Black Diamond RPM 26 - Review

I've been using my Black Diamond RPM for most things over the last 6 weeks in Chamonix, from long rock routes to big norths faces, and its taken it all in its stride, and I'm super pleased with it. Here's BD's spiel on the pack:

'Designed for constant movement on big days, the lightweight RPM features a highly compressible, ergonomic design so it moves with you during climbs and scrambles.'

I've been thinking of buying a small lightweight pack for a while now, I toyed with purhasing with the Arcteryx Cierzo 18 or 35 for quite a time while climbing in the Rockies but was never convinced as the 18 seemed to small and featureless but the 37 was a bit too big. I saw the RPM in Snells and it looked liked it fitted somewhere in the middle, so went for it.

The RPM is essentially frameless, so don't expect to be carrying any loads in it. Its got a small waist strap effort which is effectively just their to keep it stable rather than transfer any load, this comes off really easily when you start climbing though. The back does have a thin layer of foam which gives some comfort and structure when packing. Enough of talk of carrying loads though, if your carrying big loads you don't want this rucksack! What this pack excels at is big days going fast and light in the mountains.

For lift accessed climbing, and staying in hut in the Alps this is perfect. I can quite happily fit water, food, a few layers and first aid kit plus whatever gear I need for the route. It compresses wonderfully as well, so you end up climbing with a snug small rucksack rather than something half empty and flapping around. The zip design is a little unusual, and a departure from my normal rucksack purchaing trend, I've always been of the school of thinking that zips can break and I'd always prefer a solid drawcord and buckles/lid. Zips are light though, this back weighs in at 600g, sure there probably not as durable as a standard system but I think I'm willing to sacrifice a shorter lifespan in this case. For such a small sack two ice axe loops on the front are also great.

Using the RPM alpine climbing in Chamonix.

The fabric seems to be relatively hard wearing, after 5 weeks of use in the alps theres only a few scuff marks and one small hole which was caused by hauling it up coarse Chamonix granite on the Rebuffet route. Its never going to last as long a old school alpine sack like my POD Black Ice or similar, but its a fraction of the price and the weight.

The downside is that I doubt I'll be pulling this pack out for much use in the UK, I could imagine the zip letting water through into the main body of the pack really easily and it probably the wrong kind of size for most mountaineering days, plus mines is white, which is certainly not the colour of choice for most moist, mossy or muddy british scrags. But if your looking to go lightweight in the Alpine regions this would be great, I could imagine this being a really good sack for long ice routes as well.

Theres a few other reviews floating around the web, one at Sierra Descents and one at the Colorado Mountain School.

Alpine Finale - Kuffner Ridge

I'm back in the UK, having spent Monday an Tuesday in Zurich flying back into Manchester yesterday afternoon. After a bout of bad weather over last weekend we set off, perhaps a little prematurely for a crack at the Kuffner/Frontier Ridge on Mont Maudit, a big classic mixed route at high altitude.

The Kuffner Ridge on Mont Maudit, D IV 850m.

We chose to do the ridge in whats probably its most classic form, to approach the Col de la Fourche bivi hut, which is perched very precariously on the arete which divides the Cirque Maudit and Brenva basin, then traverse the Tour Ronde-Maudit ridge to the base of the true Kuffner and then climb the 850m of height to the top from there. The alternative would be to leave from the Torino hut, pass under the Tour Ronde, the Col de la Fourche and head up a snow slope just as the ridge steepens.

We left the Midi in fair conditions, but these soon deteriorated. There had been a lot of fresh snow as well, so as soon as we left the tracks of the Vallee Blanche traverse path somewhere just below the Grand Capucin we were trail breaking all the way up Cirque Maudit. The approach climb to th bivi hut it about 200m, sitting somewhere around scottish I/II, so really easy but it was super hard work as there was a good 60cm of powder snow sitting on the route... 1 step forward two steps back kind of thing. We got to the hut just as the weather was beginning to worsen. We had a bit of dilemma as we knew that if we were to set off the next morning and struggle up the Kuffner, we'd basically be committing to Mont Blanc and down the Gouter route as the normal route down Tacul back to the Col du Midi would be an avalanche related death trap waiting to happen. We decided to bail, so set off back down the couloir the next morning, with only a 60m rope, 30m rappels interspersed with some down-climbing took a little time but we were at the bottom at a good time. The weather really came in on the walk back to the Midi with hight winds and wet snow making for near Scottish conditions.

Second pitch on the Voie Frison-Roche Route.

After our retreat on the Kuffner we decided to have an easier day so headed up to the Aiguille Rouge on the Brevent lift to do the classic Voie Frison-Roche, TD- 6a. The route was really good, and never that hard or desperate. Stubbsy had a bit of an issue on the 6a crux crack pitch an had to retreat but I soon got up it probably thanks to Yosemite crafted crack climbing skills. Its well equipped with good belays and fairly spaced bolts. We got the first lift but were at the top by 11am, 8 pitches I think. Petit Kitchen followed, naturally.

Myself on the classic snow-fin, just before l'Androsace.

