Nuit Blanche the classic grade VI of the Chamonix area. First climbed by the famous Brit ex- pat Stevie Haston and claimed as the world's hardest ice climb.
Its steep and mean with 3 pitches of vertical ice and an overhanging exit to the belay on pitch 3. I climbed this with 'Buffy' Jones on Fri. It was her first Grade VI ice climb and she was made up once we had finished. Coming along for the day was Jonathan Griffths taking photos, so a huge thanks to him and check his site for other fab images.
The climb fell without too much bother, despite the warm conditions the ice was in good nick. The 1st was a steep (90 degree) pillar into a cave belay this was a nasty warm up that got the arms going. Pitch 2 was a short pitch that lead to the final steep pillar. This was pretty brittle but was well featured, the only wee hiccup was that Jon was in the way at the very final moves and I got pretty pumped waiting for him to finish snapping photos. All in all a great day and an amazing end to Buffy's week of ice.
Thanks to Buffy Jones and to Jon Griffths.
Enjoy
Kenton
