24th July, Petit Aiguille Verte

Leaving the telepherique, Lena is all set to go, even shades on, striding out towards the snow...

Looking back down at our route so far. You can see some people milling about at the bottom (just dots), and the top telepherique station on the left of the rocky peak. Already the clouds are coming in and the weather is deteriorating - again!

At last, tech axes are out. The ice was fully plating though, and a bit difficult to work with. Very brittle, cold, old ice.

Stop resting, get on with it!!

Suddenly, there is almost 0 visibility.

Into the mixed at last...

A moment of clear air, before the mist swept in again..

Okay, time to get out and off. The weather is getting just too bad now! A quick abseil down to easier ground.

Okay, maybe a second abseil was needed!

Awesome - for another day - Les Drus in the middle and a half shot of Mont Blanc on the RHS...

Aiguille Verte

So we decided to do the best with the weather we had and go for the Petit Aiguille Verte. At least we would get our axes out and have a little ice and mixed climbing! This route should be safe from all the rock/ ice fall we could always hear all around us! It was :)

So, the climbing was fun, in a spectacular setting, with sometimes great views of Les Drus and Mont Blanc.