So with two days left, the weather finally improved so we decided to go and redeem ourselves on the Kuffner. The approach was much easier, as we followed the trail we'd put in a few days before! We went to bed with clear skys and got up around 4am to fantastic frozen snow, clear skys but not baltic temperatures - perfect! The traverse along the first horizontal ridge takes a bit of time as there are two fairly sizable gendarmes to cross with several bit of down-climbing. After this you start the 850m of mixed ridge climbing which leads you to the top of Maudit, a series of snow gullies and ridges, mixed sections and the odd bit of rock climbing. The technical crux of the route is probably a short rock section of about 4c after the traverse under the point l'Androsance its easy though. The physiological crux is certainly the exposed corniced snow aretes in the top sections with are difficult if not impossible to protect. We hit the top at 10am, having taken 6 hours from the bivi hut, and 4.5 from the start of the route. Both under guidebook time so we were fairly happy. I was keen to push on for Mont Blanc as it really did seem so close but Stubbsy was suffering quite a bit so we quickly dropped down to the Col Maudit, over Tacul and then the slog back up to the midi station. By 2:30pn we were sat in the Petit Kitchen with bacon an sausage sandwiches. Absolutely fantastic route, one of the best I've done.

Stubbs on one of the final snow ridges.

Theres a lot more photos of the route in my facebook photo album.

So thats it for my summer alpine season this year, its been a good one and I've got lots done, but the Kuffner was certainly the high point and a perfect finale. Our tour de force of the Chere Couloir and North Face of the Tour Ronde in two days was pretty satisfying as well. I need to focus on my dissertation for a week or so now, but my had is still in climbing mode...

Sunny South-face Rockclimbing & Cold Icy North Faces

So another update on alpine happening out here in Chamonix, I'll start with a bit of an update of conditions.

With the end of the hot period a few weeks ago a lot of snow then fell around 1-2 weeks ago which put all the snow, ice an mixed routes into good, or at least better condition then they were, we took advantage of this in a few weather windows over the last few days. The weather has now taken a turn for the worse now, with the forecast being fairly unsettled for the next few days. It feels a bit as if we've been juxtaposing types of routes over the last few days, being on warm sunny south faces oen day, in t-shirts and rock shoes and then on cold, icy north face routes the next!

Stubbs arrived just over a week ago, so the day he got here we just headed up for a quick lap on the Cosmiques arete in the afternoon to get our heads in the game for climbing together. We did it in 1 hour 40 mins which wasen't as quick as me an Chris did it a few weeks before that but was still fairly rapid considering we had a bit more queuing to do. You can tell its the high season here as there was a line of about 20 people at the crux slab! Thankfully we maanged to bypass most of these.

Stubb's seconding one of the easier pitches on Indianna Jaune!

Last Saturday, we headed out with a local; Brian Birtle, to a big limestone sport cliff down towards Sallanches. I'm not really a sport, well not really an udnerstatement, I'm not a sport climber! But Brian had the day off an was looking for people to climb with so we thought we'd go along an have a go. We went and did 'Indianna Jaune' on Maladiere, its 300m in 9 pitches and goes at 6c+. Its fairly sustained with about 5 of the pitches being in the 6b range, and the rest not being much easier. Its also fairly commiting, not in a dangerous sense, just due to the fact to get to it you walk up to the top of the cliff and then embark on 5 abseils to get to the bottom, leaving your shoes an stuff at the top! The cliff is huge, and very very steep, as a lot of abseils leave you haning in space away from the wall. The route doesn't waste anytime either with the second pitch being the 6b+ crux, now I've led 6b sport before but this felt a lot harder than that - I have to confess I pulled on a lot of quickdraws and ropes to get through it. The exposure on the wall is fantastic, Indianna Jaune takes the easiest line on the face, the rest of the routes are a lot harder so your alwasy climbing in between very very steep, and very very blank rock. We averaged around 40 minutes a pitch and got to the top at around 7pm, before a hurried descent and drive to the kebab house in Cleuse. Big respect to Brian for dragging us up all the hard bits, and the the route in general! Absolutely superb.

At the bivi for the Rochefort Arete.

Early last week we headed up with a friend of Chris's, Remi whos been living in the UK for a while. We took an afternoon lift up the midi and traversed the Vallee Blanche in fiarly bad conditions to get to a bivy spot above the Torino hut for an attempt on the Rochefort arete the day after. We went fairly lighweight for the bivy, and were a little cold after the clouds dissapeared, and quite relieived to get moving at 4am. The route starts with a slog the glacier, over the bergschrund and then a small, but shallow mixed coulir lead to the col. Here we ditched crampons for the scramble up to the Salle e Manger below the Dent du Geant. The scramble cover around 300m of height and some fairly loose chossy ground, so it was nice to be on it when it was all fairly frozen together. We reached the start of the Rochefort Arete at around 8am. Remi wasen't feeling too good due to the altitude and to add to this Stubbsy had lost his glacier glasses on the ascent so was struggling to see as the sun began to break over the horizon. So a little frustrated we turned around, it was a shame, as I could see the whole arete stretching out in front and it looked ace, and so close! We were glad to be descending the chossy ground while it was still frozen though, there were a few parties on their way up as we were descending and they were starting to knock a lot of stuff down. Two short abseils and a bimble down the glacier and we were back at the bivi spot, before making out way back to the Midi.

