Ascents in South Face / Face Sud

Ráppeled down from aiguille du midi and then climbed top rope the last pitches . Short but fun experience climbing those granite cracks

Epic alpine experience with a guide very late in the season, but we randomly nailed the weather and had a very memorable day. Huge pack with 2 sets of mountain boots made the cruxes touch and go. Climbed some of the shaded (frigid) pitches in gloves.

Repeat of a great route did a different corners entry , unfortunately a wet crux 6c pitch so pulled through

Love for this route ends at seeing the 4 teams ahead of us at the bottom, always busy and I'm not sure I understand why.

French-freed a move on the 6c pitch.

Holiday grades!

Onsighted all but the last pitch when I slipped. Started on the lower bonus 5.9 pitch due to low snow/ice conditions. Did optional 5c variation along with the end of the 6b on roughly pitch 10 rather than the 5b pitch.

Second 6c pitch - Under Cling to Gaston to small feet then jugs

Super nice climb. No crowd compared to Rebuffat and finish by rappel on to scenic platform of Midi!

6b dernière longueur

Super high quality route. Fun to be cragging at 3800m

Hardest & most committing climb I’ve done yet, glad we managed. Climbed in 10 pitches total - Pitch 1 6a(?) 25m featuring a tricky hand jam into a corner, Pitch 2 5b 30m good climbing, Pitch 3+4 5b 30m good climbing (can be joined into single pitch, multiple belay stations made it slightly confusing), Pitch 5 6c / 6a A0 25m roof pitch followed by good holds, can be aided with fixed gear, Pitch 6 5b 15m awkward corner pitch (have to run out a bit) into easy terrain, belay station on most right, Pitch 7 6b(?) 20m hard corner crack pitch which eases up later, Pitch 8 6b(?) 25m features a very thin crack on left and good fist-size crack on right which opens up into offwidth size, important to bring the right sizes for this pitch which varies from the other pitches, Pitch 9 6a+(?) 20m had to scramble a bit to find the right belay ledge, ends with some good hand jams, Pitch 10 6b+ / 6a A0 10m the wonderful summit pitch, followed by ~30m abseil into Midi station terrace. Overall - need to bring a wider range of pros & climb in late summer or start earlier, gets shaded & chilly very fast. Some loose rocks.

6b+ contamine exit variation

Upper pitches had snow.

Swap leads

As our last day of the trip we went up to have a play on this. The first 6c pitch was a classic in itself. Then the roof crack was everything we dreamed of and more. Only climbed it cam to cam. but everything felt pretty possible. Think it would go with with a bit of work. A pretty expensive project if you have to catch the midi up every day though. Much better to onsight it.

Better than the rebuffet route. The big dihedral up the top is so sick. Had to aid through the wet 6c roof.

Awesome first climb in Cham. Got stuck behind a slow party then wandered off route onto a scary slab. Made it back for the last cable car of the day with 5mins to spare.

Great Golden Granite!

Great Golden Granite!