Thanks for posting this, you have revived wonderful memories. I climbed it in 1982 but my buddy backed out on the first pitch so I ended up soloing the route. I am now 69 years of age and recovering from surgery for cancer but most of my best days on earth have been spent in the mountains. Thank you and well done!
Climbed te route in the summer of 1985. Soloed the route trailing a rope for my partner who was new to rock climbing and this was his first climb with crampons and a ice axe. There were no fixed ropes (sort of cheating in my opinion) as seen in this video back then and a lot more snow and ice on mountain.
I didn't realize that you two were walking on the ridge of the peak while you were tied with a rope and the rope was not connected to any support on the rocks. If one person slips and falls, it can end in disaster, and the second person will also fall down due to the shock caused by the climbing rope. So what was the use of the rope between you?
The idea is if one person starts to fall, he yells out the side he's falling on and then the partner jumps to the opposite side as a counter-weight. It's not a perfect or truly safe system, but up on the ridge there is no protection to clip onto and no significant rock features to throw the rope around in a short rope style alpine belay.
Beautiful BUT , No ,No No No and Hell no . i almost died in big sur California many years ago . got into a situation where i panicked and almost fell about a thousand feet . After that i never went climbing again .
The Alps are so civilized. I did most of my climbing in Western Canada where just getting to the base of the route often means days in the wilderness. I’m not sure about those big fat fixed ropes. It would be ok to bolt a hairy section but those fat ropes wouldn’t be ok, that chain ladder definitely not. I joke with my European friends that you never die in the Alps out of sight of a 5 star restaurant. Beautiful place though, just like the summit of almost any mountain.
Also subscribed to you @chiller to see you climb it! Can't wait buddy! It'll be so much easier than your bear infested wilderness you are used to! EZ PZ!