Mont Blanc de Cheilon (08.08.2005)

Monday 8th August 2005: Leysin – Arolla – Dix Hut
The ascent of Mont Blanc de Cheilon was the first peak of a week-long student mountaineering course. Unusually we were a group of five girls (we didn’t know each other before the course started) with a Swedish alpine guide named Dick. Our preparations for the week kicked off on the first day when the five of us – Lucy, Rosie, Gabie, Anna and me - went on a grocery shopping expedition in the local Coop in Leysin having been handed 200 swiss francs by Dick. Our basket was quickly filled up with cereal bars, chocolate, dried meat and fruits, cheese and bread and some fresh fruit for the journey over to Arolla. After the shopping efforts, we eventually drove out of Leysin and down the winding road into Aigle at the bottom of the valley. The route took us through Martigny and then southwards into another valley with a short stop in Evolene to stretch our legs and use the toilets before making our way to Arolla.

It was already midday by the time we’d reached Arolla, and now the sky was blazing with sunlight and we had to change into t-shirts and shorts for the 3-4 hour trek to the Dix hut with our full rucksacks. After some rather necessary plastering on of suncream, we hauled up our rucksacks onto our backs and began our way up the forest path and onto the trail leading to the hut, which was situated at 2928m. Despite the heat, it was actually a very pleasant and scenic walk, just very uncomfortable whilst sweating under the scorching sun. The route took us up the hillside on a dusty footpath, out of the forest and into alpine meadows, offering up views of Mont Collon’s impressive north face. More dry, rocky footpaths took us up to a col that overlooked the Dix glacier we were going to cross. From the col, all that was left to do was to downclimb a long iron ladder to access the glacier, cross over it and re-ascend to the hut………

The ladder bit was all good fun, albeit a bit of an airy and rather exposed descent; it was a vertical descent of maybe about 25m or so, but there was nothing between us and the glacier, about 100m below if we fell! A footpath zigzagged down to the glacier from the bottom of the ladder and we crossed over, which took about 15-20 minutes. From the other side the hut was visible about 50-100m vertically above us, and to access it we had to ascend from round the back. Having descended, it was a bit demoralising to have to ascend once again to reach the destination, but it had to be done. We were all quite tired and thirsty, but once we were at the hut we could relax, drink and have something to eat – so were all eager to get up there a.s.a.p. The last leg of the trek really dragged, but we were at the hut just before 4pm, and collapsed onto the benches outside to relieve our feet from our toasty but rigid boots. Lucy and Rosie were first to get theirs off and check their blisters. The rest of the week look like it was going to be a painful one for them. We spent about ½ hour sitting outside and enjoying the hut views before we even considered moving again to go inside and take rucksacks up to the dormitories. Our dinner was a 3-course affair of soup followed by some very salty meats and boiled potatoes and a dessert. We went to bed at about 9.30pm.

Tuesday, 9th August 2005: Ascent of Mont Blanc de Cheilon
I woke up unintentionally at 4.15am by the sound of other people in our dormitory rustling with bags and kit and getting ready to leave. After a long night of being unpleasantly serenaded by snoring and the subsequent whistling, I was not in the mood for being woken up earlier than planned. The rest of us got up ½ hour later to go down to breakfast and were finally all ready and packed to set off down the glacier for our route up Mont Blanc de Cheilon at 5.45am. We descended down to the moraine, plodding along slowly behind Dick in a somewhat zombie-like state. The sun was just about to rise over the peaks, but as beautiful as it was, we were all too sleepy to really show much enthusiasm at this time of morning. Once we hit the snow of the glacier though, it was about 6.30am, and we chucked off the rucksacks to get crampons, harnesses and helmets out and tie into the 2 ropes we’d carried up. I took the front of one rope, with Anna and Lucy following on behind and Gabie took the lead on the other with Dick and Rosie following behind her. The sun had just touched the patch of snow below us now and was creeping its way up to us. It was really pretty. Really, really pretty. Once we had got rucksacks on again, we picked our way up the glacier behind other groups, aiming for the col along the south-western ridge.

There were a fair number of climbers out on the same route to the col as us though, and it took some time before we actually got there, being held up in a traffic jam of about 25 people that snaked up the glacier. Eventually though we arrived, but it was also windier and cooler now we were out of the sun once again, and a few of us stopped to put on jackets and things to keep warm. From the col, we ascended a snow slope to bypass the earlier and slightly awkward portion of the ridge, and gained the crest of it further up. The snow was in good condition; not too frozen and not too soft that we sunk in it – but we didn’t spend long ascending the snow slope before having to take off crampons to climb the ridge. After perching on some rocks to de-crampon, I took in a few more coils of rope to shorten the distance between myself and Anna. The short-roping was necessary whilst we were moving over steeper rock sections on the ridge. Gabie led the way in the first party, and we followed on behind, a little slower though as it appeared Anna was struggling slightly to keep up. Looking back down the ridge behind us was a hugely impressive, vast array of rocky and glaciated peaks, which were just catching the early morning sunlight. It felt so good to be among the mountains again, and it was all too tempting to want to just stop and gaze at the scenery.

