UKC

My partner and I will be in Chamonix for March/April with the goal of doing a bunch of ski touring and climbing. We are able rock climbers (lots of Yosemite big walls under our belts) and western US backcountry skiers with limited experience in the Alps.

We have a friend who is a guide there, so we'll have him to give us pointers and we'll definitely practice glacier rescue. That said, we still have a couple of questions as to what to expect:

1. All the glacier travel books talk about ice screws, pickets and snow flukes (deadman) as anchor building material, but I don't recall ever seeing anyone in Chamonix with flukes or pickets. Are ice screws enough even when the glacier is covered in snow? Can you generally get to good ice easily enough to build an anchor (spring conditions)?

2. Every year is obviously different, but in March/April, is there generally alpine rock dry enough to climb? While my partner has some ice climbing expertise, I have very little steep snow/ice experience. I'm happy to work on that while I'm there, but ideally we'd like to be able to get to some rock climbing (even if it's just easy alpine lines that we do in our boots or even mixed with crampons (assuming it can be protected with rock gear). I just got the new rockfax guide (beautiful), but it's hard to tell what will really be in season (or if everything will be mixed/ice and I just need to suck it up and learn to place screws quickly).

Thanks!

In reply to aliebling:

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Good call for the granite as usually its prime season for the ski in/out granite rock climbing, especially in the Argentiere basin as the home run (Pierre a ric) takes you back to the bus stop in the village.
The Argentiere basin is usually a better choice for the granite climbing during this period as its lower, more likely to be sheltered from the wind & the routes are less likely to have snow above them.
There are obviously exceptions to this on the granite accessed from the Midi, but do your research before committing to a particular climb.
The other area for climbing is the Rouge on the opposite side of the valley, again only certain crags are climbed on during this period, worth reading the Piola Rouge guide books 1 & 2 for the knowledge.
In addition, there is a new excellent granite guide book to the Argentiere basin, much more comprehensive than the Rockfax but obviously there is a limit to how many guide books you can buy for just a short trip.
Feel free to get in touch once in Chamonix as I'm around during during late March & April & aiming on climbing on the Granite during this period, although last year due to snow, weather & other factors, the granite was out of condition during this period.

In reply to aliebling:

Re 1 - buried axe / ski should do the trick.

In reply to Misha:

Thank you, that's exactly what I was thinking!