I haven’t posted here for a while now, but our fun day on Frendo Spur is definitely worth sharing.
Frendo Spur in Chamonix guidebook is described as “one of the best routes and a rite of passage for anyone aspiring to the Alps’ biggest route”. So the fact that neither Mihnea nor I have climbed the route before made it an appealing option for a “rest’” day in our busy Mountain Guiding schedules.
On the 10th of July 2018 we took the cable car up to Plan de l’Aiguille. At 7:00 we started our approach towards the base of the route. After we passed the small bergschrund and followed the right leaning snow ramp, at 8:15 we found ourselves at the start of the left-slanting slab. There we put away the crampons and ice axes and geared up for the rock.
At 11:25 we finished the technically easy (5c) yet long rock section, which repeatedly required good route finding skills. Then we continued following the famous and stunning snow ridge and moved onto the north face snow slopes bellow the rock rognon. The conditions on the slopes were mostly good except some places with black ice (where we both regret not having more technical crampons). By 2:00 we reached the Aiguille du Midi lift station and took the lift down to Chamonix.
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