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davidmorse
Nov 13, 2008, 12:37 PM
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Registered: Nov 13, 2008
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Anyone know where i can find details/topos on aid routes in the Alps? im heading to chamonix this summer and would like to do some multi day routes. had a look at summitpost which gives names and difficulties of famous routes, but not enough detail on its own.
Is it just a case of going to the guides office and making route choices from there? do they have big wall topos? ive looked but cant find any literature about this.
Any info very much appreciated
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apoorva
Jan 16, 2009, 12:50 PM
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the Francois Damilano guidebooks mention aid ratings for a few routes. But the routes are snow/ice/mixed mountain stuff which may or may not have a few moves of aid on some pitches.
the local bookshop had a bunch of other guidebooks you could check out.
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marde
Jan 16, 2009, 1:05 PM
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look for the east face of grand capucin there should be some aidlines
otherwise valle del orco might be a better choice for aid
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lucas_timmer
Jun 17, 2009, 12:47 PM
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Like the poster above mentioned, the guidebookes by Francois Damilano (Snow, ice and mixed part I & II) have all the details and topos on every route in the Mont Blanc Massif, and also mention the aid rating of the aid moves on some of the routes. However, they just consist of single or only a couple of aid moves on a whole multipitch route, there is only one route out of the 800 or so routes in the those two guidebooks that exist predominately out of aid pitches, which is an A4 pitch on Les Courtes or Les Droites. Aid climbing is only done to overcome impossible parts of a route, but never as a sport on its own, and there are no guide routes or topos out there with any info on aid routes in the Mont Blanc Massif. Aid climbing just isn't part of the climbing culture in the Alps, especially not of the French who are very esthetic on climbing and regard aid climbing as a form or cheating, and only a neccesary evil in extreme cases where a route can't be continued without one or two aid moves. That doesn't mean though, that the big walls of the Mont Blanc Massif don't lend themselves for aid climbing. There are many enormous walls that are perfect for anything from easy to hardcore and from just a few pitches to multi day expeditions. I definately recommend to buy the two guidebooks by Francois Damilano and study them well, it's not difficult to spot good aid climbs among the rest with all the detailed color photograps, topos and detailed descriptions of every route in those two guides. The gigantic granite walls of the Grandes Jorasses are the Mont Blanc massif's counterpart to El Capitan, sporting walls of up to 1200 vertical meters high, and the Chamonox Aiguilles are a large bastion of both enormous vertical cliffs ideal for trad and aid climbings, as well as mixed and even ice climbing on some of its other routes. And the south faces of the Mont Blanc du Tacul and Mont Maudit have many very long rock routes as well, which can be aid climbed. And last but not least, the Aiguille Noire de Peuterey is a 1200 meter vertical granite cliff of enormous proportions, which is in summer completely snow free and actually even comfortably warm, catching all the sun as its south facing, another wall perfectly suited for single or multi day aid climbing. And the Grand Capucin, with its 400 meter high granite face is also perfect for aid climbing, and due to its lower height compare to those other, giant walls, it's ideal to obtain some experience with alpine aid climbing, before tackling the big stuff (remember, all of these walls need glacier crossing and ploughing through snow fields to get to the base!)
You might want to have a look at summitpost.org and take a look at the info pages of those walls and mountains, to get a better idea of what I'm talking about. And you should definately buy the guide books by Francois if you seriously plan to go aid climbing in the Mont Blanc Massif. I'm planning on doing some aid climbing as well in the Mont Blanc Massif this summer, so maybe we'll see each other on the wall, doing some hard aid line 
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