We decided to stay in Chamonix for 3 weeks during our parental leave trip in Europe after my visit with Dale last September. It was pouring rain the day we arrived from Provence, but the next couple of days were beautiful and sunny over a weekend, which made for a perfect opportunity to get outside with Dale. He proposed the Mallory-Porter (Rectified) route on Aiguille du Midi, climbing from the Plan de l'Aiguille mid-station to the top. The line is improbable and imposing from town looking straight up at a snowy and rocky face but he assured me it was moderate given my limited amount of alpine climbing since having a second kiddo.

We were able to get on the “first bin” up at 7:30am (what casual alpine starts around here!) and were one of 4-5 parties headed for the route. Dale’s friend Brendan joined us and we weren’t in a big rush except for wanting to get past the approach shooting galleries before things warmed up. It hadn’t re-frozen overnight and so we were toeing a line between nice steps and wet slide potential.

The approach went quickly and we headed up the steep snow runnel below a few other parties, taking a bit of hangfire from above but nothing too concerning. This section seemed ok to do unroped up to the first crux. We roped up here but there was enough snow on the route from late-spring snows that the crux was a very straightforward scramble with a couple mixed moves. We just shortened up the rope and kept it on from here, simul-climbing un-protectable snow. The route meandered on the line of least resistance up and then left again to the second crux with a great view of the hanging glacier.

The second crux was a little bit more involved than the first, perhaps due to the line Dale took, but was short-lived (despite being fun!) and we were back on snow from here on out, crossing back right over the ridge and then eventually across the high snowfield right below the tram. This section was much more reasonable than it looked and Dale decided to beeline it for the ice cave, which was a fun bit of steep snow. We got there at about 1:15pm and enjoyed the views for a moment before heading down the Midi for lunch in town.

This ended up being a perfect first climb back in Chamonix with Dale. It reminded me of Triple Couloirs on Dragontail Peak back in the Cascades—but without the long approach and descent!