Ice Climbing in Zinal

On Saturday February 22nd I left home at 6am to take the train to Zinal (VS). I met up with the Club Alpin in Lausanne and we set off for 3 hours of non-stop transport. We arrived at around 10 a.m. and without waiting put on our harnesses, prepared ropes, ice axes and crampons and set off for an artificial waterfall just above the village of Zinal. We soon arrived at the foot of the waterfall, which was already being climbed by a number of climbers. The guide (Arthur Bucher) immediately warned us about the falling chunks of ice that frequently fall when someone plunges their ice axe or shoes into the waterfall, and which can cause nasty injuries as some chunks must exceed 3kg.
Arthur asked us to prepare ourselves to protect ourselves from falling ice and went to set up moulinettes (i.e. when the rope has already been set up at an anchor point at the end of a route, so climbing to the top to set up your own anchor points is not an obligation), via an access to the top of the waterfall which was done on foot. Then, after a few brief explanations, we decided to try out the first canopy set up with a friend.

We attached ourselves to the rope and he started climbing, it was pretty easy to belay but the ropes were really elastic so taking it completely dry was really difficult. But he soon got to the end of the route and I got him down.
I then got ready for my ascent and discovered how waterfall climbing works, exploiting existing holes and favoring several small moves in the ice rather than one big one that might break it, as well as foot placement and how to lower the heel so as not to put too much strain on the calf.
In short, the first day went really well and I did several routes, some of them quite difficult (going through a column of ice, for example), and around 5pm we set off for the hut to spend the night.
The next morning we got up early to eat breakfast and return to the same spot (there were other natural waterfalls nearby and Arthur had been out scouting the previous evening, but they seemed too fragile and there were some really threatening ice stalactites at the top of most of them).

And this time we tried lead climbing for those who wanted to, so Arthur taught us how to fix ice pins into the wall, trying to be as careful and at the same time as efficient/quick as possible, since falling down a waterfall is really to be avoided at all costs, as you can quickly injure yourself with the ice axes or especially the ultra-sharp crampons we have under our shoes.
Then I was able to try my first lead route; I started by putting on pins (quite difficult to put on at first, finding the right angle to be well in the ice is quite technical and your calves tire quickly when you can't hold on to your ice axes... and when the ice isn't very good, it's difficult to anchor the pin with one hand) very close to each other to make sure you're well held in case of a fall, so I quickly ran out of pins and my friend, my belayer, brought me back down to the ground.
And after Arthur had given me some new advice, I climbed back up, taking a new set of pins and climbing even higher, with a few more technical passages and spacing out the pins, which had become quite easy to put in place, since I'd got the hang of it.

We also did a route in a cave, which was really spectacular and by far the most difficult route we've ever done. The ice was really fragile and we had to find good holds on small, rather thin hills that didn't leave much space for our feet, but it was also a magnificent climb.
We also tried “dry tooling”, i.e. with ice axes and crampons, but this time on rock, i.e. without being able to plant the ice axe, so you have to look for the slightest irregularities in the rock to be able to place the tip of your ice axe (3-4mm is more than enough to hold an ice axe if you hold it well) and the crampons also hold very well on the slightest asperities.
This was probably the most difficult part, and you really had to trust your crampons and ice axes, which could give way unexpectedly at any moment.
In short, it was a great experience and I'd go back if I had the chance again!