Ok, so these are the photos from my glaicer climb in the alps. If you want the full story, make sure to check out my log entry. The image here is of Points De Mourti, the glacier covered monster right next to the peak we were going to climb..
Ok, so these are the photos from my glaicer climb in the alps. If you want the full story, make sure to check out my log entry. The image here is of Points De Mourti, the glacier covered monster right next to the peak we were going to climb.. | |
 | James and I took this show just a little more than half-way up the trail to the hut. My energy was high, I had a song in my heart, and the ground I was walking on was solid stone... life was looking good. And James was happy because I was still singing musicals and had not yet reached my muppet repitoire. |
This is Points de Mourti and its monumental glaciers. The peak we climbed is actually just out of view to the left. See that horrendous jumble of ice and fissures running diagonally from the left??? We didn't cross that. |  |
 | This is me at the hut. Over my left shoulder is Pigne De La Le. To my right is the water supply for the hut... all of it from glacier melt. |
And after a brief break at the hut we did a bit of recon at the base of the glacier. This is Pigne De La Le. Yes, we climbed that thing. |  |
 | My trusty crampons. Rule number one when wearing crampons, take it one step at a time. Rule number two, don't step on your own feet... Ever. |
Trail weaving through a series of crevasses. Most crevasses were well covered by a lot of snow and ice, making crossing relatively easy (and perhaps slightly less dangerous). However, there were a few where I could see straight down into the black icy death that awaited if the snow bridge I was on were to collapse under my weight. |  |
 | You just don't stop on glaciers for pictures. You are roped together, carrying ice axes, and wearing crampons for a reason... the ice and snow beneath you are far from stable. Regardless, we did have to stop as we shifted from valley glacier walking to glacier climbing since we had to significantly shorten the rope. That's James and that strand of rope is attached to me. |
We really didn't have time to enjoy the summit. The sun was up, the glacier was warming, and our time to get off the ice before the risks got too high was running out. This is James either admiring the view or saying "there is no way we are going down that way" I can't remember which. |  |
 | This is me looking a bit tired at the top. The peak in the distance to the right is the Matterhorn. The slope of the Obergabelhorn can be seen to the side of it. |
And this is our stop on the way down as we were lengthing our rope for the valley glacier crossing. We were really fortunate to be crossing on the west side of the peak, even at 9am we were still in shadow for most of our crevass crossings. |  |
 | So our story ends happily and both of our glacier climbing heroes live to climb another day. |