UKC

For my 40th I have a pass to cham for a few days and want to do the Frendo. I've been asking around for beta and got some good stuff but thought I would ask the wisdom of UKC as well.

Given a young family and work commitments I only get to climb maybe 10-15 midweek evenings and maybe one or two weekends a year, with maybe a week's winter trip to cham chucked in as well.

I reckon we should be ok but want to maximise chances, have people done it in rockshoes, carrying bigger boots does it speed things up?

Current Plan is to go up and do something like maybe the chere or cosmiques, stop in the cosmiques hut for the night, have a massive headache, then go down to the plan hut, reccy the start, sleep in the hut, set off early, do the rock, rest until the snow refreezes a bit then bash on up, probably needing a couple of hours in the midi before the first bin down.

Also, has it got harder as the crux pitch Alex Buisse refers to on his site sounds a lot harder than I was expecting? HVS maybe? (although I will be pulling judiciously on gear as much as I can obviously)

In reply to smithaldo:
When are you planning on doing this? I'm not sure what conditions will be like at the moment.

Anyway, my 2 cents (it's been a few years since I did it):

1. I did it in B3s and would do this again without hesitation. The vast majority of the climbing is Diff-Severe. Changing (and carrying) footwear would be a ballache and slow things down. It depends how comfortable you are climbing in boots though.

2. I remember the crux pitch being about VS, but plenty of pegs. There is a more difficult A0 move off a small wire a little higher up, but I wouldn't say any of the climbing warrants HVS (obviously this would be different if you opted to finish via the Rognon).

3. We set off from the Plan de l'Aiguille at around 1am and climbed through the night, topping out around 10am. The lower rock is straightforward enough climbing-wise, but route-finding requires some attention. Doing it this way meant that we didn't need to wait for the snow arete to re-freeze.

4. Don't obsess too much and psyche yourself out - get on it!

In reply to smithaldo:

Are you talking about this year? It's getting a bit late to find it in Summer condition, and this year even Summer conditions were less than ideal.

FWIW, we did it in 2014 at the beginning of Sept, and were using axes and crampons well before the top of the rock section. It's a big Alpine route and conditions, and good route finding, will have a big impact on how friendly you find it.

In reply to smithaldo:

If you mean this year...? You might want to check the conditions before travelling...

http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/ac2/news/chamonix-condtions

In reply to alexm198: thanks all, good beta, and sorry it's next year yes, I fully understand that trying it now would be a little foolhardy.

And I promise I won't psyche myself out, it's only a route after all.

In reply to smithaldo:

Regarding the big boots thing.
We set off mid afternoon hoping to get to the foot of the snow crest by nightfall, spend a few hours cooking/resting and set off up the snow once it started to freeze.
We climbed the lower half of the rock in big boots before it went dark and had to spend about 10 hours shivering our b*ll*cks off without sleeping bags before we could continue next morning.
We switched to rock shoes next day for the second half of the rock buttress and found it way faster and easier than the previous day, despite having to carry the extra weight of big boots.

On other routes, I've always found wearing rock shoes much faster and easier than boots and have even worn them on the occasional, more difficult, via ferrata when we seem to romp past everybody else in big boots.

FWIW I thought the lower rock buttress of the Frendo was Severe, certainly no more than HS and I was only climbing HVS at the time. The Rognon is much harder I believe.

In reply to smithaldo:
Conditions will dictate whether you have to go up the Rognon, which I've heard has E1 climbing but you'd want to research that. The classic route is mostly V Diff - Sev as others have said, with the crux no more than VS, may be even HS, and that's just one pitch which has a few pegs in it. The issue is more the length and route finding difficulty.

Sitting it out for the snow to freeze isn't the best idea unless you have bivvy kit and a stove. Better start very early and look to finish before dark. If you're going to the side of the Rognon, you can finish by head torch if you're comfortable climbing ice by head torch.

In reply to Misha:

The final pitch of rognon (and I recommend the rognon as the traditional finish of this classic mixed route) is E1.

To the OP: the hardest climbing on lower spur is VS, but most of it is much easier. Route finding is obvious. The whole thing is obviously possible in big boots but - in normal Summer alpine conditions - you will almost certainly have an easier, quicker and more enjoyable climb if you use rock boots for the lower spur and change to big boots at the snow arete.

Have a good trip: it's a very nice line.

In reply to smithaldo:

Choice of footwear is a personal one but if you decide to do the rognon rock shoes may be of benefit. If you don't want to do it in the day speed and pack weight is less of an issue again you could go with rock shoes, if not it's perfectly doable in big boots. I did it in the early 70's in big boots all the way, including the rognon. Back then I think everyone climbed the rognon and I can confirm that it is at least E1. If anyone said E2 they wouldn't get a contradicting argument from me

The Frendo is one of the best training routes I can think of for the Walker Spur as well as being an excellent route in it's own right.

Al

In reply to smithaldo:

Hi Phil
Ten years (+ one week) since I did the Frendo. Photo album here: https://photos.google.com/u/3/album/AF1QipNYBOLI2NvFNg202uULGhZDj_t1_Ze7VHe...

My 2p. Not sure I'd faff about those acclimatisation plans less you feel the altitude badly. You could make yourself feel ill and tired before you even start on the Frendo.
We arrived from Geneva late one afternoon (just in time to buy gas). Walked up to the Plan de l'Aiguille hut that evening. Set off from hut a bit before first light the next morning, to climb all the route in daylight. All in big boots (we had rock shoes in rucksack but didn't need them, and if we'd struggled with difficulty would have pulled on some fixed gear rather than putting on the rubber soles.
Rather than stopping at any point just keep going. We kept up the pace to be able to get the lift back down to Chamonix. And you always panic about when it will stop running, how long it will take to get up the arete. I know you can climb ice with a head torch, so you could just take it easy with an intention to stay at the Cosmiques hut that night. And then do one of the ice routes on the Tacul facet the next day.
Saves an entire return ticket up the Midi too.

Nothing to be gained by reccing the route. The lower rocks are easy and don't have a tightly defined line. As long as you start in broadly the correct place (as indicated in guidebook photos) there isn't more value to be gained.

In reply to TonyM:

Personally I think recceing the approach is always worthwhile, especially as the Midi NF consists of loads of bloody spurs which all look the same when it's dark and you can't see properly. 90 minutes spent booting a track to the base of your route the evening before can save a lot of time and heartache the next morning (in my painfully-earned experience...)

In reply to alexm198:


Remember that for a short section just beore you gain the toe of the spur you are exposed to potential serac fall so don't spend too long reccying it!
Unless you're going to be approaching it total darkness the way is obvious and doesn't need a reccy.

In reply to TonyM: Thanks Tony. Very good points. I can't imagine where you know the ability to climb in the dark from..... hopefully it will be warmer than -20 and it won't be a ski in and posthole approach though.

Had not thought about strapping straight on. It's probably not that daft an idea as I've done it before after driving all night from angleterre, pitching up at the grand montets and doing that pepite route from first bin. Granted I was a mess skiing down, but I assume it will be a slower burn up and like you say, I've only got
A set number of metres in the guns given lack of free time to prep so probably a good idea.

Catch up soon hopefully.

In reply to smithaldo:

Last week it was plastered in fresh snow. the upper section after a super dry summer is challenging to say the very least. Please read the regular local OHM mountain reports!

JC

In reply to alexm198:

Absolutely caked in snow now and ice lines such as fil a plomb are forming well. Too cold for rock climbing now!

In reply to smithaldo:
Only you know how well you get on with altitude but two thirds of the way up the Frendo is not a place to be hit by it...