Al with la Tour Ronde in the background. The South East ridge is on the left.
We set off from the Aiguille du Midi at appoximately 3:00 p.m. for a
walk across the Vallee Blanche. The weather was good and there were no
major difficulties, with only a few crevases to cross. The tempertaure
was approximately -2 degrees, however with the sun this felt quite warm.
The sun had also led to some of the snow being soft, and this made the
going quite difficult. This can clearly vary from year to year, as can
all the snow and ice conditions mentioned in my trip reports. After
going round the base of Mont Blanc du Tacul we headed away from the
telecabine (which links the Aiguille du Midi on the French side to
Helbronner on the Italian side), and headed South towards la Tour
Ronde.
As it was approaching 7:00 p.m we dug snow graves for the night. This
was very cold work, although as usual Al didn't seem to notice the
cold, and was soon quite ready to go to sleep. As we were preparing for
bed we could see some climbers descending from la Tour Ronde. As they
descended the snow slopes on the East we could hear and see rocks
falling. It is always more dangerous as the day goes on since the snow
is warmed by the heat of the sun during the day, and this can cause the
snow to weaken, leading to the possibility of avalanches and
rockfall.
The next day started off very misty, so we postponed our planned start
from 4:00 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. when the mist had started to clear. Because of
the cold night the snow had become hard again and walking was much easier
than it had been on the previosu afternoon. We had planned to ascend la
Tour Ronde by its South-East ridge, which is graded PD. According to the
guide book this means that the route is not very hard, however if you are
not used to mixed climbing then it is quite tricky.
Al in his snow grave ready for a good nights sleep
Andy and Al at the summit of la Tour Ronde, with Mont Blanc in the background
The route followed the right hand side of the ridge for a way, before
crossing over to the left hand side. From here there were good views
towards Mont Blanc. As the sun rose it became much warmer, and we were
able to hear the occasional avalanche coming from the direction of Mont
Blanc. We headed out of the shade back in to the sun and off the rock on
to the snowy slope which leads to the summit. At the top there was one
last bit of rock and this brought us to the top with an excellent view
of all the surrounding mountains. We reached the summit at around 9:30
a.m.
La Tour Ronde is recommended as a first alpine peak since it helps
the beginner to get to know the lay-out of the ranges, and I would
certainally agree with this statement. The sky was clear towards Mont
Blanc, however the cloud was starting to build up towards Helbronner, so
we decided to descend down the East col which we had watched the other
party descend the night before. We started off down the route we had
ascended, but instead of heading off to the (now) right of the ridge we
cut down a snow slope to the (now) left. This took us over some mixed
ground to a steep snow slope which ended by crossing a bergschrund. We
joined up with another party of two so that we could abseil quickly down
this slope. The weather appeared to be changing, and we wanted to reach
Helbronner whilst the telecabine was still open (it is closed in poor
weather and strong wind). From here Al went ahead to collect the one
sack and sleeping bags which we had left at out bivvy site to enable us
to travel light and faster. We met up and walked around to Helbronner
with the cloud starting to close in, reaching the cable car station at
11:30 a.m. From here we caught the telecabine to the Aiguille du Midi
and descended by cable car in cloud. The telecabine is well worth while,
travelling across the Vallee Blanche and giving an excellent aerial view
of the glacier.
All in all it had been an interesting and enjoyable experience. I
have been to the Alps several times with my parents (walking) and had
thoroughly enjoyed those holidays. It was good to be out on the glacier
and rock, where I had watched other people several years ago. La Tour
Ronde is definately an excellent choice for the first Alpine peak.
