UKC

im contemplating a trip out to cham at the end of march, It looks like its been rather warm recently and was surprised to hear that a lot of north faces are looking quite dry despite all the snow this year.

Does anyone have any first hand or reliable information about the general condition of routes on the north faces of the droites,jorrasses or dru? or anything general about the current high mixed and ice conditions in the range?

In reply to Ginger McGrath: Latest from the OHM - http://www.ohm-chamonix.com/info-montagne-conditions-montagne-11100000.html

Going out in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed

In reply to Cardi: cheers for the link, my distinct lack of french and useless online translators make reading the ohms reports interesting although pretty useful if cryptic! 'correct conditions for the slope and the comma' on the colton-brooks haha

In reply to Ginger McGrath:

Things are actually pretty good at the moment. NF of the Midi is in good nick, east and north faces of the Tacul are good.

We climbed the Jackson on les driotes and that was perfect, ginat was great too. Loads of people heading up the swiss on Les Courtes as well as the other classics in the basin.

Grand Piller d'angle is pretty dry, as well as the tour ronde but there is loads around the east face of the tacul.

In reply to liamo333: brilliant. cheers for the info!

In reply to Ginger McGrath:

http://www.ohm-chamonix.com/info-montagne-cahier-de-courses-211000000.html

In reply to Ginger McGrath:
Hi there,
Just back from Cham. Some of the higher routes were in good conditions, but some had less ice on them then usual. There was fresh snow when we left, so you have to monitor that, but the routes we did were in good conditions: Swiss on Courtes, Petit Viking, Fil a plomb and Frendo-ravanel (that was a bit thin..)

Some others weren't really in conditions: E.g. Madness tres mince looked very mince, so we didn't do it.

Other routes people were doing were: Pellisier Gully, Gabarrou-Albinioni, Ginat, etc

Have fun,
H

In reply to Ginger McGrath: I thought you would find this interesting.

http://www.euronews.com/nocomment/2012/03/07/giant-avalanche-takes-out-a-ch...

In reply to Heike:
Hi Heike,

Just curious did you use skis for approche?

In reply to alpinestar_no1:
yes, we did, apart from Fil a plomb where you approach from the half way station, climb the route and then take the loft down. Without skis it's much more hard work, but you could use snowshoes.

In reply to Ginger McGrath: Hoping to get some climbing done at the end of March, will update www.chamconditions.blogspot.com when I have some info. As already reported, things are starting to look up on the climbing front after really dry conditions earlier in the winter