• L'Aiguille du Pouce in the background. We had just scrambled, nearly peeing ourselves with fear on some of the exposed sections, the entire ridge of the sky line! One hour 30 minutes is tough to match, especially with a few minor route finding difficulties. The lift was now almost certainly missed, it was 5.15pm! 15 minutes to descend the slope that had taken an hour to walk up...

  • The top, hooray! But it was 3.50pm, and we had to descend what the guidebook suggested leaving at least 1.30 for, that 5.30pm lift down was in serious doubt!

  • After the traverses is the first reasonable ledge, so we enjoyed a snack bar, some water, and watched a

  • Near the end of the traverse, the moves just before attaining this sloping ledge were quite airy!

  • Pete starting the superb, photogenic, and a little exposed 2nd traverse pitch.

  • Setting off up yet another ace slab pitch!

  • Laetitia following the first the many, many awesome slab pitches.

  • Descending in to the Cwm Pouce

Aiguille du Pouce

Monday, 22nd August 2011

We caught the first Flégère lift at 7.45am – yes it was hard getting up in time to catch it, but we had to make every second count… The guidebook says it’s a one and a half hour approach and return from and back to the L’Index. So with the last lift down at 5.30pm, by the time we had got off the top chair lift we only had five and half hours to climb the 400m TD, Voie des Dalles. No time for mistakes! So when we reached the ridge line after nearly an hour of uphill walking and panting (no acclimatisation on a weekend trip) we were a little upset to have missed the leftward gangway the approach describes and found ourselves overlooking the glacier de Floriaz and not the Cwm Pouce! :angry: The gangway is level with the massive detached gendarme in the approach gully, so don’t “pass” it on the left as the guidebook says, get level with it then go left up easy rocks. So, with some 20 minutes wasted scrambling south to the correct col south of Aiguille N de la Glière we descended in to the Cwm Pouce on the most loose, chossy, and dangerous slope in the world (probably). Retreat from the route and having to slip and slide back up this death trap of loose boulders was not something worth contemplating.

We found the route – and what an amazing route it is… 😛

Descending in to the Cwm Pouce
Laetitia following the first of many, many awesome slab pitches.
Setting off up yet another ace slab pitch!
Pete starting the superb, photogenic, and exposed 2nd traverse pitch.
Near the end of the traverse, the moves just before attaining this sloping ledge were quite airy!
After the two traverses, right and then left, is the first reasonable ledge. Here we enjoyed a snack bar, some water, and watched a Bearded Vulture circling over some bouquetin that looked to be on dodgy ground - dinner perhaps?
But we were still only halfway and time was getting on, but at least the climbing eases a bit from here...
The end of the climbing, hooray! Just a scramble to the summit over my right shoulder. But it was 3.50pm, and we had to descend what the guidebook suggested leaving at least 1.30 for - that 5.30pm lift down was in serious doubt!
L'Aiguille du Pouce in the background. We had just scrambled, nearly peeing ourselves with fear on some of the more exposed sections, the entire ridge of the sky line! One hour 30 minutes is tough to match, especially with a few minor route finding difficulties. The lift was now almost certainly missed, it was 5.15pm! 15 minutes to descend the slope that had taken an hour to walk up...

We got to the lift station, after throwing caution to the wind and running most of the way down the loose scree slopes, at 5.50pm. 20 minutes too late! 🙁 But, we were lucky, we caught the lift down with the staff at the end of their working day – they must have seen us desperately trying to get to the station. 😀

A final thought… I have to begrudgingly accept that all the running we’ve be doing to prepare for the Rab MM next month is a definite advantage for Alpine climbing. Even without acclimatisation and with a few potentially disastrous route finding issues on the approach and descent we still scraped through and caught the lift down for a well earned beer. Without the running training we wouldn’t have. So maybe I’m converted? I still find the running a tad boring though compared to climbing… 😉

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