Our next day was spent with Keith Garvey, an IMFGA guide and instructor. We had arranged to climb Pointe Lachenal and the Arête des Cosmiques with him! We were supposed to meet him at 7AM, but we slept through our alarms, and ended up meeting him at 7:30AM… We made our way up the lifts, and at the top we strapped on our crampons, he gave us pointers on our gear, and what to use. The basic message was to, “keep your kit as tidy as possible!” This was definitely good info, as we had to snake our way up some tiny and narrow chutes…

 

The weather forecast had been calling for rain… but luckily we were greeted with just some cloudy skies!

The lighting was pretty eerie… but it helped keep temperatures down (as the previous days were scorchers). It was still a little warm though, as the clouds trapped the heat!

The glacier was busy with all sorts of climbers

Heading to our first objective! You can see the steps that head out to to the left, and then towards the right, to the outcropping of rocks. After you scramble up that, you traverse across the snow ridge, and climb up that ~70-deg slope

Steep snow is steep.

Another team of three

Somewhere along the route… and seeing some blue skies!

At the first rappel point… to expedite things, Keith lowered Chris and I at the same time (we were short roped)

Playing some NAME THAT MOUNTAIN!

We made somewhat quick work of the first leg, and next up was the few pitches up top of Pointe Lachenal. Keith led the pitches and belayed us up.

^the gneiss was nice.

Photos from Keith and Chris!

At the top!

We descended back onto the glacier, and made our way towards the arête!

Along the way, Keith ran into a buddy

^this probably happened with 4-5 other guides throughout the day #coolestkidinschool

Working our way up!

Looking around at stuff!

For most of this leg, we had the whole place to ourselves…

Making progress!

At the first rappel point. We were lowered again for efficiency’s sake.

Somewhere up high…

Keith doing things

By the time we got to the second rappel station, there was a group behind us. We got lowered again… this spot was pretty rad, but narrow…

Keith’s view!

SNACK TIME! We took a short break below the second tower; before the final push. After this was the 4c crux, and 3c/4a pitches up to the lift station. I wish I had more climbing shots from this point on, but at the time, I’m fairly certain that I was getting tired, and was just concentrating on listening to Keith’s instructions, and keeping myself moving…

Clouds started moving in towards the end of the climb

To Chris’ right, was quite a drop…

Looking back! before the 3c/4a pitches

So the end of this climb is a rickity old ladder up to the lift station. The Europeans have things figured out with the automated approach vehicles…

Success! This was definitely the hardest outing I have ever been on!