Smiler Cuthbertson - Mountain Guide

My intrepid team of Bill and Ian arrived for hopefully bigger and more important climbs this season. The first day was for acclimatising, so we did the Goedfrey Perroux route on the Index. We reached the summit just before a short, sharp, rain shower, but after descending, and with the sun now out, we went to the Guides Crag for some useful crevasse rescue training.
Although not yet fully acclimatised but very fit, the boys felt keen, so we went to the Albert Premier hut for a big Chardonnet route, assisted by Henri.
We had a great day on the Forbes Arete. It took the usual guidebook time of six hrs to the summit but a ferocious and unexpected storm caught us there and it continued for the most of the descent. With the abseils, and in very poor conditions and visibility, we took six hours to get down the normal route and back to the hut. Missing the last cable car from the Col du Balme left us with a tiring walk direct down to Le Tour.

A much needed day off after our great day, despite the storm, on the Forbes Arete. Bill & Ian were already talking of more climbing in 2009 with me.
The day off turned into a rock day on Flegere. We did Modern Times on the Contrefort du Gliere, with Henri along for fun, and then we finished the day off without Henri, doing a rapid ascent of Athena in fifty six minutes, sacks to sacks. In retrospect this day would have been better used for our final big project, the Bionnassey Arete but that is hindsight.
With now only two days left now for the Bionnassey instead of three, we had not now time to traverse the Dome du Miage to the Durier Hut, the next day intending to go along the famous traverse and over Mt Blanc to the Midi, as planned. So with Henri dictating a good plan, we hired a four by four Toyota from La Fayet which took us up a less well known track to the Miage Chalets, this normally a six hour walk otherwise. From the Chalets we trekked and climbed up to the refuge called Plan Maison. After a good rest and food there, we then continued up steep and loose ground on a rocky ridge, to the Durier Hut. There we met up with a French guide Rene, and his client ome n.
The team was now Henri, Bill, Ian, Rene, Allan and myself, three pairs of two for the Bionassey Arete. We all had a good night and great company in the bivouac hut. There was no guardian stationed there at this time.

Nextr morning, in the early hours, some lovely rock scrambling and climbing took us to the summit of this lofty peak in around four hours. We descended to the superb Bionnassey Arete, and then climbed carefully along the icy knife-edged ridge for over a kilometre to the Col du Italians, then climbing more easily along and up to the Dome du Gouter. All this taking around seven hours from the Durier Hut.
A difficult decision had to be made at the top of the Dome du Gouter. It was a minimum of three hours to the Mont Blanc summit and then possibly three or four hours back to the Cosmiques Hut. With another maybe one and a half hours up to the Midi summit, another night in a hut on the mountains was a virtual certainty.
Ian and I, with the same important plane to catch the following midday from Geneva, decided not to risk possibly missing this crucial plane to Liverpool and so we turned for the Gouter Hut and a sure train ride to the valley.
Bill, whose own plane left much later the next day, wanted to carry on, so Henri and he, with Rene and Allan, went on over Mont Blanc, taking the predicted three hours to the summit and then five more down to the Cosmiques hut, where, not being as fast as Rene & Allan, and on hearing the loud speaker announcement for the final lift down, Henri & Bill realised they would miss this final cable car down so they stayed the night in the refuge.

While Ian and I packed and prepared for a ten-thirty departure from Argentiere, Henri & Bill got away very early from the Cosmiques Hut and climbed to the top of Midi, in time to catch the first lift down, and just in time to allow Bill to join us for the car journey to Geneva.
Ian and I left Bill to relax and catch some sleep in Geneva airport, and we caught our plane to Liverpool where our two important functions were not complicated. Mine, an important Climbers’ Club meeting in Llanberis. After the evening meeting, I was back in New Brighton at my in laws by one thirty in the morning.
Next, more trains and planes, flying back to Geneva the following afternoon and driving to Argentiere to reaching my apartment at seven pm. Quite an episode of climbing and travel.

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.