Andreas Fransson: Carli-Chassagne Gully, Aiguille du Midi

It’s interesting how perceptions change with time. A few years ago I used to look up at the north face of Aiguille du Midi thinking how big it felt and how I much rather ski it than climb it. I used to not train too much and it felt like it would have been a challenge to just do it bin to bin.

Today I went up there to climb one of the classic gullies together with my friend Andrew Lanham. We went up with the first bin and walked over to the Eugster couloir and followed this for a couple of hundred meters before we traversed right to Carli-Chassagne gully a bit further lookers right.

The conditions where easy and the most of the track was already in making the snow sections go really fast. In the gully we passed some French folks and at the end of it our friends Ben O’Connor Croft and Jonathan Griffith, who came up a bin behind us and where out on a soloing mission, joined us.

So for the last half of the route our climbing became more of a social affair than “hard core alpine climbing”. We topped out just after 13 pm and where down in town just after 14 pm in perfect time for lunch.

Thanks boys for a fun day out!

Jonathan Griffith is also a kick ass photographer; check out his stuff on: www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions