Aiguille du Midi; Eperon Frendo

[Giores]

Paolo Paglino, U.I.A.G.M. alpine guide
Giovanni Restelli, C.A.I. Milan

Aiguille du Midi
Eperon Frendo

17/08/05, 18/08/05

After spending a breathtaking and cloudless sunset inside at our camp at Aiguille Plan, and gazing at a Frendo pillar in dried & ?friendly? condition, we woke up at 3:30 a.m. of Thursday 18 August. 1h.45min. needed to go to the base of Frendo pillar, due to moraine soil upset conditions. Remind to follow the right-hand downhill path while approaching the glacier! No problem occurred during our climb on the rocky pillar bottom section, till, at about 7:30 a.m., the first snow started covering rocks & ice without frosting (0°C isothermal altitude at about 3800m.). However, most of the rocky section was already covered with snow fallen weeks ago, which implemented the difficulty of climb. Definitely demanding it was the diedrum you can find at about ¾ of the rocky section (UIAA V- in my opinion). The whole upper iced section was also demanding, due to its steepness (till about 80°) and the quiet thick and ?glue-like? layer of snow. I do suggest use a pair of ice-hiking axes. At 5:30 p.m. Paolo & I finally got to the cableway station.

Total hiking time: 13h.30min.
Climb difficulty evaluation in above mentioned conditions: max.UIAA V-; D+

Dedicated to my aunt Anna, died in peace exactly while we started our hike on the pillar.

[Davide62]

Bravissimi , ho inteso per sommi capi...........con una traduzione mi senitrei più a mio agio
Sul diedro gradato V- avrei qualche perplessità e opterei per almeno un mezzo grado in piùu