UKH

Hi

Does anyone have a good topo recommendation for the Gervasutti pillar? How obvious is the route finding?

I have both the Laroche&Lelong and the Rebuffat Mt Blanc books, but those are more books to get to know and get excited about a climb than a real useful topo.

I know there's Piola's topo (second volume) but they haven't printed that in ages and there's no place left that sells them. I will probably be able to look into that one in OHM but I prefer to go through topo before I'm actually in Cham to be a bit better prepared or not to lose too many days there.

I've also found this topo online:
http://la-montagne-guide.fr/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Topo-Pilier-Gervasut...

So far, all three topos are kind of contradicting each other in terms of amount of pitches, difficulty of pitches, and if I should or should not climb the Tour Rouge. I know this route is an alpine route, so number of pitches changes and I can make my belays any place I like, difficulty I don't really care about as it's mostly 5's and some lower 6's, but I would like to have some more info because I've passed beneath the pillar and although I didn't specifically look for this route I recon I easily spotted like 3 ways to go up or crack systems to follow.

Any input? Thanks in advance

In reply to HosteDenis:

Sorry I can't help with a topo. I did the route back in 1980 and don't remember any route finding difficulties. Enjoy!

In reply to HosteDenis:

I've got both the first and second editions of Piola's topo and will send you scans of the relevant pages - you'll have to email me via this site so I can reply attaching the scans. Frankly the topos not that great, though! In contrast to the other poster, I found one section where it was really hard to follow the right line - it's where the route moves around rightwards. Here there are a number of possible choices all with bits of insitu gear in them, none of which look any easier or harder or more obvious than the others. This ended up being very time consuming.

I'd originally tried the route in 1975 and between then and when I finally did it in 1999 it had grown a completely new 50m first pitch due to glacial retreat. I'd imagine by now it's probably got yet another (or two).

In reply to HosteDenis:

Hi,

we did it in august 2013. We used both the descriptions from Rebuffat, a french topo (probably Piola) and a super detailed topo of east European origin which we got at the Maison des Alpinisme. The three topo's are totally not internally consistent and all of them described some parts of the stuff we climbed well.

The correct start is only is the east European one. You start with a quite tough 6a crack at the foot of the pillar. We found the route finding to be tricky and climbed a lot on "most logical way to go up the pillar from here". This way we e.g. completely missed the aid pitch, which I still find amazing because we also didn't climb anything hard at that altitude.

In the upper reaches the topos say go around the right through easy mixed terrain a couple of times. We were late in the season, good rock, bad snow/ice, and we found all the shortcuts right to be impossible (or at least very dangerous, everything is loose once the snow melts). But you can rock-climb the entire pillar without doing anything harder than the first 6a pitch, it just takes time. The exit is long and proper alpine fun if the snow doesn't hold the loose stuff together...

Anyway, it is an utterly brilliant tour, so enjoy!

In reply to jon:

I did it in 1987 when,as Jon says it grew another pitch. But the Red tower is the pleasurable part and I remember the route being obvious. It's what comes round the corner afterwards where the game starts, particularly if it is snowed up as it was that year. But abseiling off from the top of the rock as some do is NOT doing the route.

In reply to HosteDenis:

Thanks for the great replies so far!

I was not planning on abseiling, but I am planning on climbing it in rockshoes with my boots and crampons and one (maybe two but I don't think so) axe in the backpack for the snow stuff on top and the return.

Apparently I haven't prepared it too well yet because I thought you went to the lift of the Tour Rouge if you don't decide to climb it? That's what this topo also says:
http://s.camptocamp.org/uploads/images/1256300360_80361722BI.jpg
But two of you claim to go to the right of it?

Strangely, this topo also mentions 30+ pitches while the one in my previous post mentions a whole lot less, although who knows how many pitches they simul climbed.

So far, I was actually planning on doing the snow stuff, if it's in good condition, at the top. I think it'll be nice to change things up a bit after having been on the rocks for, I don't know, 25 pitches? But that all depends on conditions and we might climb the tour rouge as well.

Thanks Jon, I'll send you an email!

In reply to HosteDenis:

we did it at the end of August in 2007 and were in rock shoes from the start until the breche at the top of the tour rouge. Snow should not be a problem in summer unless there has been bad weather in the few days before, and then it will most likely only hang around in the shade on right side of the pillar, and on the crest at the top.

The route finding on the lower part of the pillar was pretty straightforward as I remember, just follow the path of least resistance. We passed the tour rouge on the left, which is how it is shown in the Piola topo. It was not immediately obvious to us where to head left and into the couloir, so we wasted some time trying to find alternatives before realizing where we were.

The topo you linked to on camptocamp is much more detailed than the Piola topo we used. There are several aid sections marked on the camptocamp topo that we didn't do - the only place I remember any aid is just below R15 (on camptocamp topo), where there is a steep, thin crack to get back left onto the crest of the pillar - a quick pull on a small wire was enough to get past this though.

You may well find pitching the couloir to the left of the tour rouge unnecessary - it was pretty much a scramble and we moved together as far as I remember.

One axe each, plus boots and crampons was fine in the conditions we had.

The way off the summit to the col du midi is straighforward and will be well tracked, but be careful as it can be very crevassed, and you'll be tired and could well be doing it in the dark.

Have fun, it's a great route.

In reply to jon:
Thanks for the info everyone. And thanks Jon for the scans of the topo.

So I guess the general consensus is to go left of the Tour Rouge, through snow scramble terrain (single axe) but I could climb over the Tour Rouge (slower but in case of rockfall/slushy snow) as an alternative.

Also, I'll look for the start of the route the evening before so as not to lose too much time the day of the climb. I was thinking of pitching the tent in the opening of the Combe Maudite (near the base of the Grand Capucin) and stay up there for a week. From there I hope to climb some of the following climbs: Gervasutti pillar, Kuffner ridge, maybe a route up the Tour Ronde (already done regular north face) and maybe voie des suisses or Bonatti on the Grand Capucin. Point I'm saying this is to make clear that I'll have time to look for the first pitch the evening after another (shorter) climb so I won't loose time the day we want to do the Gervasutti Pillar. Also, I don't need to catch the last cable car.

My personal experience is that they don't want (and even fine) tents below the Aiguille du Midi but I should be safe closer to the Tour Ronde.