25th of August - France - Les Gaillands nr 2

Today we woke up to a preview of an approaching autumn. The air was much cooler today - some 12 C when we got up. The forecast said that the weather would stay cloudy all day, so we decided to visit the nearby crag in Chamonix again and try some routes we didn't have time for yesterday.
When we got to the crag there were lots of people climbing on the rock, albeit wearing a bit more clothing than yesterday.
It was a bit chilly, but nothing that some scrambling up a rock face wouldn't remedy.
Ben started out with the climbing and chose a route that began pretty straight forward, up along the rock, but at about 10 m, there was a serious overhang. Due to the cold he couldn't feel his fingers and therefore needed to come down again. During the second try he got his pulse up and body working as it should. Then the route suddenly was pretty easy for him. While he was struggling and complaining about the cold I was chatting with a couple of Spanish guys who were doing the route right next to ours. I started out talking to Oriol, who spoke English quite well. When he was up climbing I tried to talk to Jonathan, he's friend, he one only understood single words. I did make out that they were gonna do the Mt Blanc summit, starting tomorrow, though. They were beginning in Aguille du midi, and staying at a refuge there. The day after tomorrow, or rather beginning in the night at 1-2 AM, they're heading towards the summit which they anticipate to reach in 17 hours, 6 PM. After that they will return more or less right away.

Funny guys,.. as it began to drizzle just a fraction from the ever present clouds they decided to pack their gear and head to their hostel. They don't like rain. It was too much, as it more or less never rains where they come from, according to Oriol. 5 times a year, he said. The really funny thing is, as we were chatting it turns out they like the north and their next big expedition includes cross-country skiing with sleds for weeks in Lapland. Seriously... guys who dislike a slight drizzle.
We ended up exchanging FB-info as we talked about climbing in southern Spain.

We switched climbing routes as the guys left. This time we ended up doing a 3 pitch climb. This was our first ever multi pitch climb so we had stuff to figure out. I really had to think about the securing of myself and knots to tie while sitting up on the rock. Belaying wasn't super easy either, because of the auto-locking system in  the guide ATC. But all went well in the end and being a multi pitch climb, we also got to do an almost full rope length abseil down.
After our first climbing session we drove to central Chamonix looking for a café, but ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant.

After our food break we were back at the crag. There is a part of the rock that we've seen attract many climbers. It seems quite popular. Now, due to the relatively boring weather these routes were finally free. One of  them is graded as a 6a and right next to it around the corner is a extremely flat rock part graded as a 7a. Ben of course wanted to try both so first he did the 6 lead climbing and then tried the 7 around the bend as a sports route.  The 7 had tiny crimps and a single (evil) one-finger pocket. He said that the rock in this route requires thick skin for it to be easy (he describes he's finger skin as baby skin... hahaha).

I tried another route, but this time I really couldn't get my body temp up. Climbing and being cold doesn't really mix well...
Ben did the same route, during which a narrow beam of bright sunlight suddenly popped out accompanied by two rainbows.

Our evening ended with dinner at the hostel and another movie :-)