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Climbing around L'Envers Hut - Chamonix

Original Post
Nick W · · Orford, NH · Joined Sep 2009 · Points: 40

Hi, I have a few questions. I will be climbing trad routes for three days from this hut, July 1-3.

1) do we need to reserve bunks in advance?

2) can we do the approach without crevasse rescue gear, or should I plan on brining pullies, prussiks, etc ( I've only been to this area in midwinter).

3) I've heard you can get away with doing the approach to the hut and the climbs with sturdy approach shoes, aluminum crampons and a lightweight axe. Is this true, or do you recommend a summer mountaineering boot for the approaches?

4) can most of the high quality routes be rapped with a single 70? I'm assuming the answer to this is no, and we should bring a tag line.

Thanks!

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

I'm eager to climb from the Envers hut soon (week-and-a-half), so I was glad to have this excuse to do some web research - (my copy of the Envers guidebook is not with me for a few days).
. .(Hopefully someone who really knows will be spurred by this
. . post to correct my guesses below).

> 1) do we need to reserve bunks in advance?

Even if not strictly necessary, it should be easy enough to do. Just phone the hut [ website ] and try (politely) to ask to speak English with the guardian. If that doesn't work, ask for help from the Guides office or the Tourist office in Chamonix.

> 2) can we do the approach without crevasse rescue gear

Some French-language descriptions of some of the Envers rock climbs explicitly mention bringing crevasse rescue gear. Many do not mention it. One description says that an advantage of choosing that particular route is that the descent is by rappels down the route, so it's easy to retrieve your crevasse rescue gear afterward.

> 3) I've heard you can get away with doing the approach to the hut
> and the climbs with sturdy approach shoes, aluminum crampons and
> a lightweight axe.

Most of the French-language websites just ignore this question. If it were expected that rock climbers should normally use plastic mountain boots, I would guess someone would have mentioned that.

I found one that says, "Accès: ... Équipement nécessaire : piolet et crampons. Balisage en jaune." So that would be ice axe and crampons. With the recommended route (which might change from year to year) marked in Yellow. Also mentions there are ladders and stuff -- so I might assume during normal climbing season they also make other "enhancements" to their recommended approach route to make it passable without special equipment.

"... En début de saison, névés à traverser." Early season there might be some old hard snow to cross.

> 4) can most of the high quality routes be rapped with a single 70?

One important French-language website says that most of the rock routes from Refuge de l'Envers have many of their belay stations equiped with fixed gear (pitons or bolts). No mention of anything special about which kinds of rope to bring.

So from my (limited) experience with multi-pitch routes in France, I would assume they expect that climbers would have 2 x 60m ropes (? or at least 2 x 50m ?) for descending. (I have not yet seen any multi-pitch route in France which could be rappled with a single 70m).

> ... I'm assuming the answer to this is no, and we should bring a tag line.

I have not yet seen any French teams that use that approach. Chamonix granite is more featured than Yosemite granite. It's easy to imagine a rope getting stuck in rappel retrieval. I've seen it come close to that.

Ken

pierref · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2015 · Points: 0

Hi guy's

when reading my english you will see i'm french. Some tip to help you:

1. reserving is mandatory and the new team managing the hut is more commercial than climber friendly.

2. crevasse rescue gear, big question. Depend of coarse of the route you plan to do. Generally when the route is close enough from the hut (less than one hour) you need only crampons and a light ice axe. Of coarse for the "Fou south face" or ryan crest, it is really an other stuff !

3. I use aluminium crampons and summer mountain boots.

4. a 2*50 meters is mandatory, never climb with a single. But the rack can be light enough, one rack of C4 and some stoppers is enough. Some of the most recent routes are quite fully bolted

Enjoy in cham

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

Just got out from two days of climbing from the Envers hut, so I'll take another try at answering those questions.

> 1) do we need to reserve bunks in advance?

Likely you should, and it should not be difficuly, since the guardienne easily spoke English with me. It's not a large hut.
. (Though on this one mid-week night before high season, the hut was nowhere near full).

