As I lay in my sleeping bag next to two fetid men, I wondered why I had chosen to spend my new year in this way...
Most people spend their new year getting a bit worse for wear, I was feeling like this but for all the wrong reasons. I had decided to spend my new year camping in the French Alps with two friends, the temperature outside was -25ºC. We all are, or at least were, members of Kings College Mountaineering Club and were in the Alps on an ice climbing trip. With a limited student budget we could not afford to stay in a chalet so had decided to camp. The sight of three men walking up into the mountains with 20kg packs filled with camping gear was met with shock by the locals. “You are camping?! But it iz freezing,’ one French woman said, a German climber we met asked us “are you Scottish?... or just mad?” The experience certainly made us question our sanity.
Originally we had wanted to head out to the Alps on Saturday 27th December but the flights were two expensive. “I have a solution,” Martin said, “but it may be totally insane. Why don’t we camp.” Gareth and I liked this idea so on the 30th we flew to Lyon laden with 80kg of gear. As we raced to the Alps in our hire car the snow began to fall. Ideal for skiing but, as ice climbing tends to be in gullies which channel avalanches, this wasn’t ideal for us. Originally we had planned to climb new route up an ice fall in the Ecrins National Park, but we realised upon arrival this would be impossible. Instead we headed for a tiny village on the Italian border called Cervieres, where the risk of avalanches was lower.
Upon arriving in the village we realised the road up to the climbs was closed. We donned our packs put on our snowshoes and began walking the 5km uphill to the ice fall. Climbing in the winter in the Alps involves the extremes of body temperature, when moving you can be roasting yet when you stop suddenly the bitter cold hits you. As we approached the crag a local skier directed us to the crag, “zis area is called Little Siberia,” he said “it ‘as some of the coldest weather in the Alps.” Marvellous, we thought, this is where we were going to spend our new year. After climbing on the ice falls in the afternoon we dug a clearing in the snow for our tent and prepared our home for the night. After eating our ratpack meals and drinking our hot chocolate brewed from melted snow we bedded down for the night, at the risqué hour of 9pm. With our glowstick, to add to the party atmosphere we discussed women until passing out. During the night the snow stopped, the sky cleared and everything got a lot colder.
Upon waking up I suddenly felt how cold it was, the inside of the tent was covered in ice as was the end of my sleeping bag. Escaping the tent was problematic as the zips were frozen shut. After finally working them free I slipped on my frosty boots and stepped outside. Immediately the cold hit me chilling me to the core. “It’s bloody Baltic out here,” I said. Soon the others emerged and we stood shivering whilst eating our boiled cereal bars. Martin’s watch measured the temperature at -20ºC. Going to the toilet when it was this cold was certainly bracing! We noticed tracks encircling our camp, it would appear a wolf came to inspect us during the night. By now we were all feeling quite drained from a combination of the cold and physical exertion. Eating four cereal bars a day and a ratpack at night, a total of 1,400 calories, when we were burning over 4000 calories a day left us all famished. Our attempts to climb without sensation in our toes and fingers resulted in a rapid retreat. After the briefest of discussions we all decided on departing Little Siberia. Reaching the car we were all relieved to reach somewhere where the temperature exceeded -10ºC, even if soon we had to scrape the frozen sweat off the windows. Rapidly we were learning that you can survive camping in the Alps in the winter, but you cannot climb effectively as well.
The next day we climbed a 250m route. Ice climbing is a strange sport. You propel yourself up a frozen waterfall with axes and crampons. Your only protection are screws placed in the ice which relys on the strength of the frozen water. Falling will most likely end in injury. It is a cold and truly exhausting sport. Many people view those who go to the mountains as somehow unhinged. Why do we go ice climbing then? Danger isn’t so much an appeal as controlling your own safety. Climbing allows you to reach some amazing locations. It is a unique physical and mental challenge that pushes you to your limits. For me it is both a passion and a lifestyle. It had been an interesting new year, an experience, one that was in retrospect rewarding despite having it’s testing moments. As I write this article I am sitting in a chalet spending my second week in the Alps, climbing everyday.
