Back to classics, hello Chamonix !
Starring the dream team Tom, Arthur and me, we planned a week ago to achieve some classics roads of alpinism in the holy sanctuary of Chamonix, land of legend for every climber. Our first choice was to hike Les Courtes by La Voie des Autrichiens, one of the mythic climb that every climber wants to do in his life.
Epic meal time in the refuge of Argentière, without heating...
Thought, the ambitions of men have to suit their capacities. Captivated by the reputation of the mountain, and with the will of participating to the legend, we almost forgot our senses. Fortunately for us, the view of this great wall of rocks, ice and snow that is les Courtes forced us to think in a realistic way of our capacities.
With little experience and mostly because it was our first ascent together, we decided finally to go for an easier but still challenging trip: Argentière’s needle through the Y corridor. Also a great classic with a 450m long corridor until the top of the needle (which is flat actually) at 3908m.
I was firstly a little disappointed by this change of plan, but the corridor wiped my doubts and offered me to see that we did the right choice, as we arrived at the top breathless, with shaky legs, painful backs and kind of a headache because of the high and the sun warming our head until it explodes…
Our bags were simply way more too heavy, as we had all the material for les Courtes including climbing gears that we never had to use in the corridor, useless ropes and so many food for Tom that he could have fed us for one week… That’s the way it is when you’re young and rash!
Tom in the beginning of the Y corridor
The others alpinists coming to the top from the normal route found us lying on the snow at the top, taking a well-deserved nap in the sun and waiting for the snow to unfreeze. However, and thought some good curves, the snow wasn’t that good for skiing. The absolutely breath-taking landscape with an overview of all these classic and world known summits saved the descent.
Shaky legs but big smiles at the end of the corridor!
Back to the car, and in spite of the tiredness, we were all thinking of new trips in Chamonix for the coming weeks. Maybe les Courtes, with a little more training together, who knows…
