So this weekend I get a call from Alex from Grenoble about doing the Grand Combin in switzerland. So why not...Luc and Manu were also there. we headed out... the drive through the col after Chamonix into Switzerland was beautiful. The entrance to switzerland classic, Luc forgot his identity card, fortunately he was able to argue that he was really French (I had my passport)
We arrived at the trailhead at 5pm and started the hike in at 6pm... there is no snow to start, but after 600-700m (vertical) we get to the snowline and the fun begins. We arrive at the refuge at 9pm, but having taken the Econo option we are sleeping outside, and that being a private refuge we are told that we need to sleep half a kilometer from the refuge. Well after all the affair, we end up eating late and going to bed around midnight.
We "woke up" around 2am. Note to self, turn off your cell phone when you sleep... I got an SMS text message around 30 minutes past midnight, and it took me a good while to find the cell phone inside the sleeping bag. Anyways we started the attack at 3am, I will say I was tired even at the start. Fortunately the mountain is massive and beautiful, so one is motivated; unfortunately, it has a long flat glacier to get you warmed up!. We arrived at the bottom of the steep part sometime around 6 or 7am... I was ready to call it quits, but fortunately Alex replied "Who cares at what time we make it to the summit, I just want to all make it there." So slowly I went up the slope...and we finally made up around 11:30am.
The views from the summit are gorgeus, due to the fact that there are no larger mountains close by and it is really isolated from the other mountains.
All the pictures taken by Luc and more are available on
his site
Alex wrote a good trip report
Camptocamp trip report: +1000m first day, +1800m second day.
