October, 2011 - DAVE SEARLE

Pinocchio

29/10/201129/10/2011Leave a comment

Yesterday we headed up for Pinocchio on the east face of Tacul. We had a leasurely 2nd bin start as usual and poodled on down to the bottom of the face. We were greated with great conditions and superb mixed climbing over the 7 pitchs we did. Our original plan was to hit Scotch On The Rocks but Pinnochio looked better so we went for that instead. Its not a good idea to get on these routes too early in my opinion as the sun is still on them untill 11 ish which is when we started climbing. We climbed to the top oof the pillar Martinetti and then abbed back down the route as the light started to go. Gabbarou- Albinoni and Modica-Norry look really good right now as well. Here’s some photo’s…..

General Update

29/10/201129/10/2011Leave a comment

P1050678 — The scottish boys stood on a big pile of rubble at Bouchy, wondering why the loweroffs are so close....

So what have I been up too over the last few weeks….. hmmmmm. This and that you know, rock climbing, working, etc. Me and ally walked up to the bottom of the Dru to get on the North Coulior only to find that the glacier to the base of the route wasn’t having any of it and had decided to put a large gnarly crevasse in our way. Still as always its a good place to bivy and we were treated to an amazing sunset but the access is a no go for this autumn. Apart from that I’ve been rock climbing with my mate’s Ross Hewitt, Sandy Simpson, and Ally. We enjoyed two days of granite sport climbing up at the Getroz and Bouchy…. heres some photo’s…..

Croz Spur with Slovenian start.

19/10/201119/10/2011Leave a comment

Croz Spur on the Grandes Jorasses with route Shown (slovenian start) — Croz Spur with Slovenian Start. Showing the Line of ascent.

I recently got back from climbing the Croz Spur with the Slovenian start with my friend Ben O’Connor Croft. I have wanted to climb this route on the Grandes Jorasses for sometime now. It was great to finally get it ticked. The climbing was varied and for the most part good, with the exception of the penultimate pitch which was quite tricky with steep, broken rock and poor protection. Normally this pitch has more ice in it but this year it is quite dry so it’s been putting up a bit of a fight! We were one of three teams on the route that day and I’ve been informed we were the only team to make it over the top with the other two teams being helicoptered from just below this ‘crux’ pitch. This however wasn’t the only helicopter action that the Jorasses saw that day….

Colton-Brooks, Les Droites.

02/10/201102/10/2011Leave a comment

With routes marked — Les Droites with Colton-Brooks marked.

With such a strong high pressure sat over the Alps at the moment it would be rude not to make the most of it. Especially as my driving work has all but stopped. We decided to head up to the Argentiere basin to check it out. We had our sights set on the Colton-Brooks on the north face Of the Droites. We had no idea what the conditions were like on the bottom half of the face as its impossible to see from the valley but we decided it was worth a punt!!

Here’s how it went…..