It’s been a busy summer for me that (from a work point of view) finished early due to the birth of my son Max, who arrived late in August. That of course is the highlight of the year but I also managed to squeeze in a great 8 day guiding trip with my client John Proctor. This culminated in an ascent of the North Face of Le Drus during the spell of superb warm weather we had this summer.

John had not done much climbing in the Alps but is a solid E1 leader in the UK, climbs grade IV in the winter,comes from Yorkshire and, in general, is as “ard as nails”. He had also spent the previous week acclimatising, so was the perfect client for such an enterprise. We kicked the week of with an ascent of the left edge route on the triangle face of Tacul. Due to conditions being poor on the normal North Face descent route we opted to descend the same way, which was good preperation for our next route, the Frontier Ridge on Mont Maudit. Due to both the Torino and Cosmiques huts being full and wanting to avoid the usual “bun fight” in the Fourche bivi hut we opted to camp on the Col du Midi which worked well; reaching the Col de le Fourche in 2 1/2 hrs from the tent. We found the ridge in great condition and reached the summit of Mont Maudit 6 1/2 hrs Later.

Setting our sights on something more technical we opted for the Classic North Face route on Le Petit Dru.

We decided to opt for a lightweight approach taking: Food, water, duvet jackets, Bivi shelter, rock shoes, Single 9.5mm rope and a 6mm pull cord, relatively small rack(mainly friends and quick-draws), together with the usual head tourch and bits of first aid. Our intention to bivi on the rogon at the foot of the face, reach the summit and descend to the Charpoa Hut in a day, then return to the rognon the next day and retrieve our bivi kit. The forecast was good other than a small risk of an early evening storm.

A couple of hours’ walk from Montenvers railway station saw us bivi’d under the face. The sun started its journey below the horizon and the clouds that often shroud the face late in the day started to clear, revealing the full spectacle of the North and west faces. We had a reasonably civilised alpine Breakfast at 5.00am, crossed the glacier and started climbing at 6.30 on the dot. I had done the route before, 7 yrs ago, and remembered the Lochmatter couloir as a damp, loose place. This time it was a little dryer but I was glad to get up it without incident on onto the magnificent crack climbing above. Conditions were perfect up to the Niche with the rock bone dry and free of verglas.

I followed the easiest line of chimneys above the Lambert Crack which took us slightly left of center on the niche. 50m of traversing across the ice took us back onto the grooves to the right and up to the more technical climbing above the Niche. I had forgotten just how good the climbing is above here with pitch after pitch of fantastic crack and groove climbing, all in an amazing position. We decided to stay in our mountaineering boots, as these worked well in the cracks and meant comfy feet all day.

Following a tussle with a few chimneys and some snowy ledges we summited at 3.30 pm in swirling cloud and moderate visibility. My plan had been to traverse to the Grand Drus and descend the in-situ abseil line, but not knowing the way and cloud building rapidly I could see down the Flammes de Pierre and decided to go the way I knew and lose height quickly. The descent went well by choosing to do the majority of raps in 25m length. This suited the ledgey nature of the ground and seemed to avoid rope snags, which had been a problem on my previous decent of the ridge.

Our main concern was stonefall coming from the couloirs on the south side of the mountain. These fears proved to be the case with a decidedly determined, yet cautious, approach needed for crossing the ledges that eventually lead to the Glacier. The Glacier was its usual chopped-up affair but crossable and we arrived tired but very pleased at the Charpoua at 8.45pm.

The hut was busy (I think the guardian had given our bed away as he thought we wouldn't make it in a day!) but we got a warm welcome and a great Lasagna. The next day we walked back round to the foot of the face to collect our bivi kit, then down to Chamonix for a well earned beer. The end of a really enjoyable week, and a great way to get ready for the next adventure….being a dad!