Mt Blanc at left, the Maudit at right. The Kuffner arete ascends the subtle and hard-to-see ridge descending down and left. Steve Taylor and I have have had a bunch of great climbing days in the mountains over the last few years. Every summer he comes down with most of his family and a whole list of famous alpine climbs he's been yearning to climb. An ascent of the Kuffner arete on Mt Maudit has been on the tick list for a couple of years now. We've both talked about doing for a while, and a solid weather forecast finally made it possible.
The Kuffner Arete, or "Frontier Ridge" as it is sometimes called, is an exquisite, alpine ridge route that ascends 700m up the sinuous south ridge of Mt Maudit, a 4465m sub-summit of Mt Blanc. The route is rated a "D" for Difficile by dint of its exposure, length, commitment, technical nature, and overall altitude (4400m). The route was first climbed by Moritz von Küffner, Alexander Burgener, Josef Furrer, and... a porter way back in the golden age of new-routing on the Massif: 1887!. I'm amazed at the stuff guys climbed with hemp ropes, 80cm alpenstocks, and hobnail boots or crampons without front points. I think about it sometimes as I scratch my way up scary alpine faces with a freshly sharpened pair of Grivel G12 crampons and a pair of petzl aztars...
The route begins at the Fourche bivouac shack at 3700m. If you prefer sleep, you can alternatively begin your day from the Torino hut, 1.5 hours away.
This is how I like to start and finish every alpine climb - from a chaisse lounger while still tied into the rope.
Steve and I started by taking the Aiguille du Midi lift from Chamonix at mid-day, followed by the Hellebronner cable car over to Italy. We relaxed for a few minutes at the Hellbronner before striking off for the Fourche bivy shack - 2 hours away. At the upper end of the Vallee Blanche, a couple easy pitches of steep snow and ice lead to the col Fourche. With a late-morning departure from Chamonix, we knew we risked being too late to get a bed in the Fourche bivy, and thus carried an extra guide tarp, sleeping bag liner, and emergency sack in case we got stuffed at the hut and had to bivy. When we arrived, there were 11 climbers present, and ther are 12 bed spaces. Steve got the last one. I was happy to take the floor. However, soon after we arrived, a steady stream of late-arriving climbers brought the total number to somewhere around 24 people. It turns out arriving early does nothing to secure a bed for yourself. The more people that come, the more you just get squeezed! That night, three climbers "sat" on the cooking bench, two bivied on the floor, and two others perched on the bench that you sit on when you tie your boots up. 16 of us shared bed space meant for a slim 12. One or two might have stood outside on the exposed balcony and smoked cigarettes all night to stay warm, I'm not really sure. I think I slept a total of 10 minutes. It was agonizing. I don't know why they call it the Fourche bivi hut. It should be called the cuillère bivy hut. Fourche means "fork". Cuillére means "spoon". Spooing with strangers in the bivy hut is obligatory.
Steve climbing easy to moderate terrain up to the Fourche bivi hut. In dry, icy condition, this can be a royal pain in the calf... 
With hardly any room in the hut, some folks (like these Italians) had to cook outside. Better than inhaling CO i guess..
A clandestinely captured photo of Steve enduring the squalor inside of the Fourche bivi. 
I'm frightened at what I might find when I go inside... 
An evening view of the Kuffner Arete - in red. There is not as much "down climbing" as the red line would indicate. That's because of foreshortening.
Most of the climbers departed between 1:30 and 3:30 am. We slept in till 4:00am, figuring that extra hour of sleep would feel really good. There was no sleep, due to residual noise and mumblings of departing climbers. Eventually, the door cleared and there enough space to light a stove, put a harness on, and tie one's boots.
We set off at around 4:45, and got to the col that one climbs to on the Torino hut Direct variation at around 5:15. The climbing became fun and varied. There was front-pointing up mixed snow and ice, mixed pitches of rock and ice, etc. Nothing was overly difficult. The snow conditions were good, and the steps were nice ( thanks to the early departers!). Nevertheless, the ridge is exposed! Good footwork is critical. You don't want to fall on the ridge traverses, as the rope will do nothing more than ensure you drag your partner with you if you slip.
Steve at the first rock band near dawn - Mt Blanc in the background. 
Steve climbing a pitch on the first rock band at dawn.
The crux of the climb is some mixed rock on the traverse of the Point de l'Androsace. Its about 5.7-ish plus or minus, depending on which little variation you take. We passed two teams here - both were having trouble with route-finding and rope management. After the Androsace, the climbing lets up a bit - just a few hundred meters of lower angled mixed terrain and you arrive on the shoulder of Mt Maudit. We followed some exposed tracks along the ridge, peering down to our right at the dozens of climbers on the Trois Mont Blanc route, several hundred meters below us.
A French/American team beginning the traverse around the Androsace. 
...and continuing the traverse towards the crux...
Steve gaining high ground near the first false summit of the Maudit. The Point de l'Androsace can be seen back and left. 
The summit of the Maudit
Steve on the summit of Mont Maudit.
Steve and I summitted Mt Maudit at about 10:30am (which is fairly good timing I think). Our speed was supported by excellent route conditions. We wandered down to the classic bottleneck on the north shoulder of the Maudit, and qued up with about 50 climbers all trying to descend 90 meters of steep ice. I teamed up with an Austrian guide I have never met before. We tied our ropes together, which allowing us to lower all three guests on a 90m lower to a point safely below the bergschrund. This allowed us to pass a dozen or so people who were trying to do the lowers off of two successive stations. 1.5 hours of tromping down the Tacul and Steve and I were back in the Midi station, 24 hours after leaving it!
The route is worth the hype! Especially if you choose to sleep in the Torino Hut!
climbers on the standard Mt Blanc Trois Sommet route.
Gear I took:
1 50 meter rope
2 technical tools. If the conditions are perfect, you need only one tool. But if they are a little iffy, two tools will help you move faster.
4 ice screws (I hardly used any of them but then again conditions could have been more icy...
5-6 wires
small selection of cams from yellow TCU up to red camalot. I used all of them once or twice. The smaller cams were less useful because they could be substituted for some really good nut placements at times...
bivi gear for the hut (guides tarp, jetboil stove, on MSR fuel canister, etc....)
Strategy:
Climb early (Lots of south facing snow that can deteriorate rapidly); climb fast (you will need to move together over lots of the terrain, while only belaying some of it - if you want to make the Aiguille du Midi lift before it closes...).
The technical crux is the traverse on the left side of the Androsace Gendarme. There are at least 3 ways to go, once you finish with the traversing. One way keeps traversing into a gully, where there is a nest of old tat on a pin anchor, with a poor stance (its a hanging belay). You can go this way - which is evidently well-traveled, or you can start climbing straight up about 15 meters sooner - climb up over some bulgy granite, past an old piece of fixed rope, then traverse a few meters on the north side of the Androsace, then down-climb (preferably) or rappel (if you trust old tat) off of an old fixed anchor into the col behind the Androsace. From there the route is straightforward all the way to the summit!
Saturday, September 17, 2011 at 09:24AM 
The Arete des Cosmiques from the observation platform on the Aiguille du Midi. The red highlighting shows where the rockfall supposedly originated. 
