You don’t know until you know. I recited this in my head as we walked in the rain and then later as we bivvy’d in the howling wind. At 7am Nick lead the first pitch and the conditions were the best we could have hoped for. The rock quality was superior. The conditions were not going to be an excuse to bail. I knew we were going to complete the route.
The night before all 4 of us reached the col of the North ridge, hidden away at the foot of the route. It’s a beautiful bivvy spot perched on the ridge with a 100m drop overlooking the glacier. There was no escape from the wind in such an exposed spot, so we searched for another further down the ridge. We folded ourselves around the rocks, piling up our rope to make a platform flat enough for us to get some sort of rest; fractured sleep at best.
I laid there in my bivvy bag staring up at the stars, the wind stilling buffeting our sleeping bags like a sail. If it carried on surely it would dry the wall but we needed it to stop before tomorrow as the wind could bring unwanted weather.
Nick lead the first pitch. I put on my rockshoes and started on the quality granite. As soon as I left the floor I felt instantly committed and building with each pitch completed. The climbing was solid and the pitches varied. A Spanish team simul-climbing* the route passed us and we briefly waited for them below the “v” chimney. We could hear laborious groans as each climber past the chimney, giving me time to picture what sort of pitch was next. A thuggy, physical pitch, involving hand jamming and general brutality, pushing your way up the groove in the most inelegant manner. The chimney pitch was the only wet pitch we encountered, ice blocks sat in the corners slowly melting.
This is my third of the 6 great North faces as described by Rebuffet. Each North face I wanted to do with a different partner. I’ve climbed all over the world with Nick; The Falkland Islands, Cape Town, Antarctica and even our local crag in Dartmoor, but we had never attempted a big wall together. Each of the 6 North faces are different. The style of route, the climbing discipline, the seasonality, and as each route is different I wanted to pick a new partner for each as well. Not only suiting our strengths to each route but our personality and characteristics.
Having gone through some rigorous times in training with Nick I knew I could rely on him. Last year on a Christmas trip he broke his back, and just over a year later he’s probably going for his most demanding route yet. It’s been great to share these experiences with a new partner each time, although we only spent a day on the mountain, this route has created a compelling part of our friendship.
We topped out on the ridge and simul-climbed the rest of it to the summit. The other team had made it in good time and managed to abseil the route back to the bivvy. Instead, we decided to sleep in the summit hut and abseil into Italy in the morning. We walked off and into the nearest town bracing ourselves for a long day getting back to Switzerland. Then, unexpectedly but enormously welcome, Charley and Waldo drove past. Apparently from everyone’s cryptic text messages they managed to figure out our plan and drove the 200km around to pick us up. Now the only problem with descending off the back of the mountain is that our bivvy gear was cached at the base of the route.
Waldo came up with an idea; to hike up with his speed wing, grab the kit and fly back down. For such an audacious plan it pretty much went perfectly, apart from the near death crash on take off. I think Waldo might have left our kit as an excuse to fly his speedwing!
* Simul-climbing – A method of climbing fast, together as a team, without stopping to belay.
