Patri

I should actually have written this on Saturday night. But I was too busy eating vast ammounts of pizza and feeling totally exhausted, and there was no internet so I didnt. So I'm writing it now. Anyway, I am currently in the Alps, visiting my my younger (and little) brother Ollie, and the Chamonix massive, Simon, John, Lucy and Sophie.

Monster Pizzas

Following a half 3 start on Friday morning, I was picked up by Ollie, Helena and Twid in Aigle at about midday, expecting to go over to Ollies briefly and dump some stuff off. But no, without a second to spare we all loaded into Twids car, and sped off as if we were in a rally race up some extensive Swiss switchbacks to some middle of nowhere village that I have forgotten the name of. Here we were greeted by waht I hear is a typical Swiss man. He wouldnt move his truck out the middle of the road so we could get by because he was 'working'. All we saw was him drinking a beer in the middle of the day. So we had to go the long way around instead despite the near war we had with this miserable git. Ah well.

Eventually we found the crag we were looking for. Again I forget the name. It was about 30m high, limestone, in the woods, so I guess that narrows it down to about 3000 in that area. It was a nice cliff though. Most routes were pretty hard. Ollie and Twid did pretty well, some hard 7b's and 7a's. I didnt lead a thing, or even succesfully second a thing. Though I did get up them eventually. It was a nice afternoon, and was great to be straight into it. Later that night we made a plan. Then went to meet a load of Ollies friends whcih was nice.

The upper pitches of Patri

 Our plan lead us to Cogne, at 5am on Saturday. After missing an un-signposted junction we got there for about 8. And began our walk in to a route. We had a route called 'Patri' in mind. 250 meters long, given the water ice grade II 4. I didnt really know what to expect from this but figured we could probably do it. It was spot on. Fat ice, great interesting pitches. It was fairly brittle (bulbous axes didnt help here, file next time!), but it took screws well and with bolted belays it really boosts your confidence.

Ollie leading the first pitch of Patri

 As Ollie lead up the first pitch, a beautiful Alpine red fox started to rummage through our bags. I got rid of it by scaring it with snowballs, then had to go down to the bags and hang them off a cliff to pretect them from being shredded, little bugger. Great to see though.

Cunning fox

 For the top half of the route, another team had over taken us and got on the right hand finish of Patri, so we opted for the slightly easyer left finish whcih looked like the ice was amazing. We got on it, and it wasnt. So it was a fairly scary lead to the firt belay, after this it was ok, though you did hear a real deep thud with every kick, telling you it was fairly hollow. Infact when I reached the next bolted belay, there was a fairly large crack across the thinnest part of the ice, and it was creaking as ollie climbed. I wasnt a fan of this, and was very relieved when ollie removed the last screw. It could all fall down then and it wouldent do any harm. Would be very funny to see Ollies face if that had happened!

Ollie nearing the scary crack

Now this all sounds very well this day, but there were a few things that we did, that we will never do again. It was very much a day of learning.

Firstly, we forgot to buy food on the journey, so we had a Mars bar, and a Bounty that were already in my bag.
Secondly, the route didnt look too long from the bottom, so we left our bags, with everything in them.
Thirdly, we assumed on starting that the route would be in the shade all day, so we wouldnt need shades and would need to stay dressed warm as the day goes on.

These three things meant that we were starving hungry all day, (a bowl of cornflakes at 5am didnt go far), we were in the baking sun, with no water, and eyes screaming most of the day, and we were roasting alive too. So it was a pretty miserable experience in a lot of ways. It wont be like that again though thats for sure.

A thirsty, starving roasting hot Ollie

 After what felt like a never ending walk out, we went into Cogne, and got some food. Pizza of course, 'maxi' ones too. Whcih to our amazement were about a tenner, for a pizza that must have been 25 inches in diameter! I ate a whole one that night which I thought was pretty good going. Ollie was weak, and ate a third. A good day in the end, with some serious learning points.