UKH

Anyone knows if it'd be possible to do the S. ridge of the Noire without abseiling between the towers? Failing that, what's the shortest rope/abseil people reckons one can get away with? As in are there mid-rap options to break the abseils into smaller ones, or ground that can just be downclimbed?

Cheers

I don’t think you can avoid them. We had two ropes but that was to do the abs on the Integral (which we didn’t do due to the weather). Seem to recall the second rope stayed in the sack all the way up but memory is a bit hazy. The rope we were using was probably 60m.

Thanks Misha. That seems to match what i'm reading around about the abs being 25/30m.

I used the original piola topo which stated 25 m ab off the pt welzenbach.

This was spot on.

I noticed this had crept up to 30 metres in newer guides.

Also remember thinking that the welzenbach abseil would be difficult to avoid , and probably more important reverse if the weather craps in . Luckily the AC guide suggests a 12* 50m abseil from the breche as a descent from another route on the south east face.  Wonder if this can be done as 24 *25m abseils.

Sweet, thanks for that. Might be 30m sets you down in a more comfortable/safer spot, or that the ab point was moved up 5m closer to the summit.

Getting hit by lightning followed by freezing to death over a long miserable night still sounds like a better alternative to doing 24 25m abseils! Ha, ha. Point taken though. Thanks!