The Bodin Afanasieff gully is an obvious route well visible from Les Houches. The route follows a 600 meters gully in the Northwest rocky face of Mont Blanc du Tacul.
Mont Blanc du Tacul – Goulotte Bodin Afanasieff. End of approach in dotted line (© P. Gatta)
Alex, Frederic and I took the first cable car of Aiguille du Midi that we left at 9am. The route goes up along the normal route on Mont Blanc du Tacul to around 3,800 m and crosses the face to right which can be tricky depending on the snow conditions and seracs.
Couloir toward the Goulotte (© P. Gatta)
We left the North face to go down on a small couloir leading to the bottom of Goulotte Bodin Afanasieff. See the red dotted line in the photo on top. The route is graded 600m, IV, 4, M3+.
Mont Blanc du Tacul – Goulotte Bodin Afanasieff (© A. Gatta)
We reached the bottom of the route in 2h30.
Climbing the Goulotte (© P. Gatta)
The route is pretty obvious, it is a succession of short ice steps graded 4 and snow couloirs up to 55°.
Saussure Aiguille (© P. Gatta)
The Gully ends close to the Mont Blanc du Tacul that we followed to the top.
View over Dome du Gouter (© P. Gatta)