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With snow hanging in the trees of the steep valley slopes on the next morning, we headed through the Mt. Blanc tunnel and into Italy in search of sunnier climes. Here, in a valley filled with fairy tale Italian castles perched on rocky outcrops, it was almost too hot for physical exertion. Climbing higher and higher, we felt entirely exposed on impressive 500 metre cliffs. We emerged onto a craggy hilltop bathed in alpine flowers and views that stretched to snow-capped peaks in the distance.
Wednesday brought another early start. We caught the Aiguilles de Midi lift (the highest lift in Europe) that took us up to the vast, snow covered glacial basin of the Valee Blanche at 3,800 metres. With Mt Blanc towering above us, we edged our way along the snow covered ridge. On our left, the slope dropped away for a kilometre –enough to focus the mind on each footstep.
We began our ascent of the famous Cosmiques Arête - a delicate ridge of snow and rock with sweeping drops on both sides. Red spires of Chamonix granite broke through the snow like castle walls. We wound our way along the ridge tackling short, steep walls with ice axes and crampons. The ridge finishes with some hard rock climbing; then it’s over a rail and onto the viewing platform of a cable car station surrounded by a crowd of camera clicking tourists!
The Chere Couloir is a famous ice climb and there was already a team ahead of as the sun kissed the peaks and brought colour to Thursday. An icy wind bit through layers of clothing and chilled exposed flesh. It was heaving leaden legs on the final climb up to the cable car station that proved the hardest part we longed for pain au chocolate waiting in the valley below.
On Friday we headed for the rock towers of the Aiguilles Rouge national park with its flower strewn hillsides. New found confidence showed through with the towers offering few obstacles to our acclimatised climbers.
Saturday brought a relaxed morning in Chamonix. It was a chance to practise our French with the market stall holders. We spent lunch hiding in the shade of tall pines as a family of wild Chamois (mountain deer) skipped gracefully cross steep scree slopes above us. We found some excellent climbing on slender fingers of rock arriving at their narrow tops with not enough room for two people.
We based ourselves for this, our final night, beside a mountain lake. Its calm surface reflecting the peaks above was broken only for a moment when we swam in the icy chill. We slept out on the soft grass, the huge canopy above filled with a plethora of countless stars.
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