiques hut is supposed to take between 3h and 3h 45 but at Polly’s rapid pace we found ourselves at the start of the route after 1h 45, and I felt accordingly knackered. Nevertheless we took a decent break here, got both ice axes out and put on some more clothes. It wasn’t cold but I think I was feeling a bit more chilly than usual because I was so tired. Polly led off up the steepening snow slopes towards the bergschrund and once the rope came tight both myself and Tim followed on. With the snow cover being so good compared to last year the bergschrund wasn’t all that wide, and after a slightly awkward pull over the gap it became quite straightward climbing up steep and solid snow to gain the ridge. Progress up until this point had been quite efficient and I got the impression we were making good time. After another little pause once we’d reached the ridge, the route continued up a steepening snow arete for some time, and stopped only once we came face to face with an unexpected rock buttress, which presented us first with a bit of scrambling on not so solid rock, but eventually became a more solid climb of around grade 4. Initially I’d stowed both ice axes loosely around my neck but as they kept falling off every time I reached with my arms above me, it ended up making more sense to take off the leashes and put them away properly under the strap of my rucksack. Rock climbing in crampons was still as awkward as it always has been though, and after scrabbling around a bit trying to find something decent to perch the front points of my crampons on, I somehow managed to get over what I believed was the crux move and made it up to the belay that Polly had made. By now it was starting to get light at least and we could see that we had snowier terrain in front of us which was a welcome relief. From the top of the rocky section (which is by the way not mentioned in the guidebook and neither Tim nor Polly could remember it being part of the arete either...) we made a traverse out to the left following big footsteps in the snow that had been made in the days before; after the traverse we climbed more or less straight up over some mixed ground, got to a new stance and then climbed straight up snow to gain the snowy arete leading up to Point Androsace. The sun started to rise just as we were climbing up the arete, and we got treated to the most magnificent sunrise over the Diable Ridge on Mont Blanc du Tacul. It was stunning light and we all took a pause to admire the beautiful scene. Not a breath of wind either; spirits were suddenly much higher and we were all happily taking photos of the amazing surroundings.
The route continued along the ridge and we traversed around the left side of Point Androsace on a mixture of steep snow with a bit of rock here and there. It was a pretty long traverse and we moved on a long rope between us; fortunately there were already good bucket-sized steps to put our feet into, so it felt fairly secure. We eventually popped out on the other side of Point Androsace by climbing up a bit more mixed ground from the end of the traverse... then there was a bit of downclimbing on snow before more mixed ground and rock straight up the other side of a mini col. It was becoming a really fun climb with lots of varied ground in totally jaw dropping surroundings.... however, we were still not even close to the top of the route, or Mont Maudit yet, so once we were back on the snow again we tried to keep up a steady pace, even though I really needed to have a breather now and then. The long staircase of steps in the snow lead us up onto the main ridge separating the southern and northern flanks of the mountain, and we continued climbing up this ridge on mixed snow/rock to begin with, before the ridge eventually became more of a long snow plod up to a false summit, then down to a col and then back up some steeper snow towards the true summit of Mont Maudit. By this time my legs were truly starting to feel knackered, my hamstrings were hurting so much and especially so when the climbing peetered out and we only had a long slog up the snow ridge to reach the summit. Polly kept the spirits up with her ever-cheerful personality which was also a big mental booster for me too. Somehow I’d gotten the impression I was dragging my feet and slowing down the pace, but we ended up overtaking all three (?) rope teams again who’d passed us just as we’d reached the ridge about an hour earlier. It was truly a relief to finally take the last steps up to the small summit, which we reached at 9am – and there were high fives and hugs all round.
Usually the descent feels like the easiest part of the day for me, but the descent down the north flank- despite having a good track all the way back to Col Maudit and back down the other side of Mont Blanc du Tacul, just felt like a tiring slog today. The fun part was over and I was both hungry and very thirsty and eager to have a much needed break once we reached Col Maudit; we did have a long break sitting in the snow, but it was still tiring to plod back up the small incline to descend Mont Blanc du Tacul’s normal route. Fortunately the snow was still fairly solid and hadn’t been softened too much by the sun yet, so the snow bridges were still OK(ish) to walk across. Probably wouldn’t have wanted to be descending much later though as the snow was deteriorating as we approached the Col du Midi. Jackets got stripped off before we even got there though as it became very hot very quickly! Little did I realise that the worst of the heat was still to come.... anyway to cut a long story short I’d run out of drink at Col Maudit so as we plodded back across the glacier and back up towards the final ridge below the Aiguille du Midi I became super thirsty and dehydrated in the late morning sun; coupled with the fatigue and 3 nights of early starts or poor sleep it all got a bit much and I literally felt like I was dying on the last easy slope back up where the ridge narrowed below the Aiguille du Midi. Had to take a few minutes to pull myself together before we started making our way up the ridge ;-) Fortunately, there was a bit more of a breeze once we actually started making our way up the ridge so the heat wasn’t quite as intense as it had been on the glacier and this last part of the climb was somewhat less emotional!
All things considered I would say that the Kuffner definitely delivered in terms of route quality and the setting and really has left me wanting to do more of this kind of route on the south side of Mont Blanc (the Innominata Ridge is next on my list...). Ideally it would have been better to have done this route before the long slog up Nordend, instead of getting tired on Nordend first and then climbing such a fine route but despite being sleep deprived and tired, I still felt like I got to enjoy the route itself without being too exhausted. It was mainly the walk-in from the Cosmiques hut and the slog up the easy snow slopes to the summit after we’d done the route which I found the most knackering (and of course the slog across the Col du Midi in the baking sun). I’m pretty sure the memories of this day will be living on for a long time! Big thanks to both Polly for her hard work guiding both Tim and I and to them both for the company :)
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