Adventure on Tour Ronde North Face

This is one of those adventures that you unknowingly or unwillingly get into, but feel so happy and proud of when you come out of it unscathed!

Ron is an Israeli climber with about 8 years of climbing experience in the US, and had done North faces up to TD- in the Rockies. I am relatively raw, with just over a year of climbing experience, and a few days water ice-climbing, but reasonably fit and motivated.

When he proposed doing the North Face of Tour Ronde, typically rated D- or D in good conditions, I agreed with nervous excitement. Here's what we agreed: we try the first two pitches and see how it goes, and if we (I) don't feel good we just get down and do the normal route. 

Tour Ronde North face, 350 m vertical height, with average angle of 50 degrees makes approx 10-12 pitches (500m route length. This route can be broken into three sections.

Section 1: 130m, 50 degrees ice.
Section 2: Two pitches of 55-60 degrees ice and supposedly the crux.
Section 3: 150m of 45 degrees easing to 40 degrees as the end.

What makes the story interesting is the mountain conditions. 

In good conditions, lots of climbers do this route, some even solo it, and finding a dozen climbers on the face is common (this gives rise to another set of dangers, but that's a different matter). However this was mid-September and the whole region had seen hot weather in the preceding two weeks. As we came down the cable car from Aiguille du Midi to Torino Hut, we could see crevasses were mostly open, the face looked blackish and uninviting (meaning it would be bare, hard ice, much harder to climb than alpine ice).

When we asked the hut warden at Torino Hut, we were told no one has been climbing the face in recent days, but the route shouldn't necessarily be more dangerous for that, just more difficult because of bare ice. This was enough for Ron to go ahead with the plan.

When we started out from the hut around 6:00 am, our first difficulty was to access the face. Since there were no tracks leading to North face, we back-tracked for an hour trying alternative approaches from the sides, but to no avail, too many crevasses and loose rocks. We were forced to take on the face from the front, which meant crossing a fierce bergschrund with its jaws wide open. It has an overhang/bulging roof move, Ron led it with some difficulty and belayed me up. Have to admit this was one of the most difficult moves I have done ever; swinging the tool over the bulge into the unknown and heaving myself up. But my brand new Petzl Quark (axes) proved to be a joy to wield; this part hard good névé. 

Then began the laborious first section of ice. We went straight up the face (the alternative was to go alongside the rock on the right and use rock protection). Ron would normally not place intermediate protection at this angle of ice, but here he was forced to because of the hard conditions. The ice was hard and brittle, breaking off in chunks as you swung your axe, and you needed to swing your axe 2-3 times before it bit into something solid deep inside. This cost us a lot of time and effort, but it didn't feel technically over my limit, at least as a follower. Ron had told me before "just do the first two pitches and then once you are into it, you will get into the rhythm  and the rest will be fine". I hadn't believed him when he told that and was sure I would take the option of heading down if they felt over my head, but I felt exactly how Ron had predicted; with each passing pitch I felt more comfortable, so I did not broach the topic of turning back. We were now committed to the route.

Section 2 was supposed to be more difficult, two crux pitches that remain hard ice most of the time, but the ice quality ket getting better, with just one swing the axe would bite into the surface and provided enough purchase. This was the most enjoyable section for me. Better and easier than the Section 1 dinner-plating blackish ice!

Section 3 was the longest but also easiest. On the easier/snowier bits I was holding the axe on the neck and pushing it and climbing fast. Soon Ron felt tired of belaying (continuously leading and setting up ice-screw protection, and pulling the ropes up can be so taxing), plus I felt more confident, so we decided to simul-climb. It was a great exhilarating experience. Up until this time, my whole life's experience on ice had been less than 100m of water ice and now I was doing 350 vertical metres of ice in a day and simul-climbing (but obviously water ice is much much harder, so the comparison is flawed, like 6c indoors vs alpine III).

There are some difficult mixed climbing moves one must make to transition from Section 1 to 2 (where the ice face converges into a narrow steep runnel, and then from Section 2 to 3 (back to the ice/snow face). There are no rules here, you can push with your axes or hands or legs or butt, whatever works for you :-) I found them very challenging, but managed it, and grew even more fond of my axes.

Once we reached the end of the snow route Section 3, we still had about 30 m of easy rock (by normal route) to reach the true summit Madonna. But because we were already very late, around 4 pm I think, we skipped it and proceeded for descent.

The descent was not easy. There was a lot of loose rock on the normal route; Ron had been on the mountain before and suggested taking an objectively safer but harder descent route. It was scary, but we managed it, and at the last section we could not downclimb it, so prepared an abseil and crossed the bergschrund, and then we were soon walking back to the hut. We reached the hut around 9:00 pm. The folks there were very nice, they warmed the food and served us, so the day ended well. Ron said it is by far the toughest climb he has ever done in his life. The route is normally rated D-/D, but on that day it was probably TD per Ron. (I am not sure of the ice climbing grades and haven't been beyond AD before). It was dark by 6 pm, and we trudged back to the hut hoping we wouldn't be eaten by crevasses, and reached past 8pm.

On reflection, while I do feel we were probably over our heads, too much of a jump given my previous experience, I was physically in my perfect condition and it was good that I pushed myself. The only thing I regret is not carrying enough water. I normally turn back if I am exceeding guidebook time by 10%, which is my safety limit (last week I turned back after doing 80% of the Dent Blanche South Ridge for the same reason), I also carry water accordingly. On this route I had carried an exceptionally low quantity 500 ml of water and 200 ml of juice, because the guidebook time hut to hut is about 7-9 hours but it took us 14 hours!! I would definitely have turned back if Ron had not shown so much enthusiasm and confidence in my abilities, lead all pitches, and even his emergency water should I reach that state.

Finally, our slideshow, prepared by Ron