UKC

With the 2nd section of Aiguille du Midi cable car now closed, I am wondering is there other means of getting to aiguille du midi by foot? Thanks.

In reply to arvinw:

Easiest way would be from the Italian side, taking the cable cars from Courmayeur to Ponte Helbronner and then to Aguilles du Midi. Some great hikes there too.

In reply to arvinw:

You can walk up via the Mer de Glace, Requiem Hut, Geant glacier and Vallée Blanche.

Navigating the cravasses in the basin above the Geant glacier wasn't much fun the year I did it.

I suspect it was more down to luck rather than skill that me and the Mrs didn't end up at the bottom of one...

In reply to arvinw:

There's always the Frendo Spur as a fallback ...

In reply to McHeath:

A Frendo in need, as it were!

In reply to McHeath:

Any word on how the top pitches are doing this year?

In reply to Pero:

... is a Frendo indeed! (and I didn't mean "fallback" to be taken too literally ...)

@Philip - I can't help you there I'm afraid ... I did it 20 years ago and we had a minor epic: rockfall at the start, a short thunderstorm after the snow arete; we chose the rock alternative at the top because we thought it'd be quicker, haha ...  missed the last tele down by 5 minutes and were allowed to (try to) sleep in some sort of machine room where we got mildly gassed ... never been happier to see the sun rise in my life!

In reply to mrphilipoldham: as of the 30th July they were awful black ice basically all the way from the vivid. The left was basically choss and or black ice (from observing, not climbing), the right was black ice with patches of hollow placage nicely perched on top. (From climbing)  we had 10 ice screws and used them all, the guys behind us had 5 and wisely ended up doing the original rognon finish. Although they did top out at 11pm ish after a 5am start. So basically the top pitches were hard last month and I imagine are a lot harder now  

 

In reply to arvinw:

Could try the Mallory route?

Never done it myself, only read up on it. I was asking the same question a few months ago!!

In reply to arvinw:

This late in the summer the Frendo and Mallory are very dry, possibly dangerous from falling rock/ ice. Walking up the Mer de Glace would also be pretty open by now. By far the best option is to take the helbronner and walk across. 

In reply to Ben Briggs:

Yeah, your probably right. Helbronner sounds a bit better than Mer de Glace. Mer de glace sends a shiver down my spine!!!

In reply to Ben Briggs:

This summer certainly, but this is by no means always the case. We did the Frendo at this time of year in 2014 and it was still in mixed condition (snow and rock) toward the end of the rock section.

In reply to Stefan Jacobsen:

it would be if the panoramic gondola wasn't also shut!

So it's only the Helbronner lift atm.