Year of publication 1960 - Fell and Rock Climbing Club

2 NORTH FACE OF GRANDES JORASSESpair caught us up. In good French they introduced themselvesand told us modestly that they had just done a six-daytraverse in the Caucasus. What had we done so far? Ratherthan admit to a couple of Sundays at Harrison Rocks, wemumbled something about the undiscovered ranges ofScotland. Suitably impressed, they passed us, moving easilyon their heavy twelve-point crampons, while we limped afterthem sharing an old pair of ten-point Grivels.To avoid step cutting on the initial ice slope, we chose thealternative start which follows a steep loose couloir just to theleft of the base of the buttress. In the dark this couloir andthe snow slope above it were very tiring. I felt sick andhopelessly weak. This may have been due to the altitude or tolack of training, but I suspect it was, rather, the result of theimagination trying vainly to cope with the unknown problemsof the 4,000-foot wall which soared above us in the darkness.Certainly, when dawn came and I started to concentrate onthe individual pitches, this lethargy passed and I began toenjoy the climbing.The first real problem was the Thirty Metre Crack. Fromdirectly below, the angle appeared to be reasonable and Robinset off carrying his sack. Bridging wide, he seemed to float upthe first 40 feet. Higher, the more familiar staccato movementsof hard British rock climbing began, until with a finalgreat heave he disappeared against the blue sky. Meanwhilethe Poles, who had been off route, arrived below us. Theywere obviously impressed by the pitch and so, before starting,I offered to take up one of their ropes. They gratefullyaccepted, and a few minutes later I rejoined Robin, havingfound the upper half of the crack reminiscent of KiplingGroove.We helped the Poles to haul up their vast rucksacks beforesetting off across the famous Bands of Ice, the traverse ofwhich proved less difficult than expected. After several mixedpitches we rounded a corner overlooking the central couloirand rather unexpectedly found the Seventy-Five MetreDiedre. The angle was easier than that of the Thirty MetreCrack, but the Poles insisted that we took their top rope onthe first pitch. For the rest of the diedre we climbed withthem and saved each other a lot of time and energy. Wearrived on easier ground, already catching the afternoon