The good weather looks set to last here in Cham, so despite an ever growing list of things I should be doing, I've been up the mountains again today.
There seemed to be plenty of options to choose from, but I was keen to get up high and do some alpinism, so Sharon and I decided to make use of the Panoramique lift and get across to Italy. We didn't have a firm plan, but having got over there we decided on the traverse of the Aiguilles Marbrees, which I'd somehow never got round to doing.
You can skip out the trickiest section of the ridge and join it half way along, but we did the "Integrale" and had a great time. Never tough (with the exception of a short 5m wall early on...) and in an amazing position, the traverse was a really fun, stress free day out.
The Marbrees. The traverse goes right to left.
French team on the final section
One of the best parts of today was that I was able to get loads of pictures from the lift, so you can check out current conditions. There is still a massive amount of snow, but a surprising number of rock routes were dry, and more are drying out by the minute. There were plenty of teams on the Midi S face, Pointes Lachenal and Eperon des Cosmiques, and the Pte Adolphe Rey, Pyramid du Tacul and Grand Capucin all looked good to go. The freezing level is high too, so this in conjunction with the bright sunshine is getting rid of a lot of snow. However, what snow there is is poorly refrozen, so walking on the glaciers is tough, and any routes reliant on snow are either best left for a few days, or will require an early start.
The weather is said to be lasting 2 more days, and possibly into Wednesday morning, so here's the shots from today. Enjoy!
Midi N Face
Blaitiere & Peigne
Looking down the Vallee Blanche
Talefre basin - looks snowy from here!
Toule, Tour Ronde & Mont Blanc
Tacul E face
Tour Ronde, Grand Capucin & Pointe Adolphe Rey
Supercouloir & Gervassutti Pillar
Pointe Adolphe Rey, Petit Capucin & Pyramid du Tacul
Overview of Tacul E Face
Pointes Lachenal
Triangle du Tacul
Midi S Face