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It
takes three cable cars to get from Alagna 1100m, up to
Punta
Indren 3273m. The man handling the highest cable
car, tells us the conditions on
Punta Giordani are difficult,
with icy parts higher up. With our snowshoes we will
have
to turn back after a while, he says,
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Well,
the weather is perfect and it's stunningly beautiful
even from the
start. Punta Giordani is the lower part to the
right
of Piramide
Vincent, 4215m. The route passes over
the glacier in the middle of the
picture. |
A
closer look at the route gives a better view. The summit can be seen
high in the middle. There are people climbing, but they haven't reached
the ice fields yet.
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At
first the climb is fairly easy with a slope of maybe 25
degrees. We
reach 3500m with little effort. The cable car
station is in the middle
of the picture. |
Taking a brake on 3545m, where we meet a
group,
training vertical climbs with ropes. The slope is getting
steeper now. |
Zooming
in to the south.
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Dante making his way up. So far our
snowshoes has
served us well. There are six steel crampons, giving a
good grip on a harder surface. |
New
pause on 3700m. |
To the west, Mt. Blanc, 4810m.
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Two
persons are a bit above us. They use real crampons
and ice axe,
suitable for the steeper and harder surface
up there. We eventually
reach their position, and also
cross the next ice field. But then we
abort on 3780m, for
safety reasons. Most of all, the lacking of ice axes makes
further
climbing insecure. It gets easier further up, but that
doesn't help. |
Soon
back down again. It feels a bit hard that we couldn't reach the summit.
But our equipment was not suitable for
the conditions up there. We had
a fantastic day anyway, reaching 3780m. Punta Giordani will remain on
the wishlist until another day. |
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