Rob and Dominic, young bloods, arrived hot for action. The proposed day on the Petite Bargy slabs was cancelled due to rain. It cleared up a little by eleven am but then it came back cloudy at two pm. Unfortunately no climbing.
Next morning, taking a very early cable car, I climbed the left-hand ridge & the continuation face of the Petite Verte with Rob & Dominic. Black ice on this steep little north face made it possibly the most difficult and serious route of the season, even though it was only the Petite Verte.
For more acclimatising, we traversed of the Aiguille Crochures and afterwards went down to the Guides Crag and did full crevasse rescue training.
With a suspect weather forecast next morning, we went back to the Guides Crag and I did lots of rock climbing with Rob & Dominic, these two young climbers finding out exactly what is entailed in climbing very steep rock.
Much improved weather now, so we made a rapid and enjoyable ascent of the Cosmiques Arete in less than three hours. Possibly the best route so far for Rob & Dominic
The next morning, I climbed the Left Edge on the Triangle du Tacul again, but now with Rob and Dominic in just under three and a half hours to the summit of Mont Blanc du Tacul, reaching the high point just as the predicted storm started. It was however, around three hours earlier than expected. We descended to the Col du Midi in driving snow, bad winds and hail, but had no problems in reaching the Midi summit and cable car.
It was the last day for the lads but they left happy with their week and determined to do more alpine climbing next year, maybe also in Scotland with me in winter.
The resulting snowfall that morning was, twenty four hours later, to cause the deaths of eight people, when a serac falling onto the new snow sent a huge avalanche down the Tacul, this all at three am just as the Mont Blanc climbers were on their first stage. The bodies will unfortunately not be recovered as the seracs are still deemed too dangerous.