Mont Blanc, Chamonix, France

Mont Blanc from Pic du Midi Well, one thing led to another in the summer of 1996, and we ended up in Chamonix. Since I'd never been there before, we decided the best plan was to climb the biggest thing, and then come back and climb the good stuff.
Paul at Pic du Midi, and me at our camp. Paul Joe
Grandes_Jorasses There's lots of cool stuff to see, and the rock is great.
We're going over to these next time.

The next morning it was time to go. The route from Col du Midi goes over several ridges and cols. You can see the top of the teleferique in the distance, and camps in the col below.
The route is well traveled. The big crevasse near the top of this hill had a ladder across it.
Morning

Crevasses
Above, here's a view from the top of one of the ridges.
To the right, cornices in one of the next cols.
Cornices

Steep This is the steepest part of the route. It proceeds up an icy chute, where an entire platoon of the French army was busy descending.
We got tired of waiting and headed up and around. The snow was unconsolidated hoar above ice, and it was difficult finding good purchase. Paul's comment at the top was "that was stupid". On the way down, the fixed ropes were gone, so we belayed each other down.

Soon, the summit was in sight..
Mont_Blanc
Via_Normal We took a look at the North ridge from the summit dome. Leave it up to the civilized French, there's a refuge right on the ridge, plus another halfway down. The French must have thought we were nuts, bothering to bring tents to Chamonix, when you can stay in the refuges, drink vin and eat fromage, and stay warm at night. I think they're right. we WERE nuts.
Here's the summit photo, shot for us by a great group of Italian climbers.
Ciao!
Summit_Buddies
Summit_Smoke Paul had to have his summit smoke, but the wind wasn't cooperating. Half of his tobacco ended up in Italy.
When he asked me to help him block the wind so he could light up, I told him only if it was his last one. He got it lit anyway.
"Portrait of an Ice Axe" and.. Italy
Where the tobacco ended up.
Here's that same ridge of cornices on the way down. Paul had some crazy idea of doing a traverse into Italy, then taking the tunnel (yes, there's a tunnel) back into France. The only thing we could get out of the French though was that the Italian side was "hard". I got the impression that they weren't going to give us any useful information without money. In hindsight I'm glad we didn't try the traverse. It did look hard. Ridge

On the way down, I went to take a picture of some clouds,

Clouds

And Paul took a nap! A sleeping Paul
(Paul Snoozing)

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Joe Plassmann

Mont Blanc from Pic du Midi	Well, one thing led to another in the summer of 1996, and we ended up in Chamonix. Since I'd never been there before, we decided the best plan was to climb the biggest thing, and then come back and climb the good stuff.
Paul at Pic du Midi, and me at our camp.	Paul	Joe
Grandes_Jorasses	There's lots of cool stuff to see, and the rock is great. We're going over to these next time.
The next morning it was time to go. The route from Col du Midi goes over several ridges and cols. You can see the top of the teleferique in the distance, and camps in the col below. The route is well traveled. The big crevasse near the top of this hill had a ladder across it.	Morning

Steep	This is the steepest part of the route. It proceeds up an icy chute, where an entire platoon of the French army was busy descending. We got tired of waiting and headed up and around. The snow was unconsolidated hoar above ice, and it was difficult finding good purchase. Paul's comment at the top was "that was stupid". On the way down, the fixed ropes were gone, so we belayed each other down.
Soon, the summit was in sight..	Mont_Blanc
Via_Normal	We took a look at the North ridge from the summit dome. Leave it up to the civilized French, there's a refuge right on the ridge, plus another halfway down. The French must have thought we were nuts, bothering to bring tents to Chamonix, when you can stay in the refuges, drink vin and eat fromage, and stay warm at night. I think they're right. we WERE nuts.
Here's the summit photo, shot for us by a great group of Italian climbers. Ciao!	Summit_Buddies
Summit_Smoke	Paul had to have his summit smoke, but the wind wasn't cooperating. Half of his tobacco ended up in Italy. When he asked me to help him block the wind so he could light up, I told him only if it was his last one. He got it lit anyway.
"Portrait of an Ice Axe" and..	Italy Where the tobacco ended up.
Here's that same ridge of cornices on the way down. Paul had some crazy idea of doing a traverse into Italy, then taking the tunnel (yes, there's a tunnel) back into France. The only thing we could get out of the French though was that the Italian side was "hard". I got the impression that they weren't going to give us any useful information without money. In hindsight I'm glad we didn't try the traverse. It did look hard.	Ridge