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Indisputably, computer graphics and a team of professional stunt men help make films more attractive for audience. Overseeing adventures of the screen heroes we often do worry about their destinies. But despite the art of screenwriters, directors and actors to perform a believable story, the real life is more complicated and rich! For example I offer our last expedition to Mont Blanc for consideration. It was described by Nicholas Nosov (the expedition's organizer and leader) in the full of events story.
All the photographs shown here are the author's ones! You'll meet no one special effect - only its majesty the Nature, the Environment and the vanquishers of mountains! You'll see the countless colours of blue, grey and celeste, the weird shapes of peaks, full of riddles and danger. I do hope it will afford pleasure to you!
Mont Blanc
"Mont Blanc is a massif and a peak in the West Alps on the border between France and Italy. It is the highest peak of the West Europe - 4807 m with the square of glaciation 200 square km." - this is the small information you may find in every encyclopaedia. It sounds more alarming than soothingly. But the mountaineer, who arrives in the French little town Chamonix for climbing, sees the wonderful pictures of the upland. The mountain sevice helps the alpinists to acieve almost one half of the peak's height getting there by mountain train and if also the weather is airless, sunny and hot, you will soon feel yourself calm and slack.
In preparation for climbing we undertook some little journeys from Chamonix, while raising for one and a half or two thousands metres to acclimatize ourselves to the future work at climbing and also to enjoy the beauty of Alpine meadows and fantastic shapes of the giant glaciers on the background of the mountain heights. Mer De Glass is the famous track for downhill skiing. A lot of important international competitions run here in winter. As for summer views, they look like an illustration for fantasy.
At last we begin the climbing to Mont Blanc. Our command consists of three people - me, my wife Iren and my old friend Ilia. The bad weather stopped our climbing to Elborus last summer, but now the weather is fine and the situation seems to be very favourable. We choose the most popular way to the top - across Grand Culuar to Gouter refuge and next - to the peak of Mont Blanc. And then the situation developed like in a thriller's plot with many twists.
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The Culuar of Death is the other name of Grand Gouter's Culuar. This is a coomb about 40 meters in width, which probable got its name due to the accidents with sportsmen, who were killed by stones in this place during the strong rockfalls. You can cross the place in 35 seconds, but stones fall down from 600 m rock and they fall more quickly. Their speed is huge. While falling the stones additionally change the direction of movement. This is a result of the reflection from rocks.
Properly speaking, during the strong rockfalls the alpinist, who overcomes the sinistrous 40 metres of the Culuar, sets his life on a chance - something like he is trying his luck at the roulette, because it's impossible to foresee the direction of stones' flying!
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We have fixed a camp in the rocks near refuge de Tete Rousse and begin to study our next way to refuge Gouter (de l'Aig du Gouter). We don't like the situation more and more. For two months we watched the unusual hot in Europe. The technical complication of the mountain routes grew estimably. Because of the abundant thawing of snow the half of routes is closed. The brook, glided among the stones down on the side of the hill, and the hot sun continue their work to destroy rocks. The air is impregnated with noise and crash, associated with the flying by and breaking into fragments stones.
All the night we listen to the sounds of falling stones. Early morning it becomes low. We rise at 6 o'clock. But the first two mount climbers are already on a wall, they are nearing the culuar. Everything was well done: they were trying to pass the dangerous place, when the stones were still frozen and the probability of the rockfall was small. However as soon as the first man reaches the middle of culuar, the mountain send him a portion of stones.
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The whole crest of the rock falls off. The stones of size like refrigerator, are jumping and falling down along the walls of the culuar. The man runs across it and quietly stops near a grey rock, thinking, that he is in safety, but a stone kills him and his body hangs on a cord without life. The second stone falls down on the already breathless corpse.
The rockfall is very strong. The stones jump over the walls of culuar, catching up the defenceless figures of the running about its sides people and taking off even on the next snow place. The Poles, who have just achieved a snow slope, throw their rucksacks and run down without paying attention to the cracks. They go bellow and the jumping up and down stones are upon their heels.
