I awoke around 7am and got some rice down my neck. We had been looking in the Envers de Aiguille guide book for an easy route and had planned to do the Grepon Mer de Glace (D) but at 850m it was a long route and given our lack of acclimatisation and the difficult of route finding and committing nature of the route we decided to rethink our plans and headed out of the hut to the left down a steep snow slope and up towards the lower half of the Aiguille du Roc to do the easiest route in the book - Sonam (D Fr 5b). We walked up the steep snow slope pictured below, although you can't see the route we did (it's slightly more to the left) you can see two climbers in the top left which give a good sense of scale.
Snow slope leading to the foot of the Aiguille du Roc (top left)
After stepping over a couple of crevasses on the soft snow we got to the foot of the climb which required a step over a bergshrund of about 2ft wide to get onto the route. The bergshrung seemed bottomless. I think we were both worried that the route seemed a lot harder than a 4b but I psyched myself up and told Chris to stop worrying (or at least keep it to himself) and I got my rock boots on. Rock boots aren't the best thing to be walking around in on ice and snow and I took my axe and tentatively walked up the snow slope leading to the bergshrund and planted my axe. I hopped over and started the route. I was desperate to try and get as much gear in as possible as decking into a crevasse wouldn't be fun. Climbing up something of this scale is simply immense. The route Sonam is 6 pitches long, the first I'd say was about 30-35m. I made fairly good progress up the side and into a crack placing a few nuts and finding one in-situ nut. I then had to traverse out past a piton about half way up into the central crack. At this point it all got a lot more difficult. There was very little for your hands and feet! I managed to get up a little higher before placing a cam and laying back (and pulling a little on it) to place another one. This was so much harder than a 4c, and the book said there was no need for gear as it was fully bolted, another sign we were off route. I put in another cam and pulled a bit because there was very little for feet and the layback crack started to bulge. I got a couple of nuts in to protect my precarious stance and 'manned up' before pulling over the bulge and scrabbled up to the belay bolt. I was pretty relieved!
Me leading the first pitch of what we thought was Sonam
I bought up Chris wedged in a small cave, it was nice to be out of the sun but a pretty uncomfortable hanging belay. I do enjoy belaying on multipitch routes as you can turn out away from the face and enjoy the view, and what a view! It's probably one of the things I enjoy about climbing the most. Chris came up and met me and then lead the next pitch which was easier technically but still reachy and with some committing step ups. There were alot more bolts on this pitch, perhaps the glacier had retreated leaving an extra pitch at the bottom? Chris made good progress but as I belayed him I noticed that my axe at the bottom had started to lean in towards the bergshrund as the heat of the midday sun melted the snow, I wasn't happy about having to travel the snow slope and crevasses on the way back without an axe and this put me on edge somewhat. Chris bought me up and we decided that with my axe where it was and the difficulty of the route we should abseil down. The next pitch looked fairly easy (VDiff/Severe) but we geared up and lowered off in one abseil. I was a bit nervous about this but Chris got down and I followed.
Me abseiling down the first pitch
We had a bit of a nervous moment as the rope snagged but we got it back and descended to the hut. We hung around outside absorbing the view until tea time, we ate at the hut this time. They serve good simple food which really fills the hole. For an extra 11 euros we had the option to sleep in the hut so we did. I think I slept better but earplugs are always a must!
The last of the light from the hut
I tried to stay up to wait for the stars to come out as I was keen to get a long exposure shot but I was too tried. I thought I might get some in the night if I needed the loo but I didn't really wake up properly and was in the middle top bunk so it wasn't so easy! I'll try and take one at altitude before I leave though! We planned to do some cragging on the rocks in front of the hut in the morning before descending down to Chamonix at around lunch time. This would help firm up our ideas about the grading!
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