> 2) can we do the approach without crevasse rescue gear

Seemed to me that parties were not carrying pulleys out ready to use. Most parties (including two experts I knew well) were not roping up on the Mer de Glace or on approaches to climbs (at this time of year with this low snowpack). I saw one party roped on descent return to hut (but they were also wearing crampons on soft afternoon snow, which to me did not suggest expertise).

> 3) I've heard you can get away with doing the approach to the hut
> and the climbs with sturdy approach shoes, aluminum crampons and
> a lightweight axe.

Everybody I saw had synthetic/plastic summer mountaineering boots. I can believe that hiking to hut and approach to climbs could be done with approach shoes and crampons, but on these two days, you'd surely get very wet shoes and socks and feet. Which I might think is OK on a day when I'm returning to my car at the end of the day. But not if I'm going to be out for another day or two.

Ice axes: We did not bring any (though some others did), and I did not see any use for one.

Crampons: We brought them. Some parties used crampons for early morning approaches. We did not because our selected climb had a good track for most of the approach -- then we kicked steps in the only-surface-frozen snow.

> 4) can most of the high quality routes be rapped with a single 70?

Surely not. Need at least 2 x 50m ropes (? perhaps 2 x 60m for some rappels?)

> ... I'm assuming the answer to this is no, and we should bring a tag line.

No parties I saw did that. Everybody climbed with two ropes.

Ken

Rui Ferreira · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jul 2003 · Points: 903

Ken,

which routes did you get to climb? Weather stable enough or still variable as last week?

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

More thoughts about the Envers hut and climbs:

  • the route to approach the hut is long by European standards. Has lots of ladders to climb. Lots of vertical to do without ladders. Plus significant horizontal distance. Perhaps some slab sections could be tricky when wet (from a recent rainstorm or from snow-melt). Luckily no problem for us.
  • the return from the hut also has some ladders to climb (as well as many to descend). Make sure to allow enough time, if your objective is to make the last train back down to Chamonix from Montenvers. Might want to make an early start on your climb on your last day.

Planning ideas:
  • single day? It does not make sense to try do a climb in a single day from Chamonix using the cog railway up and back.
  • one night + two days: If get an early train up from Chamonix and hike and ladder-climb at a good pace, could arrive at hut in time to climb an interesting route in the afternoon.
. (First day we did that, chose a route not the shortest, and just barely got back to the hut in time for dinner. Very worthwhile.)

. (Second day we reached our chosen classic route just a few minutes after another party, lost significant time waiting for them to work through complexities of transition across moat from snow to rock, and some traversing across wet rock on the first pitch -- then with my less-than-acclimatized descent capability ... just barely made it hiking out down to Montenvers in time to catch the last train back to Chamonix. What a great day of climbing it was.)

  • two nights (or more) at the hut allows you more freedom.
Consider ...

  • the hike up to the hut is spectacular, the views from the hut are superb, the snow+ice + sharp peaks surrounding the climbs ... deliver a remarkable atmosphere.
  • If your 5.10 crack Trad leading is solid and your 5.10 bolted slab game is dialed, there are lots of very interesting fun granite routes accessable using the Envers hut as a base. Routes not as big as Yosemite, but longer than lots of other fun granite areas.
  • Guidebook -- the most recent and authoratitive one now has an English-language version. Also lots of beta for some routes on the web.
  • Experienced local climbers said they would expect that if the decent weather holds, the hut will be full this weekend. And of course in high season (with the above combination of attributes) climbers visiting from all over Europe will fill the hut on many days.

Ken
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
Rui Ferreira wrote:Ken, which routes did you get to climb? Weather stable enough or still variable as last week?
Weather seems to be more stable - (but the models show a little moisture hanging close by in Italy). Delaying my flight twice was rewarded.

First day we arrived at the Refuge de l'Envers des Aiguilles [ ffcam | c2c ] a little after noon.