A red helicopter appears soon. The saver uses a cord to get down and to begin evacuation. First of all he helps the wounded alpinists. They are roped on chairs and lifted to helicopter with the help of ropes. Then the savers lift those who was just dead. In the mean time the next rockfall begins. But now all the alpinists and savers can dodge behind a snout of a rock. And a large stone entrains the saver's rucksack down.
The tragedy, that developed directly before the eyes of people from the tent camp, drove them into shock. Someones are beaten by a nervous shiver, the girl cries. The stones roar, the screws of the saving helicopter roar too.
However nearer to a dinner-time the working for the climb is restored. The groups that didn't see the tragedy, quietly rise and go into culuar. Bit by bit the teams that watched the morning tragedy come to after the horror and continue the climb. But some alpinists decide do not dice with death and go down for searching another way to the peak.
After a long thinking we continue climbing, counting on the downfall's ending. We falter slowly. It's not easy to scramble among rocks with a heavy rucksack on your back, and also we a little bit shake in our shoes after the morning stress. We know the steel ropes are everywhere in the dangerows places but they will not help, if a new downfall will begin. From time to time the huge stones continue their flight to the bottom of culuar and I cry "Stone!", as the signal of danger for the groups climbing after us. We overcome the last 100 metres on the almost vertical wall and find ourselves on the square near the Gouter refuge.
Much people. There is no places in a hut. We didn't want to stay there and this is why we leveled up all the needed things for sleeping accommodation in our tent on the snow platform. On the photo above you can see the snow crest full of tents. It was hard to find a free place for our tent. Then we begin to build the snow walls around the camp. In the morning we mount on top a Dome Gouter (Dom du Gouter, 4304 m.), receiving the necessary acclimatization. Having lowered, we notice, that a number of people on the platform grew considerably less. The small Russian group was the only team that has rised upward. The guys were presented as Muscovites living in Geneva. They informed us, that the mayor of Le Houge had issued the decree forbidding the rise to a Gouter refuge. They also added that except them nobody rose, that the police is exposed below and that already five men were killed by stones in culuar.
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We look down - the red life-saving helicopter circles and circles below. The situation has strongly taken a turn for the worse and stones fall already along all the slope, randomly flying from culuar to culuar. The stones jar culuar slopes and they become covered by dust. A group of approximately 30 men take cover on a small ledge on the rock. The helicopter approaches them, then
the rescuers cling to the man by a cord and pick him up into a cabin. After that the helicopter makes a little circle above the icefall of the glacier de Bionnassay and lands near a hut Tet Rouse. One French approaches me and says, that down is forbidden. After saying the words he stretches a rope across the path and hangs up the tablet with some lines. "And how to be lowered?" - I am interested. "May be, permission will come tomorrow, or they will begin evacuation by helicopters. Now the officials below do count statistics. If the number of victims will exceed the necessary threshold - they will begin evacuation, if not, they will wait...".
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Having decided, that anyway was impossible to change the situation, we started at dawn to conquer Mont Blanc. The glacier was rent by fissures, but the bridges were still solid. At ten o'clock we achieve the top of mountain. It is victory! The sun shines brightly and a flag of our web site "Timothy Dalton. Russian traceries" flaunts over the mountain peaks. But our joy is not full because of the hard and dangerous way to the top and the abeyance of the descent ahead.
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We come back to the camp. There is no one already here. Only our tents still stay like two orphans. It means, that the officials decided to begin the evacuation. The last helicopter will fly down in an hour.
At a frantic speed we pack our rucksacks and run to the helicopter, which has hanged above a crest. The pilot swears for a long time. He says, that it's a sixteenth flight for the day and he is very tired. But the sanction to evacuate the people from the hut Gouter works today only and he will not get the permission to fly here tomorrow. The head trip down - and we are already in the valley, at the helicopter base of Argentie. Our troubles are all over and I feel myself too tired to stand!
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In 2002 the flag of web site "Timothy Dalton. Russian Traceries" was aloft over the highest peak of Africa,
the Mount Kilimanjaro. In 2003 we repeated our success over the highest point of Europe - Mont Blanc. And time will show - can we run up a flag over the highest peaks of another continents: South and North America, Australia and the summit of Earth - Everest!
N.N., 2003 - 2004
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