Aiguille Noire de Peuteret.
Dames Anglaise.
Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret.
Col de Peuteret.
Mont Blanc de Courmayeur.
Mont Blanc.
The Peuteret ridge from the Col du Géant.
Facing page 224.
It was two o’clock. To judge from what could be seen of the snow slopes leading down to the Col du Midi, where we intended to spend the night, no serious difficulty appeared to be in store for us. We had, therefore, time to spare; so, while the spirit cooker did its work, we dozed and sunned ourselves on the sun-warmed rocks of the summit. At 4 p.m., though loth to leave, we packed up and tramped off in the direction of the Aiguille du Midi. The slopes became steeper and were covered with great quantities of fresh snow. Here and there a crevasse or minor bergschrund had to be negotiated, but all went well. We had descended a considerable distance, and could already overlook the greater part of the easy, almost uncrevassed slopes leading into the Col du Midi, when an immense bergschrund pulled us up short. The upper lip was fully fifty feet above the lower. Tracks leading up to, and then retreating from, the lower lip were visible. A party of climbers had evidently quite recently sallied forth from the Col du Midi to climb Mont Blanc, but had been repelled by the formidable obstacle which was now causing us no little concern. A search to the left revealed nothing of value. To work out to the right would entail much, and perhaps purposeless, step-cutting. So, without more ado, we hewed out a huge step as close to the upper lip of the schrund as possible, cleared away the snow from a suitable spot, and worked away at the ice underneath until a great projecting block had been formed. Over this improvised belay we laid the middle of the only spare rope, and shinned down it. With this the last of the difficulties was overcome. We plunged knee-deep down gently inclined slopes, whose snows, almost unbroken by chasms, waxed softer and wetter as the Col du Midi was approached; and at 6 p.m. we were shaking free from dust and filth the torn remnants of what had once been blankets in the little Col du Midi refuge.
Next day, after discovering a new and rather difficult route up the Aiguille du Midi (12,608 ft.), we tramped wearily across the vast, white expanse of the Géant Glacier to the Rifugio Torino. There we saw the first human being we had set eyes upon since bidding “adieu” to our mule-driver on the Miage Glacier. For five whole days we had roamed over the lonely snows of Mont Blanc without meeting a single fellow-creature. In our daily life we jostle each other cheek by jowl; and sometimes it is good to be alone.
FOOTNOTES:
[8] To-day (1924) no building or structure of any kind mars the sweeping majesty of Mont Blanc’s snowy dome.
CHAPTER XVI
MONT BLANC FROM THE SOUTH
It is a curious fact that, to this day, the southern slopes of Mont Blanc rank amongst the least frequented districts of the Alps. Mr. James Eccles who, with Michel and Alphonse Payot, first climbed Mont Blanc from the south, over forty-four years ago, remarked in a paper read before the Alpine Club, “It is singular that, notwithstanding their close proximity to a good mountaineering centre, the glaciers of the south-western end of Mont Blanc have been, compared with other parts of the chain, so neglected by Alpine climbers.” Of the Brouillard and Fresnay Glaciers, the serious explorers of which may almost be counted on one’s fingers, Eccles’s words still hold good.