We decided to do Le Pont des Soupirs [6b+ max > 6a oblig) - (English = Bridge of Sighs, reference to history of the city of Venice/Venezia?), with the more interesting + difficult [6b] "La cité des Doges" start. This photo

shows the "bridge" which the route crosses -- a large rock which somehow got wedged high (as the glacier receded?) on the ridge of the Tour Verte. Not the highest density of interesting climbing moves, but I was a sucker for the "alpine rock" experience of traversing a ridge over two little towers.

The first pitch turned out to be a crack [6b, usually said equivalent to 5.10c], and I haven't climbed more than a couple of cracks in recent years -- so a tough "baptism" in the Envers for me -- but a good wake-up call to get my crack game on (my main flaw was forgetting how to effectively jam my toe). Later I was very happy to follow the interesting 6b+ pitch (non-crack) clean, since difficulty grades in the Envers have a reputation for tough.

The entertaining finish was when our rappels did not take us to the start of the route, where we had deposited our plastic boots. We opted not to traverse the intervening snow-slope in our rock shoes. Instead we worked out a circuitous down-climb -- arrived at the hut just as the first course of soup was being served.

Second day we did Amazonia [6a+ max > 6a oblig] on the First Point of Nantillon. This route we chose for the quality of the climbing, and it surely delivered. For the first eight pitches, every one was interesting in a different way: cracks of different widths, some jamming, some layback (and took Trad pro well). Fractured granite with abundant holds in odd 3-dimensional configurations. Intimidating slabs with no positive holds (but bolts).

And Amazonia is just one of several classic routes at that grade level.

Ken
ddriver · · SLC · Joined Jul 2007 · Points: 2,084

My experience at Envers (quite a few years ago):

I would recommend you try to make reservations through the alpine club in town. We were not able to get through to the hut in advance and wound up sleeping in the attic as part of the overflow crowd, not very pleasant.

The glacier was quite bare so hidden crevasses were not an issue. I think we did take crampons but never roped up. The approach seemed fairly easy if memory serves well.

We did take plastic boots but I don't know that we needed them as all the routes we did were behind the hut. Approaches are on snow fields rather than glacier and fairly straightforward.

We had double ropes for all our routes: Sonam, Marchand de Sable and Amazonia. All three are recommended. Sonam is quite easy and relatively short. Marchand de Sable was probably the most committing of these.

ddriver · · SLC · Joined Jul 2007 · Points: 2,084

Found a couple photos that may be of interest (should the OP return).

On the Mer de Glace:

Mer de Glace approach to Envers

A couple photos from Marchand de Sable:

Marchand de Sable

Marchand de Sable

Rui Ferreira · · Boulder, CO · Joined Jul 2003 · Points: 903
kenr wrote: -- arrived at the hut just as the first course of soup was being served. Ken
I call that perfect timing! Most recent experience had me arriving at the hut in time for the 5am breakfast and not the previous night's dinner :)
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

Rui -

Yes getting back at that time was good for me. We still had I think at least two hours more daylight (so close to solstice) -- but I had not brought a down jacket in my pack, so I was getting cool. Now that I'm serious about climbing, I don't have the body-fat to wear the thin clothing I used to in the mountains.

Hope we get lucky to have a coinciding of you and me and good weather in France.

Ken

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
ddriver wrote:... our routes: Sonam, Marchand de Sable and Amazonia. All three are recommended. Sonam is quite easy and relatively short. Marchand de Sable was probably the most committing of these.
I talked with an Irish climber who said his party backed off after three pitches on Le Msrchand de Sable. They also had trouble with the upper dihedral half of Homologue Exceptional (often climbed separately from the harder lower non-dihedral half of that route) - close to the hut for a first afternoon.

Sonam ... good to know some good easier routes in the Envers. Another (but farther from the hut) might be Arete Ryan on the Aiguille du Plan.

At the other end of the difficulty spectrum is
Voie Americaine on the Aiguille du Fou.

The modern (English-translated) guidebook by Michel Piola is not shy with opinions about the quality of routes.

Ken
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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