Chamonix Activity Report: 19th July 2006
It was a great end to last week in Chamonix, the climbing championships disciplines came to an end with the speed and difficulty competitions on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Both evenings drew massive crowds well into the thousands and the atmosphere was excellent, thanks somewhat to an extremely zealous if slightly biased commentary team whipping up the local supporters into a fervent frenzy. The climbing was more than impressive, with the young Russian team making a clean sweep of the men’s and women’s speed climbing podium.
For those not lucky enough to see it – Two competitors race one another up two sides of an artificial wall to a button which halts the stopwatch. They then swap sides, barely having time to catch a couple of lung full’s of oxygen and do it again. Their times are combined and the quicker of the two is the winner. Sounds easy? Well when the wall is 70 feet high, leaning at an 80 degree angle over their heads, with a 6 foot over hang and very few hand or foot holds it certainly doesn’t look easy. The fastest guys were completing it in 12 seconds each run, their explosive upper body power pulling them up as if they were running on all fours on the flat. I’m not sure what they’re fed when they’re growing up but the physiques on these guys are just muscle on muscle on muscle.
Due to their anatomical differences and lack of sheer upper body power the women’s event was dissimilar to the men’s but no less fascinating. Although they tended to take a little longer on their ascents, they seemed far more graceful and technical using their whole bodies to glide up.
On Thursday the difficulty event was even better attended (I’m sure the beer festival had something to do with it). The event was much more technical with even fewer and even smaller foot and hand holds. These competitors were all lithe and built for endurance, as was demonstrated by the Italian gold medal winner on his last ascent when he hung upside down on the overhang for over 5 minutes planning his next move. The partisan crowd applauded his every move and I feel his success may have been attributable to the support he got from the commentator – “die Fabio die”!!!!
Once the climbing was completed it was everyone over to the MBC for the Cham-Biere Fest. This is where the local breweries come and promote their secret recipes and favourite tipples, a lot of which can be bought in either local bars or supermarkets. Some are a little on the unusual side but largely are very good – Personal favourites included a cloudy/white beer flavoured with vanilla and banana, a gene infused beer (that was the same colour as a raspberry flavoured slush puppy and tasted like a shandy with twice the kick! Very strange) and a dark stout that tasted of coffee and Guinness - though my judgement and approval may have been impaired after the fourth or fifth different strong beer. The evening was very lively and had a great atmosphere in the street, which was ended perfectly by welcoming in Bastille Day at midnight with one of the most impressive fireworks displays I can remember. You know it’s a good night when all the people who say that they’ll just pop down for half an hour stay into the early hours. Chamonix really knows how to throw a party.
The next day started with a few sore heads and whilst driving through the Mont Blanc Tunnel I was paying sorely for my previous night’s exuberance with the “raspberry slush puppies”. We were heading white water rafting and my body was putting up a protest at having to expend any energy after the night before. All this changed as soon as we arrived in Morgex 10 minutes drive from Courmayeur as the adrenaline started to pump through my blood/alcohol stream. I had a momentary lapse when I had to stand around in a very hot, very dry wetsuit for half an hour until we had our safety and technique briefing. But the icy waters that rocket down from the Italian side of Mont Blanc soon put paid to that problem.
The Dora Baltea river is categorised as a 3-4 difficulty (on a scale of 1-6, the higher the number the greater the difficultly) which puts it on a par with the Arve (Chamonix’s main river). Both rivers are fairly fast moving, with the Arve tending to take a fast steady direct route. The Dora Baltea tends to meander a little more which provides more variety and seems to generate faster currents in certain parts of the river. The first part of the session is on the wider sections of the river and is a good introduction to technique, safety and teamwork, this lasts for about half an hour. We arrived at a lake controlled by a weir and were all told to jump in and swim for shore by our guide. The water was perishingly cold and we soon understood why we had to wear the (s)we(a)tsuit, a thirty second swim later and we couldn’t feel our fingers or toes.
We then carry the boats to past the weir, where the river takes on a different appearance. The river’s width halves to around 30 feet as it pushes through narrow gorges and crashes over powerful rapids. It gets really exciting from this point as the boat drops and crashes over the white water. Our guide shouts orders to us, whether to paddle backwards or forwards or merely hang on for dear life whilst he steers the boat from the rear. He was great with us as he flirted with danger enough to scare us but never put our safety in question. Make sure when you go rafting that you swap positions in the boat during the course of the trip as inevitably the people sitting at the front get a more exciting and bumpy (wet) ride.
It is a great afternoon out and I would suggest giving it a go. The scenery is breathtaking and between the rapids it can be incredibly peaceful. If you can, try to go with a group of friends as you can really get stuck in and have fun, though if you do go alone or with too few to fill a boat, there are always other party’s you can join. Evolution 2 and Action Chamonix offer a range of mountain activities including rafting and can do trips on the Arve or Dora Baltea rivers.
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
