Little Yosemite, Envers des Aiguilles
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Cassin Route, Piz Badile
A wonderful trip to climb the Cassin’s incredible 1937 route on the Piz Badile in the Bernina Alps – one of Europe’s 6 classic North Faces.
It was the first visit to this region for myself and regular partner for long alpine mission @claphamski. Despite that we made good time climbing the route in 5hrs30, with about 6 pitches and long periods of simul climbing. We abseiled down the north ridge and I will definitely be back to climb and guide this too.
The lovely Sasc Fura Refuge @sascfura gave us a warm welcome and made our stay very enjoyable.
We finished off the day with a celebratory pizza in Italy 🇮🇹 on the road back to Chamonix – after it it was James’ birthday.
A big thanks to @colleenmaclellan at Chamonix Sports Massage for working so hard to get the knots out my thigh muscles after so many hours riding enduro!
Aiguille de la Republique
There are Chamonix Aiguilles (needles) and Chamonix Aiguilles. This is one of the latter, as sharp and pointy as a 700 m rock spire can be. The thought of the pioneers lassoing the summit and hand over handing up a hemp rope still makes my palms sweaty. The exposure levels on the summit kept me straddling the blade of rock – one leg either side. We climbed the modern magnificent political crack route named Republique Bananiere that the maestro Piola rated in his top ten Mont Blanc Massif granite routes. ED 6C and 700 m of magic including a 50 m dihedral.
California Dream ED 450m 7a
Beautiful outing to the Trelaporte of Envers des Aiguilles to escape the valley heat. A fabulous route following jamming and layback cracks.
Matterhorn
