Bivouac des périades: The coolest hut in the world.

It's not the largest hut in the world, it's definitely not the most luxurious is the world, it's not even the highest hut in the alps, even though is located at a pretty good altitude.
The coolest hut in the world might be a big statement, but nonetheless I think it the coolest - at the very least in the Chamonix area.

In the weekend before Easter I enjoyed a super short trip to Chamonix to visit my old fried Kim, who had spent the season in Cham. We had three days to get a ski tour in before Kim was heading back to Denmark.

Because of the crappy snow (or lack thereof) this season, we had to go somewhere high, we'd like to visit new huts and ski new glaciers. A quick plan was made: Ski down the good part of Vallée Blanche break left up the Leschaux glacier, climb to the winter room of the Leschaux hut and spend the first night there. Next day climb back down to the glacier and skin up to the foot of the Mont Mallet glacier, skin the height of the glacier to the couloir giving access to the final rock scramble to the Bivouac des Périades. 

(Rare) Dynafit Failure.

Upon disassembling my Vertical ST bindings for the first time i noticed a small crack in the side of the compensation plate. After taking the binding apart, the compensation plate was indeed in two pieces.
The bindings are from april 2009, has seen probably between 40 and 50 days of use. The use they have seen have been everything from regular back-country touring to icy in bound skiing to expedition use involving multiple plane and mule rides.
In other words, they've been banged around quite a bit.
I didn't notice anything unusual skiing the binding a couple of days ago, so I don't really know how long it's been broken.
I will of course be replacing the broken part, even though the binding seems to be skiable.
Have anybody else seen or heard of this mode of failure.
I should state that I haven't disassembled the binding before, hence I don't think over tightening the top plate screws (at least not by me) could be the reason for the failure.
Enjoy the spring.

Klippeklatrekursus Kullen 2-3 april

Jeg havde fornøjelsen af at være kursusleder på Dansk Klatreforbunds Klippeklatrekursus i weekenden, årets første kursus.
Tak til alle deltagene for et godt kursus.
Vejret var jo som lovet, der var både perioder med 15 grader, sol og let vind.

Et par billeder af et par dygtige kursister der fører deres første rute:

Adam i den skarpe ende.

Martin finder glæden ved en velplaceret 10'er kile.

Patagonia Alpine Wind Jacket.

Genialt lille stykke beklædning.

Strange ski touring bindng I saw in Morroco.

Anybody have some info on what it is? Please leave a comment.

Statestik

Giver ingen mening, med mindre du ved hvad det er.

How to modify Petzl Aztar for leashless climbing.

Great tools for moderate ice/mix and alpine stuff.
Only weaknees is the lack of leashless abillity. But that's an easy fix.

What you need:
Grivel slider - the yellow size.
Petzl griprest for Quark.
File, hacksaw, sharp knife, 30 mins.

Mounting the slider:

You need to remove some of the rubber from the upper grip, in order to make the slider slide. You also need to file a bit of the shaft right above the grip. But be carefull, you don't wan't to weaken the shaft. Just remove the paint.

Tie a loop of 3mm elastic cord to the small hole in the head, to keep the slider in place, when plunging the shaft in snow.


Done with the slider.

Next up is the griprest for the hammer.

First remove quite a bit of rubber from the bottom of the grip.
Remove until it looks something like this:


The small grove between the spike and the rubber "horn" should just be big enough to seat the bolt from the griprest.


File/cut down the inner of the griprest to obtain your favorite position of the griprest. Play around a little.



Fix some cord through the hole in the griprest and through the cliphole in the spike.


Or cut away a part of the griprest, to make the cliphole usefull. I prefer this, it's way easier to clip, and also leaves more of the spike usefull.


And now you're the lucky owner of a set of leashless Aztars.
Go climb.