Eugster Direct - Aiguille du Midi and Naia - Aiguille Verte

31.05 -02.06.2014

 

 

As the weather predictions were good for the weekend and we read on the web that some routes had been climbed the last days we decided to head for some ice routes in Chamonix. On our first day we wanted to do something not too hard to save energy for some harder stuff on the next daxt. so we decided to go for Eugster Direct on Aiguille du Midi the first day...the plan was good - the conditions not. so we started the climb at about 10.50, quite late, but we expected to be rather fast. The very dry conditions made the whole ting a bit more difficult and some tricky mixed pitches required some more time and so we had to accelerate on the final slopes to catch the last cable car....17.20.
So after this quite exhaustive day we thought it might be better to go to the OHM to check the conditions on other routes. We were told that conditions on the north Couloir of Dru were very dry too and so we changed our original plan. Since we were still a bit tired we decided to go to have a look at Naia on the Aigulille Verte that was supposed to be in good conditions. The approach to the Chapoua hut was not exactly what I would define as a good rest day...a nice three hours hike. despite the advice to start at 2 am we decided to start at 4am, according to our motto as soon as necessary but as late as posible ;-). the approach was already tracked as there was a party on the Couloir de l'Y. The conditions were very good and so we just belayed on one pitch in the upper part of the couloir. After 2 and a half hours climbing we reached the ridge and at 8.30 we stood on the top of Aiguille Verte. The descent on the Whymper  took us more than we thought, almoust 2 hours. then we descented to the Couvercle hut, then mer de Glace and back to the Montenvers train where we arrived at 3pm.