Friday/Saturday we decided to take advantage of a good weather window and head off to try an do a route first on the Tacul Traingle, then cross the Vallee Blache, sleep at the Torino hut and knock out the North Face of the Tour Rone the next day before heading back. For some reason the first Midi lift was delayed and it was after 8am when we were leaving the station. There were 3 teams (of which 5 of the 6 people, ourselves included were sporting our new minimalist alpine rucksacks! - I'll be reviewing it soon on here as its ace) heading for the Chere Couloir, our chosen route. The routes given D, which is really soft for the standard of climbing but due to its accesibility of being an hour from the lift station is fair. Its about 250m of ice climbing, with the crux pitches being 85 degrees, so about WI4. We moved together up the first pitch and then did 5 fairly full pitches before abseiling back down. The route was in good condition, with good ice on the steeper bits and bomber neve on the more easy angles slopes. We chose to abseil back down the route in 5 abseils to below the bergschrund rather then continue up to Tacul and secend the normal route through the seracs which with all the new snow would of been pretty dodgy.

Myself leading one of the easier upper pitches on the Chere, lots of spindrift!

After we were down we roped up and began the crossing to the Torino hut, getting there a few hours before dinner, and then having a fairly early night.

The North Face of the Tour Ronde, our route took the lower and upper icefields linked by the snow gully in the middle.

We left the hut at 5:30am, which was probably a little late as depsite being a north face, the route on the tour ronde gets the sun fairly early. The North Face route is 350-400m, moving first up a icefield directly above the bergscrund and then through a snow gully which leads to the upper icefield and the summit. The climbing is much easier than the Chere, being at the steepest maybe 55/60 degrees - the crus pitches are in the gully. We moved together up the first icefield for around 100m with myself leading, and then pitched it through the gully and up the summit icefield getting to the top by about 2pm. We moved fairly slowly but this was due to the fact we were fairly tired from the previous day. The descent was tedious as we first followed the PD rock ridge before dropping off at the shoulder on the the Tour Ronde Normal Route, which is AD and follows a broad, and very loose couloirs. 3 Abseils got us to the bottom of this, and then a sprint back to the lift station.

We fancied a bit of warm rock climbing for change after our cold north face endeavours so headed up the Flegere lift and then the index chair to climb on the index, a huge fin of rock standing clean away from the mountain. The classic route takes the ridge up this, at about 4c but we opted for a link of two routes on the face, going at about 5c/6a over 7 pitches. The climbing was nice, and most of the pitches were pretty well equipped. We abseiled off the summit, back down tot he chair and were back in Chamonix for late afternoon.

Stubbs atop the Aiguillete de Argentierre.

Continuing the theme of sunny rock climbing, after a fiarly heavy night with Chris, John a Scott we got up late so drove up towards Argentierre and walked up to the Aiguillete de'Argentierre, a small pinnacle about an hour from the road road. This was pretty easy, if a little dissapointing with two pitches of maybe 4c getting us to the top. Nice views from the top of the pinncale though. After this we did a route on the cliff opposite, which was 4 pitches of 5c, excellent slabby climbing on warm Schist.

Yesterday we headed back up into the big mountains to have a look at the Rebuffet Route on the Eperon des Cosmiques. Me an Chris went and had a look at this a few weeks but decided the start was out of condition and dangerous due to the snowmelt. We'd heard about a direct start though, that missed this though so decided to go an have a look. The catch was that apparently it went at about E1. The crux of any alpine rock route was as always getting out of crampons and boots, getting these into your rucksack and then getting your rock shoes on! I led off up the first pitch we'd been informed about and immeidietely found it quite hard so left my sack on a runner for Stubbs to deal with later. The climbing was awkward but got easier and eventually I made the belay an then brought Stubbs up, who was complaing about having to come up it with two sacks. I'm not sure it was E1, maybe hard HVS, but still fairly hard on a mountain. I then led out the rest of the rightwards trending ledge system, belaying below overhang pitch. Stubbs came up and I set off up the overhang pitch, this starts with some lovely crack climbing with good gear before you reach a big roof which sticks out about 2m. You can free this, but it goes at about VI so I just pulled on the gear an got through it quickly. 3 More pitches on lovely orange granite cracks led us to the top of the buttress at about VS, and then we zoomed along the Cosmiques Arete, getting to the station for 2pm. Superb route.

Me, leading on the Cosmiques crux slab.

We've had a rest day today, as the weather is bad, its actually looking quite unsettled for the rest of the week so we'll what we get done. I'd like to do the Frendo or Kuffner, and Chris is talking about the Brenva but there all fairly serous routes, so we'll be needing a spell of settled weather to get on any of them.

In addition to the above we've also beein hitting the valley crags like les Gaillards quite a but in between things.