We were on the first tram out of the valley and up to Grand Montets. After gearing up for the wind and stepping outside I was surprised to see other climbers on the mountain already.
Had they stayed in a nearby-hut I didn’t know about? Anyway, it looked like it was going to be a busy day on our little summit.
Once clear of the tram building, we completed our costume change with crampons and a rope to hike the switchbacks up and cross the bergschrund on a snow bridge.
When we hit the shoulder of the ridge, we decided to pause and let the three person group ahead of us move up a bit before starting ourselves. We generally simul-climbed the ridge (rock and snow sections both), placing gear to protect in case one of us slipped but not needing to completely pitch-out the climbing since it was easier terrain.
One 10-foot wall had a bit of 5.3 and was the crux of the climb and we treated more like a real (abet short) pitch. Afterwards we started traversing closer to the summit and ran into a bottleneck of 8+ climbers all pitching-out the easy climbing.
Jeremy and I both had the same thoughts – “This is close enough” and “we don’t wait around here all day then get behind the crowd on the descent”. A couple groups behind us had the same idea and at least five 2-3 person groups started to descend back the way we came.
The fact that the clouds were lowering also convinced us that we were making the right call. A coffee was sounding better than a few more vertical feet to claim the true summit of this not-really-a-separate-summit peak.
Picking our way back down and across the ridge through the same terrain we traveled on the ascent, we now also had to weave in and out of other parties, picking separate lines where possible and waiting where we had to.
The crowd seemed to vanish as we hit the glacier and reversed back across the bergshrund and beelined for for the tram.
We just barely missed one tram descending and after waiting for the cycle to repeat we just missed another tram at the midway station. After hiking to the train station we watched our train departing down the tracks. With a hour to kill, it was time to find an open coffee shop.
Complete photo album
Chapeau!
And the coffee was?????
Excellent! Only having a pan chocolat to go with it would have improved it.
No, I mean, what kind of coffee? Not an Americano, I hope.
Of course an Americano! They’re from Europe after all (“invented” by Americans abroad). So completely fitting as a drink over there.