In reply to Lukas V-L: Haha! It was a good warm up, thats for sure!
In reply to Quagmire: A few days of incredibly warm Foehn wind put an end to the good conditions. They werent exactly good anyway, they were just good for that very small area of the valley. We headed back up for another line on Sunday but the line was disintegrating above us when we got to the shrund at 6am. Beyond is still there but it really needs to get a bit colder, it's summer temps in the valley right now.
In reply to TonyM: Agreed. It is tricky I think with M grades now. The last few years has seen a huge surge in the number of people dry tooling so more people will know what a sport M6 (or D6) will feel rather than a mountain M6 (which is normally much softer). They are just applying sport grades to the mountain M grade now- in the same way that we've basically ditched the rock UIAA ratings and now just use sport grades to say how hard a mountain rock pitch is. It does make sense of course but it means you have to be wary of the difference between a Pointe Lachenal M6 and a 'modern' M6- the difference is just huge. For example the Dru Couloir Direct gets M7 in modern times which i think you could easily equate to Scottish 8 if not more (thats just my personal take on it anyway).
Jon
Two weeks ago we reported that some surprising good conditions had arrived in the Alps with British alpinists Matt Helliker and Andy Perkins making the season's first ascent of Beyond Good and Evil on the North Face of the Pélerins above Chamonix. It seems like the good conditions have continued...
