Well its always the same. After a few days skiing the soul needs to be purged and there is no better way then to team up with Nick Bullock and go climb some ice.
Nick has wanted to climb Llynx (IV, 6, M4+ 200m) all season, so as soon as I said I was free today there was only one climb to do, you can’t let Nick down either. We were both in the car by 7.30 and hurtling off towards Morzine and a date with a nasty looking dribble of ice.
The walk in wasn’t too bad considering it was knee deep snow, luckily there was a trail in so we were at the base in about 40mins. The route didn’t look too bad, while the one next door (La Dame Du Lac) looked totally amazing (see pics). The only problem was the icicle on pitch two of our route wasn’t touching down, still I had Bullock with me so nothing is impossible.
I had the first pitch which was a combo of bullet hard ice and nasty crust that had to be cleared but I soon found myself belayed under the most wacky looking ice pitch I’ve ever climbed. Nick dry tooled his way up 40 feet with some pants in situ peg (one day we will take wires on these routes) before launching out right on some groaning blobs of ice. The next 30 feet was really steep yet awesome ice. At one stage I climbed with my feet on an icicle and my axes on the main fall....simply great climbing. There was a final steep pillar before the ground eased and Nick was belayed grinning from ear to ear.
My next pitch was a short wall followed by an easy section, this lead to a horrid wee wall. Crusty, layered, steep ice (not nice at all) lead me up to a small cave and a welcomed belay. Nick dispatched the next 40m pretty fast despite the steep concrete like ice that he climbed on the way. This left the glory pitch to the top to me woohoo!... a mellow groove lead at last some softer ice and finally the top. Both Nick and I had battered hands at the top due to some nasty mushrooms on this final pitch (mine are swelling up and going purple as I type this) but even this didn’t take the joy of the llynx away. The raps down went smoothly and we were soon back at the car in the sunshine for the first time all day....mission accomplished.
Pics from the top
1) The route Llynx
2) Le Dame Du Lac
3) First pitch
4) Nick starting pitch 2
5) Nick battling with icicles.
Well its always the same. After a few days skiing the soul needs to be purged and there is no better way then to team up with Nick Bullock and go climb some ice.
Nick has wanted to climb Llynx (IV, 6, M4+ 200m) all season, so as soon as I said I was free today there was only one climb to do, you can’t let Nick down either. We were both in the car by 7.30 and hurtling off towards Morzine and a date with a nasty looking dribble of ice.
The walk in wasn’t too bad considering it was knee deep snow, luckily there was a trail in so we were at the base in about 40mins. The route didn’t look too bad, while the one next door (La Dame Du Lac) looked totally amazing (see pics). The only problem was the icicle on pitch two of our route wasn’t touching down, still I had Bullock with me so nothing is impossible.
I had the first pitch which was a combo of bullet hard ice and nasty crust that had to be cleared but I soon found myself belayed under the most wacky looking ice pitch I’ve ever climbed. Nick dry tooled his way up 40 feet with some pants in situ peg (one day we will take wires on these routes) before launching out right on some groaning blobs of ice. The next 30 feet was really steep yet awesome ice. At one stage I climbed with my feet on an icicle and my axes on the main fall....simply great climbing. There was a final steep pillar before the ground eased and Nick was belayed grinning from ear to ear.
My next pitch was a short wall followed by an easy section, this lead to a horrid wee wall. Crusty, layered, steep ice (not nice at all) lead me up to a small cave and a welcomed belay. Nick dispatched the next 40m pretty fast despite the steep concrete like ice that he climbed on the way. This left the glory pitch to the top to me woohoo!... a mellow groove lead at last some softer ice and finally the top. Both Nick and I had battered hands at the top due to some nasty mushrooms on this final pitch (mine are swelling up and going purple as I type this) but even this didn’t take the joy of the llynx away. The raps down went smoothly and we were soon back at the car in the sunshine for the first time all day....mission accomplished.
Pics from the top
1) The route Llynx
2) Le Dame Du Lac
3) First pitch
4) Nick starting pitch 2
5) Nick battling with icicles.
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