But we didn’t really have time for that, if we were to descend back down to the hut by early afternoon. Part-way up the ridge, the first group – Gabie, Dick and Rosie had paused whilst Gabie was getting up a tricky section. Unfortunately, whilst doing so, a strong breeze had come in from the south and taken Rosie’s ice axe with it, from where she’d stowed it between her back and rucksack and down the other side of the ridge. It appeared she was now in a bit of trouble for the rest of the ascent up the glacier leading to the col, and also back down on our return to the hut. Fortunately, I had left my spare ice hammer in my rucksack when I’d packed it the night before and promptly informed her I had a spare axe to lend her (much to the surprise of both Dick and Rosie) We put on crampons again at the end of the rock ridge for the ascent up the glacier, with firm, compacted snow crunching beneath our crampons. It was a real pleasure to walk on. As we made our way up behind some other groups, Anna was gradually struggling more and more and generally not coping very well with the altitude – unable to take more than about 10 steps at a time before having to stop. Things really started to grind to a halt as we progressed further up, and Dick, Gabie and Rosie were having to wait up for us; Dick did offer to help take Anna’s rucksack but she was adamant she would be OK. Once we reached the col however, Dick made the decision to keep her back from going any further, so whilst the four of us left continued toward the summit ridge in pairs, Dick waited with her at the col for us to go up to the summit and back.

The views eastwards from the col were fantastic, the Matterhorn’s unfamiliar (in the sense it wasn’t the classic Toblerone figure cutting into the skyline) western ridge visible. But it was a very windy place to have to be waiting, and I didn’t fancy having to wait there as Anna was doing. I took a few photos in the minute or two we were waiting there, while Anna and Dick untied from the ropes and I took in some more coils. From there, we made our assault on the summit ridge, with Gabie and Rosie having already gone ahead and myself and Lucy following on some 10m behind. It wasn’t a particularly accommodating ridge, in some places the crest was not more than ½ m wide, and I took care to loop/ wind the rope over spikes and any other suitably protruding rocks to act as a break, if either Lucy or I were to take a slip and fall. To complicate things further, there were also other parties making their way back down the ridge in the opposite direction, so we had to try and find somewhere to step down and to the side to let them past before continuing up the ridge. It was all good fun though, the exposure made it all the more enjoyable I think. One or two notches along the ridge required some down-climbing on snow covered rock, as well as ascending on rock slabs which were glazed with a thin layer of ice and Lucy admitted to being glad to have kept her crampons on, despite her dislike of moving over rock in crampons.

The final part of the ridge leading to the summit was a bit crowded, as the summit itself was a very small place to be – only 3 to 4 people could be up there at any one time, unless some climbers moved further along past the summit and along the ridge beyond, so we had to wait our turn. Because of some slightly exposed and tricky scrambling to the summit itself, everyone was pitching the last 10m or so of height gain which also took some time, but eventually Lucy and I got our turn, and Lucy belayed me whilst I climbed my way up to the top and met up with Gabie and Rosie, who were in the process of preparing to descend back down via a gully around the other side of the summit spur. Once I’d got up, I used one of a number of conveniently spiky rocks from which I could belay Lucy from, and took in the rope as she made her way up. The panorama or alpine peaks around us was pretty breathtaking and we both found a safe place to perch and briefly take some photos. Looking back in the direction we’d ascended from, probably southerly or south-westwards, we could the make out the Chamonix Aiguilles on the skyline; towards a northerly direction were the huge peaks of the Bernese Oberland and further eastwards, the Matterhorn and peaks along the Monte Rosa massif. And many more of course which I wasn’t so familiar with.

I belayed Lucy again from the top while she descended down the gully below us first, then when she was safe, she took the rope in on me and I followed on. The way back down the ridge towards the col where Dick was waiting for us felt pretty much the same as it had been to ascend towards the summit, except for the tricky section of down-climbing the ice-covered rock slab that made up the last pitch to the summit…….a little bit more care required but not scary. After we’d dropped down about 100m in height or so down from the col, we were out of the wind and getting quite warm from the sunshine. We stopped to take off layers and had a short break for some lunch and drink. We were back in the land of crevasses again, the snow was softening fast and we needed to get a move on. There were a couple of places where we had to cross the crevasses via snow bridges, but they could never be relied on to support our weight, especially at this time of day when they were no longer frozen.

There was probably about more than 400m or so to descend until we reached the more level glacier at the bottom of the slope, but the height drop was distributed quite nicely over a long distance, so the gradient was reasonably gentle. From the bottom of this glacier, there was about 1-2km to plod over more or less flat glacial terrain to reach the col at the foot of the south-western ridge, and from there only a little more descent until we were back on the moraines again all the way back to the hut. The slog along the flat ground was tiresome, more so because of the strong sunlight beating down on us and partly because of the psychological aspect that we’d finished the exciting and interesting part of the route and all there was left was the mundane descent back to the hut. Lucy was on the front of the rope, and had set a pace that dragged a bit, but eventually we were at the col and the rest of the group – Rosie, Gabie and Anna, were waiting for us. It was only about 2pm, but it felt like a lot later; we were back at the hut within about ½ hour or 45 minutes.