Airy sensations on the Rochefort ridge

I looked up over the edge and for the first time up close, I could see the track of footsteps, leading up and down the narrow snow ridge with thousand meters of nothing on each side. Sometimes the ridge was not more than 1 footstep wide!
I realized that to balance on the Rochefort ridge would require as much precision as courage.

What about a rope? There was nothing there to protect us apart from the eventual possibility that if one of us would fall, the other had to jump on the opposite side of the ridge!
As the first sun rays of the day touched the snow and we could see the whole ridge traverse waiting for us, I knew that this would be one of the most exposed mountain experiences I'd encountered.

Chamonix

After two exciting weeks in the Jungfrau mountain massif, Switzerland, Gorm and I headed to France. Chamonix was as vibrant as usual with tourists, climbers and visitors gathered in the alpine capital for the summer.

I don't know how much time I've spent in this area of the alps the last 4-5 years, but it's definitely got a hook on me. Chamonix simply breaths mountains and they are everywhere. You just look up above you to immediately start fantasying about the next adventure. The weather was good and I suggested to Gorm that we'd head up to the Torino hut with an objective to climb the famous Arête Rochefort and it's 4000m peak, Aiguille Rochefort, and maybe link it up with another 4000m:
The Deant du Geant on the way back. It was an ambitious objective, like I often have...

The Rochefort ridge from Aiguille de Rochefort

To do this climb, you need to start early in the morning from the Torino hut in order to not get too dangerous snow pack on the way down. We packed our bags and decided to first climb the mountain Aiguille d'Entreves on the way to the Torino hut the next day.
In the morning, the cabin up to Aiguille du Midi was delayed and wouldn't open until 8.30. When we finally was over at the Italian side, the clock had passed 10 and we basically ran over the glacier and up towards Aiguille d'Entreves in a hurry.

Gorm under Aiguille d'Entreves

Catching up with the crowds at Entreves

Gorm at the Entreves traverse

Climbing at Entreves with Dent de Geant and the Rochefort ridge far in the backdrop

Aiguille d'Entreves proved to be crowded and it didn't take long until we were standing in the line on the mountain, waiting to climb further. Queuing is a usual Chamonix phenonoma since popular routes pretty much always are busy here.
After a couple of hours we were back on the glacier, heading towards the italian hut. I had never been in Torino before and the view of big dumpsters, cranes and loaders at 3300m height surely surprised us. The work to build a new Helbronner mountain station was in full action and this mixture of glacier landscape and big machines interacted in big contrast.

Construction at Torino and Helbronner

  
The hut was crowded too. Many climbers had gathered here for the evening and the drying room was full of wet boots and gear. I was wondering how much the total value of that room would be a day like this? And how often people came up the mountain realizing that they had taken on someone else's boots...

Early morning on the glacier

It was still night when we woke up. The clock in the breakfast room showed 02.30 and outside everything was dark apart from some lights from the construction area. I stumbled out of the hut and on to the glacier in silence. We started walking on the hard snow, the stars shined bright in the night sky. I felt tired but appreciated the moment. We were all alone. I felt close to the nature and contemplated about how beautiful the night was up here.

Morning with lights from the Helbronner and Torino hut

On the opposite side of the glacier basin, we saw climbers on the Kuffner ridge, revealing their position by the light from their head lamps. As we had passed the bergshrund, I could see the lights of the first parties heading in our direction.

Climbing up towards the ridge

By sunrise, we stood at the magical ridge, Arête Rochefort. I felt astounded by it's exposure. The snow looked like a knife edge with hundreds of meters of space down to rocks and glacier on each side. The final climb up to Aiguille Rochefort, 4001 m, was seen at the end of the ridge, maybe a kilometer away from where we stood.

Footsteps on Rochefort ridge

We decided we'd be each others belaying point and tied into the rope. If Gorm fell, I would have to be quick enough to jump on the opposite side, other wise I'd go with him, and the other way around. As the first sun rays hit the ridge, we balanced out and for a while it felt like the time stood still.

Starting out on the ridge

The Rochefort ridge for me, was truly another type of sensation, not even comparable to last years traverse of the Aiguille de Bionnassay in direction Mont Blanc. I loved it, still, I felt my mind playing tricks with me. The concentration was high in every step.

It was a wild mountain experience to walk on this ridge, sometimes not wider than a gymnast's balance beam, something I'm well known with from training gymnastics as a teenager. But this "beam" definitely offered a more extreme sensation, I felt the butterflies.

Butterflies!

Morning light on Dent de Geant in the background

Preparing a rappell mid ways on the ridge

The last pitches of climbing up to the Aiguille Rochefort was a story of loose rock and just as we set off towards thew summit, a party of German aspirant guides on course took us up. They were in good mode and seemed to enjoy the day. The aspirants had been on course for 4 weeks and this was their final day. As they left the summit and started moving back on the ridge, they were quickly out of sight. I guess they longed to go home.

The rock section before the top of Aiguille Rochefort

Nice to be on the top!

On the way back, a strange thing happened. Gorm, started to feel sick, got bad vision on one eye and felt disorientated. Here we stood on the most exposed ridge I'd ever been on, and my partner feels dizzy...Hm...it was not the best place to be...

On the way back towards Dent de Geant

Gorm on one of the slopes mid ways coming back

The last hundred meters on the ridge was a little too exciting than I like it to be. Step by step we balanced back, and every second I focused on my partner and was prepared to let go of the rope bights and throw myself out over the other side.

Extremely concentrated I felt like a panther, moving slow and attentive for any unusual signs, ready to act. I disliked the situation strongly and remembered how Gorm had danced like a ballerina on the way out, whereas now he had a poor vision on an eye and swayed. Luckily we got over the ridge with no eventualities and as we descended, Gorm gradually felt better.

Descending and improving!

Climbing Dent du Geant on the way back, our second objective, had to wait. I felt like it didn't matter. I was happy to go down after a strong experience in every sense and that my partner felt better. We cancelled the next night in the hut and headed back to the Chamonix valley. It was sweet to come back and nothing's better than enjoying a good meal and going to sleep early when you're tired and happy after successful day in the Alpine school of mountain adventures!

Beautiful sunrise over Mont Blanc seen from the Rochefort ridge

With some retro perspective we know that Gorm's symptoms on the ridge were some first signs of altitude illness. Despite weeks of acclimatization in Switzerland, he had shown clear signs of altitude sickness on the way back over the ridge. That it would be the altitude causing the Gorm's problems, somewhat came as a surprise. Both Gorm and I had previously had several nights over 3000m and made quite a few climbs up towards 4000m without any problems. Still, daily shape and physical conditions will always have an impact on how you handle effort and how your body responds to the lower partial pressure of oxygen above 2500m.

Our experience confirmed the "daily shape"-factor and it was interesting to see how much impact the altitude can have, even when you are acclimatized. The recipe for handling altitude sickness symptoms is easy: descend to get well.

The summit is only half way!