Les Grandes Jorasses

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Dave Davis

Social climber

Seattle, WA

Oct 15, 2012 - 09:25pm PT

Nothing quite like a Canadian giraffe straight from the tap.

splitter

Trad climber

Cali Hodad, surfing the galactic plane

Oct 15, 2012 - 09:56pm PT

Mighty Hiker - Where do they keep the giraffes, anyway?

Marlowe - Not sure what your saying, but...

Beer Giraffe - table top beer dispenser working by gravity.

Perhaps it's MH way of saying (using Canook shorthand), " That looks great and I'm game, only thing I wanna know before I arrive is, where do they keep...!"

splitter

Trad climber

Cali Hodad, surfing the galactic plane

Oct 15, 2012 - 10:10pm PT

Or perhaps MH is on the wild & ever so popular Great Canookian Giraffe hunt, and was simply looking fer clues from yer neck of the woods that he could apply to his 'neck of the woods'...
[Click to View YouTube Video]
Dunno fer sure. cuz, although i grew up in and around them, individualy & collectively often times their ways and thought processes remain somewhat of an enigma!

edit: regardless, they have managed to produce some fine alpinist over the years, though ... wish i would have been one of them!

Charlie D.

Trad climber

Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra

Oct 15, 2012 - 10:12pm PT

Charlie D.

Trad climber

Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra

Oct 16, 2012 - 08:50am PT

From the Italian side....

Ottawa Doug

Social climber

Ottawa, Canada

Oct 16, 2012 - 12:23pm PT

Lucky enough to snag the Walker in Aug. '88 with Jim Dockery. Are you on this site Jim? T'was the best alpine route I've every done! The pics posted above are climbing porn. GDavis has it right.

Doug

ydpl8s

Trad climber

Santa Monica, California

Oct 16, 2012 - 01:05pm PT

I'm thinking he's making a subtle reference to a climb in Eldorado Canyon called Grand Giraffe, which supposedly was named as a play on words from Grandes Jorasses. It's not even close to being in the same league, kinda like comparing pee-wee football to the NFL.

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 16, 2012 - 01:21pm PT

Grand Giraffe, Eldorado Canyon, The Americas
"This is a long route starting from the top of the upper ramp. The crux is a slightly overhanging offwidth crack, and the rest of the route is characterized by moderate but very vertical and exposed face climbing. The route is traditionally 5-7 pitches, although we did it in 3 with a 70 meter rope, with minimal drag."

ydpl8s

Trad climber

Santa Monica, California

Oct 16, 2012 - 01:33pm PT

Yeah, (sorry off-topic) I was sucked into this one when I first started climbing in 1972, I think it was rated 5.8 in the original High Over Boulder. I definitely used a little "up rope" action as I seconded in that OW.

John Marts

Mountain climber

Edmonds, WA

Oct 24, 2012 - 02:54am PT

In 1968, the famous Scott Davis of the El Cap Heart Route and I were camping in the Biolet at Chamonix. Despite a bad weather year in the Alps, we climbed the Bonatti Pillar of the Petite Dru, and the East Face of the Aiguille de Fou (each first one day ascents) and then set our sights on the L'Eperon Walker Classic Cassin route.
With bad weather forecast, Scott took our limousine on a side trip to Milan. Naturally, a window of good weather blew in, and so I paired up with Paul "Tut" Brathwaite. We were held up on the Leschaux Glacier approach and got a later start than we planned.
We bivouaced high on the ridge just above the Red Tower and watched as a front approached at first light, bringing snow and high wind conditions.
Tut, who had enormous reach, was able to lead the friction slab. We climbed into sunshine just at the Pointe Whymper. Storms were coming in from the North and West and the wind soon picked up and we were enveloped in clouds. We descended in lightning, slab avalanches and then rain all the way to a fabulous British dinner of pasta and sardines just above Courmayeur. Back to Chamonix under Mt. Blanc to find that 5 Japanese climbers had perished in the storm on one of Mt. Blanc's buttresses just a couple of miles away.
Scott had ascended half way up the Walker starting from Chamonix with a replacement, only to retreat in the storm; rappeling through the storm and avalanches.
Kind of an epic for all four of us.

steveA

Trad climber

bedford,massachusetts

Oct 24, 2012 - 10:02am PT

I have vivid memories of the Walker Spur.

In 1975, some of my friends were in Chamonix. I was burning the candle at both ends, finishing up my degree during the day, and working the midnight shift at G.E.
I managed to get a 2 week vacation from G.E. and flew over to Chamonix specifically to climb the Walker.
I went up with Roger Martin, a N.H. climber who I knew well.
We were over half way up, when we got hit by a bad storm. The rock was covered in verglass and we had a harrowing retreat. It was pretty grim and we made it down by the skin of our teeth.

I took a few days off, and went to visit a girl friend, living near Annecy.

When I returned to Chamonix, John Bouchard talked me into going back up to try the Walker Spur.
Again, we got hit by a horrendous storm, while climbing the last 100 feet,
along with a very young, Voytek Kurtyka and his Polish partner.

Kurtyka and Bouchard both were shocked by the lightning, but Bouchard got the brunt of it, having burn holes thru his wool mittens and out his socks.
Many years after this epic, Voytek was interviewed by Greg Child, and the Polish legend, stated that this storm was perhaps his most frightening experience in the mountains.

Bouchard was at first pretty shaken up and in great pain but thankfully recovered quickly. We all bivied just below the summit.

steve shea

climber

Oct 24, 2012 - 10:18am PT

Good stories John and Steve! Nothing like a true alpine storm to get your attention plus add to your sense of accomplishment. SS

Reilly

Mountain climber

The Other Monrovia- CA

Oct 24, 2012 - 11:02am PT

John, about time you showed up here! :-)
You still have your RD's?
Hope you're doing well.

Reilly

Brian in SLC

Social climber

Salt Lake City, UT

Oct 24, 2012 - 11:29am PT

Whew! Yeah!

John Marts

Mountain climber

Edmonds, WA

Oct 24, 2012 - 02:53pm PT

Reilly my sterling friend!
Of course I still have the RD's and they still don't work so well.....
Good thing I have a full rack of Leepers, and Salathe pitons.