Kyle Sharfe & Caryn Rouse establish the Missoula-Grenoble connection

Kyle is not one for idle small talk. Not having seen one another since a winter trip to Katahdin five years prior, we got to talking about the possibility of a trip in the Alps together at Goudi and Lindsey's wedding last summer. Casual banter turned into booked airfare for both Kyle and his girlfriend Caryn pretty quickly, and on July 3, I found myself flying low in the Chipie across the Swiss border to the Geneva airport, doing my best to avoid speed radar, customs and expensive Swiss highway permits. The two of them were incredibly psyched and upbeat on the tail end of their marathon journey from Montana. With only one "pull over I might puke" stop, we made it to the comfortable chaos of downtown Chamonix and kicked off what turned out to be an amazing 12 days together.

During the first three days of the trip, Caryn bravely tackled the Chamonix-Courmayeur stretch of the Tour du Mont Blanc solo. Meanwhile, unstable weather and sloppy high mountain conditions prompted Kyle and I to re-route from lofty snow/ice/mixed objectives to lower, safer rock climbing at the Envers des Aiguilles hut (dedicated readers will note that the exact same thing happened last year with Olivier). As the weather and our climbing groove improved day by day, we implemented a steady crescendo that began with 3-4 pitch cragging and culminated with an 18-hour epic on the once classic, uber-sandbagged Ryan Arête on the east face of the Aiguille du Plan.

I've been mostly avoiding or loosely translating climbing grades up to now, but am finding the subject hard to avoid. Here is a rough conversion chart for Frenchie-YDS grades from the Alpinist website. Note that grades from a route done in 1908 (Ryan Arête) and a 2004 Michel Piola route (les Fleurs du Mal) are on completely different scales.

F    -  "easy"
PD -  a bit difficult
AD - pretty difficult
D    - difficult
TD  - very difficult
ED  - extremely difficult
ABO - abominable!


Dalles Inférieures de l'Envers des Aiguilles  -  20,000 lieux sous la neige  -  200m, TD, 6b

Day 1 splitter crack climbing (with a comfortably bolted approach, Chamonix style). 

Kyle busting sweet moves, and getting sun burned, right off the plane.
The Mer de Glace and the Dent du Géant are in the background. 

Pointe des Nantillons (3000m)  -  Les Fleurs du Mal  -  450m, ED-, 6b+

We climbed 14 pitches through mist and cloud, getting rinsed just as we topped out. The rappels
happened fast in cold pouring rain and rumbling thunder, fortunately without any stuck ropes. 

Aiguille du Plan (3673m)  -  Ryan Arête  -  550m, D+, 5b (sandbagged!!)

Navigating the 'schrund at dawn. Access to this route is becoming increasingly
complex due to the thinning of the Blaitière Glacier. 

Having fun around hour ten. During the morning hours we got lost in a loose, snowy gully, nearly
retreated, and ended up rallying to enjoy classic pitches such as this steep grovel chimney.

Kyle leads the last pitch, wicked hard and almost certainly off-route, close to sunset.  Thanks to Kyle for doing the lion's share of the leading for the latter part of the route when we were in overtime. Note the alpen glow underway on the Mont Blanc du Tacul  (4248m).

Kyle and I ended up "exploding the schedule" due to tough conditions and our route finding errors down low, and also what ended up being much harder climbing than anticipated. We decided to pitch it out down low in our sopping wet rock shoes, and in retrospect I think we would have been better off simul-climbing in mountain boots and just getting the heck out of there. Finding the balance between the risk that accompanies prolonged exposure and the higher immediate consequences of simul-climbing, especially when conditions aren't ideal, is not easy.

 Faced with the choice of doing an AD ridge traverse to get to the safety of the heated bathrooms at the Aiguille du Midi or descending to the Requin hut, we opted for the latter. Thankfully there was a well-established track on the crevassed Envers du Plan Glacier, and just after midnight we dropped into a packed, humid bunkroom and called it a night. Waking up to fresh bread and a bowl of Nutella, I definitely found myself appreciating the wonders of alpine civilization. 

Junk show on the ladders, which have been installed to access the Mer de Glace post glacial retreat. 

Hillary! She finished up the school year that Friday and rallied up to Cham to squeeze in an epic trail run and greet us.

Pic Coolidge (3775m)  - South Ridge (voie normale)  -  450m, F

As a happy unit of four, we embarked to la Bérarde and hiked up to the Temple des Ecrins hut for a couple-night stay. Climbing Pic Coolidge as a two teams of two was an ideal objective for the four of us -- Caryn rocked it and summited her first peak in the Alps with style and ease. 

Up and at it pre-dawn. 

Kyle and Caryn moving up the glacier below. 

Coup de Sabre and the Pic Sans Nom looming large as Hill leads the descent. 

Sicktory! Back at the hut in time for lunch.

Hill and Caryn hiked up to the Refuge de la Pilatte below les Bans (3669m), which look Burly. 

Crazy little dude who lives at the Temple des Ecrins. 

 Barre des Ecrins (4102m)  -  S => N Traverse  -  620m, AD

The grand finale for Kyle and me took the form of traversing the Barre des Ecrins, the highest peak in the range and the only 4000m peak in the Ecrins. Little did we know that three other rope teams also decided to climb the route that day, including 4 "alpine hunters" (chasseurs alpins) from the French military. In the post-2am wakeup rat race, Kyle and I ended up  last in line at the base of the route watching as falling rocks funneled constantly down the beginning of the climb. The mountain troops appeared to treat this situation as a standard combat setting and pressed on at great risk, but Kyle and I opted to spend an hour waiting it out and getting cold in the name of staying whole. After the rockfall abated, we kicked off the climb at 7:30 am and everything flowed smoothly from there. The first 200m involve pitches of straightforward rock, followed by 400m of steep snow. On top by noon, it was definitely one of the most beautiful and spectacular climbs I've done. 

The Col des Avalanches (3500m) at dawn. Caryn and Hill got up with us at 2 and accompanied
us for most of the approach up the Glacier du Vallon de Pilatte. 

Is it good?

It's good. 

Topping out the summit ridge. 

Looking down the final snow slopes of the south face. Ailefroide and Pic Coolidge "mettent l'ambiance."

It definitely helped that Hill and I had been up here a year ago -- I knew the ridge would go fast!

Descent tracks down the north-face regular route. 

Happily descending the Vallon de Bonnepierre with the Dôme des Ecrins capping the skyline.
We descended through the gunsight notch on the left (Col de Ecrins, 3367m).