Grandes Jorasses North Face. Twice

I pulled out my jacket from the backpack and set it up as a little tent above my head. It was a minor respite. The spindrift prevented sleep until early morning. In a few hours we were going to get out of our sleeping bags and start climbing but the falling snowflakes planted seeds of doubts in my head. I had approached the Grandes Jorasses north face three times already and had to walk out empty-handed all three times. Was the fourth try going to be different?

The first time we approached the face was in the autumn of 2015. Frieder and I saw that the face was white and hoped that the neve would allow us to efficiently climb the Shroud - an ice slab on the left of the face. After spending the night at the base, we got shut down low by the steep section at the beginning of the face. The snow was unconsolidated which made it hard to make progress, yet the rock was covered which made the protection hard won and we quickly bailed to town.

We were back in the summer of 2018 and tried to climb the walker spur. Conditions were good and the rock was dry, but were unfit and hence moved too slowly. This led to an epic abseiling mission down from about two thirds of the face.

Frieder midway up the Walker

In the spring of 2019, we approached the face with Pierre, this time set on trying the Croz spur. The beautiful ice runnels appeared to link the base of the wall to the summit ridge. We fell asleep in great spirits, but overnight it started snowing. Even though the amount of fallen snow was rather small, the entry chimney to the face became an overflowing snow funnel. A few hours later we were back in Chamonix.

In October 2021 I started getting messages from my friends about a mega weather window that was going to come to the Alps and stay for several days. In the end, Cyrill and I arranged time off work and drove to Chamonix. At first, we thought we would leave early in the morning, but soon it became clear that we lack a lot of equipment and have no clue what to pack. So in the end, we decided to stay in Chamonix for an extra day and indulge in a shopping spree. It also meant that Cyrill got to enjoy a charming hotel experience.

What else shall we buy?

Shopping therapy indeed helped and we were upbeat about getting on the north face. What we did not buy were hiking poles as seen in the pic below. We cut some from the fell trees in the valley and left them at the base of the wall. A few hours and some sandwiches later we were scoping the line and soon indulging in the freeze-dried meals.

Home made

Looks good

Comfy! Had no idea I would start getting covered in spindrift soon.

Fortunately, the spindrift stopped an hour before our planned start time and I managed to grab some kip. Having caffeinated ourselves, we started the lower neve slopes. I climbed the entry slabs and then Cyrill took over for a mega simulclimbing session.

The mega pitch starts.

Getting towards the steeper section.

The wall got steeper and a rock step guarding the entrance to the upper snowfield turned out to be fairly difficult. We climbed a few rather involved, yet very enjoyable pitches. The top snow field then led us to the iconic rock pitch on the ridge before the final mixed section.

Harder than expected.

As cool as it gets

We then got to the final steep mixed section, where we knew that the final gully may be quite difficult and we did not know if anyone had climbed it that season. What surprised us though was that a few pitches leading into the gully were rather sketchy. Thin ice and brittle rock slowed us down and I even had to indulge into hammering a pecker and a few pitons to feel comfortable on the decaying slabs.

The final pitch before the gully.

The gully itself also was rather involved. Perhaps the first 5 meters or so were completely dry before the neve blobs appeared and made the climbing easier. A few more meters later the ice got thicker still and I could start placing ice screws again. Apparently, my climbing was not reassuring to Cyrill, since he was too tense to even snap a picture of the crux pitch. Needless to say, it got dark as were were finishing the last meters to the notch. I was hoping that we can sleep at the notch, but the intense wind and the lack of flat spaces quickly convinced me otherwise.

Abseiling on the South side

After we got of the rocks and downclimbed the steep snow slopes, we even contemplated to go down to the Boccalatte hut. But it was the first time descending the Jorasses for both of us and we struggled to find the way and therefore ended up sleeping in an even cooler place on the glacier, with rewarding morning view. 

 

Our fantastic bivy on the way down.

We walked down to the Planpincieux and due to some extensive bumbling managed to miss the last (one of only two a day) bus from Italy back to Chamonix. We tried hitchhiking, but after a rather unpleasant encounter with the police, went with the plan C - taxi through the tunnel. As expected, we got totally scammed and payed a ridiculous price for the transfer. Luckily a nice dinner at the Micro Brasserie de Chamonix soothed our souls and provided a pleasant end to the trip.

-------------------------------------------------------------

After two weeks, we had another free weekend and we were keen to climb on the Grandes Jorasses more, primarily to find a better way to return to Chamonix from Courmayeur. But also we wanted to get to the highest point of the mountain - pointe Walker. Hence we decided to go for the Shroud. Since we expected to be faster on this route, we decided to sleep in the Leschaux hut and then bring no bivy gear with the plan to reach the Boccalatte the evening after the climb.

As we approached the Leschaux hut, some doubts started creeping in. There was a crazy number of people who were already at the hut. We had no place in the beds, but managed to squeeze in the hallway of the hut. We were sharing the floorspace with two poles - Dany Bielecki and Marcin "Yeti" Tomaszewski - and in the hindsight it is now clear why they were so nonchalant. As it turns out, most people wanted to climb the Rêve éphémère d'alpiniste. Only one other party - the very friendly Calum and Danny were going for the Shroud, but they were planning to set of a few hours after us, which sounded like  great deal for us.

Cooking dinner outside due to overcrowding.

Starting the never-ending slopes

The first few pitches, from which we bailed with Frieder back in 2015 were in fact quite steep. I was happy to place a few pieces of protection and was also content to belay Cyrill. He then took over for the never-ending blanket of the face

The calves were killing both of us, but Cyrill maintained a great form and led most of the way to the ridge, where at noon we then stopped to brew some water and enjoy the views. In my mind I was remembering some friends of mine who once spent the night on this ridge and I was very happy that we were likely going to avoid this fate.

Climbing the ridge

We climbed a few pitches on the ridge and then followed the advice of Jon from the night before to traverse left for more snow and ice fields. This took us another couple of hours, but then at about 4 pm we were basking in the sun on pointe Whymper.

Summit!

125 years AACZ

We were under impression that we will be down in the Boccalatte hut in no time at all, but actually the scrambling down from the summit buttress was quite long and involved. We then had to cross the glaciers and soon hit the path we knew from a few weeks ago.

Everything did go quite smoothly, but it took us until midnight to reach the end of the snow slopes, where we boiled some water for half an hour or so and then finished the trek to the hut, ready to sleep in.

The walk down from the hut is very pretty. One can observe the southern side of the massive mountain you just climbed and as the vegetation increases, the air fills up with pleasant scents that lead you all the way to town. After going down to the Planpincieux and enjoying a good coffee, we teamed up with Calum an Danny again and started searching for a taxi to take us back to France. After calling Massimo, Alessandro and Alberto, we finally found someone to take us across the tunnel. This time we got scammed even more, but as we were splitting four-ways it was not as painful and we were soon having burgers at Poco Loco!

Needless to say, since we have not yet succeeded to cross back to Cham from Italy using any reasonable way, we will have to go back to the north face.