It was a first, it was a great success – thank you everyone!
By Francoise Call

The first week of June proved to be great timing for the first ever Chamonix Mountain Festival. It turned out that we were on the cusp of the end of this year’s endless winter and whilst the opening weekend was kind of grey and drizzly, the weather broke and bathed us in sunshine for the majority of the rest of the week.

A truly international affair
When I conceived the idea of the Chamonix Mountain Festival I wanted to endow it with all the features that I’ve most loved about the climbing meets I’ve been lucky enough to visit. One of those was a rich mix of experience, backgrounds and nationalities and the fact that we had more than 20 countries represented with climbers from as far away as China was a huge pleasure.

Gear Fest – Gear Test
It wasn’t just the climbers who joined us on 1 June. I’m delighted to say that some of the best brands in the skiing and climbing world came along as well, setting up a tent village at the foot of the Auiguille du Midi lift and brining lots of kit with them for participants to trial and we’d like to say a huge thank you to all of them.

ABS, Arc’teryx, Arva, Beal, Black Diamond, Blue Ice, DMM, G3 Genuine Guide Gear, Goal Zero, Grivel, Idris Skis, Jetboil, Mammut, Mountain Hardware, Mountain House, Mule Bar, Pieps, Recuperat-ion, Tendon and Valandre

Climbing
The break in the weather meant that climbing was possible every day of the meet and given the rich mix of bouldering, rock climbing and high alpine routes at our disposal everyone made the most of it. The week’s routes included:

  • Arête des Cosmiques
  • Barberine (multi-pitch routes)
  • Bucce d’Arancia, Machaby
  • Chere Couloir
  • Contamine-Mazeaud
  • Diretta al Banano, Machaby
  • Gabarrou-Albinoni Couloir
  • Grand Capucin: O Sole Mio/Swiss Route
  • Il Paretone, Machaby
  • La Cascade de Doran
  • Les Drus, North Couloir
  • Les Gaillands (sports climbing)
  • Mer de Glace
  • Pointe Lachenal (traverse)
  • Via Corda Alpina
  • Voie Câline
  • Vallée Blanche (but that was on our skis!)

We captured some of the climbing on film and here are the links:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M65Txb4NHQE
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j6VJTT1PmQ
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HEv4dhSijY

Skiing
The amount of snow still in evidence did, however, give rise to some occasional problems, but also delivered amazing opportunities – the Vallee Blanche, Chamonix’s legendary off piste glacial ski itinerary was in amazing condition and more than 20 of the festival team skied it.

Films, entertainment and even some parapenting
We were also very lucky to have the support of some amazing climbers who came and shared their experiences with us during the course of the Chamonix Mountain Festival. The opening evening included the premier of the film Petit Dru – The Disintegrating Mountain with alpinist Andy Parkin and the film’s producer Jochen Hemmleb on hand to take questions.

2013 Piolets d’Or recipient Sandy Allan delivered a presentation about his and climbing partner Rick Allen’s final conquering of the ‘last great problem of the Himalayas’, the Mazeno Ridge of Nanga Parbat which pushed them both to the limits of survival.

Chamonix-based mountain guide, sponsored athlete and world cup ice climbing competitor Caroline George delivered her presentation, “Magical Ice”, and a female perspective on ice technical ice climbing also laid on a list of informational and inspirational presentations. Saturday evening featured the premier of the film Petit Dru, the Disintegrating Mountain.

One of our pre-event competitions was to win a tandem parapente flight. Wing Over Chamonix kindly flew our lucky winners who were able to enjoy an amazing flight from the Plan du Midi with Olivier Laugero – the first person ever to top land a tandem paraglider on the summit of Mont Blanc – as their pilot.

A link to the film is here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um32oISLd20

Supporters, partners and everyone who made it possible
Based at Chamonix’s UCPA centre the event was delivered at budget prices to make it as accessible as possible and something we hope to replicate for the 2014 event. The Festival was also supported by a host of local organisation such as La Chamoniarde and EnvironMont Blanc and international institutes including the Alpine Convention, UIAA, the Alpine Club, the BMC and GHM. The meet’s safety briefing included input from PGHM the high mountain rescue organisation which provides cover to the Mont Blanc Massif. Our heartfelt thanks go to all of them.

Chamonix Mountain Festival 2014
Next year’s Festival will take place between 29 June and 6 July. The programme is filling out already and we hope to celebrate climbing in all its formats and to expand on the 2013 highly successful Gear Fest.

Until 31 December 2014 you can book your place at the same price as this year.

Keep up to date with all our plans at www.chamonixmountainfestival.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/chamonixmountainfestival

Thank you to everyone who was involved.

Francoise Call