The Col du Fresnay is a striking view point from which the Innominata and the Aiguille Noire de Peuteret both show to extraordinary advantage. The descent from the col on to the Fresnay glacier does not appear to be difficult, although the rocks are sometimes steep and certainly rather rotten.
After a rest of an hour and a half we once more got under way and, climbing up the ridge in the direction of the Pic Eccles, mounted over a short pitch of steep rock followed by an ice slope where heavy step-cutting was essential. This slope landed us on another diminutive snowy plateau, over which we made our way in the direction of the spur of rocks forming the west ridge of the Pic Eccles, and on which, after crossing a bergschrund and cutting up an ice slope, we effected a lodgment. Just as my party gained the rocks, a loud clattering was heard from the slopes of Mont Brouillard. Quickly pulling out my camera from my coat pocket, I was in good time to take a photograph of one of the most gigantic stone-falls I have ever seen. For several minutes dense clouds of stone dust hung over the track of the avalanche, while many large blocks swept over the Brouillard Glacier, right across the line of ascent followed by the brothers Gugliermina on the occasion of their memorable crossing of the Col Émile Rey.
The Innominata from the Col du Fresnay.
Facing page 236.
After a brief halt, for the porters to close up, we commenced our assault on the rocks ahead. The climbing, though occasionally very steep, was not particularly difficult, despite the treacherous nature of the rock and the downward slope of its stratification. Incidentally, it may be remarked that, though unreliable, the rocks of the Pic Eccles were certainly the best encountered during the expedition. Taking the utmost care to avoid dislodging loose stones, which were sometimes of formidable size, we made our way up towards the summit of the Pic. When still some distance below it, however, Adolf led out to the left on the Brouillard side, and after some healthy passages across ice-filled gullies, we arrived in the Col Supérieur du Fresnay, without having actually passed over the top of the peak. The rocks on the Mont Blanc side of the col were gained at 2.30 p.m., and the several members of the party proceeded to select their couches for the night. It had been arranged that at this point two of the porters should return to the Gamba hut, but beyond depositing their loads, they made no attempt to move; indeed, they even threw out hints about preferring to stay with us till the following day. The polyglot imaginative eloquence of Adolf, however, soon persuaded them of the supreme folly of shivering in a bivouac when the seductive warmth and shelter of the hut were awaiting them. Their two companions were provided with blankets, as they were to remain the night and take down the sleeping-bags and excess kit on the morrow.
The Col Supérieur du Fresnay consists of a narrow snow ridge sloping off abruptly on one side to the Brouillard, and on the other to the Fresnay Glacier. To the east, beyond the Col Émile Rey we could see a snow summit, probably one of the summits of the Aiguilles de Trélatête. The height of our bivouac, therefore, must have been about 13,200 feet. The great south face of Mont Blanc falls away from the Brouillard ridge above, in slopes of broken rocks which finally merge into enormously steep, slabby precipices abutting on the Brouillard Glacier. The eye could follow the course of this glacier almost throughout its length. It is so grotesquely broken up that one wonders that it is possible to thread it. The uppermost basin, still untrodden, I believe, by human foot, and forming a little, almost level snowfield, is isolated by one or two formidable crevasses which cut right across the glacier from side to side. The west face of the Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret, composed almost wholly of dark grey rock unrelieved by scarcely a single speck of snow, looks practically inaccessible. The route of the late H. O. Jones,[15] led by Laurent Croux, looks difficult and desperately dangerous from falling stones. Formerly, the Col de Peuteret was, so Oliver tells me, a snow-saddle from which either the Peuteret ridge or the rocks of the Aiguille Blanche could be gained with comparative ease. Now, however, as a result of the huge avalanche which fell away from the Peuteret ridge and the col itself in November, 1920, the height of the latter has been considerably lowered, so that from our bivouac we could see beyond it right down to well below the summit of the Grand Flambeau. Great bergschrunds now bar direct access to either the Peuteret ridge or the Aiguille Blanche de Peuteret. From the lower rocks of the ridge itself much has fallen away, and they are now much steeper. Continual stone-falls, and the liberal traces left by them about the foot of the ridge, offered ample evidence of its present unstable condition.
It was impossible to find, or even make, a ledge which would accommodate the whole party; indeed, none proved wide enough to take more than one man, so that after each had selected his couch, we found ourselves well scattered over the mountain side. The two porters found a berth for themselves at the point where the snowy ridge of the col abuts on the rocks. My own sleeping place was a level stretch of rock and snow ridge slightly higher up on the Mont Blanc side of the col, and on the very backbone of the Innominata ridge. About three feet wide at the pillow end, but dwindling away to next door to nothing in the region of my feet, it had the advantage of length combined with the pleasant uncertainty as to which of the two glaciers, the Fresnay or the Brouillard, would have the honour of receiving my mortal remains should I lose my balance. The others deposited themselves on more or less inadequate ledges on the Brouillard side of the ridge. The nearest water supply was five minutes’ climbing distance down towards the Brouillard Glacier. On their journey back, skilfully balancing well-filled cooking vessels, Alfred and one of the porters (Henri Rey’s son) performed some choice feats of rock-climbing.