‘It’s always nice to relax after a route and prepeare yourself mentally while snuggled in your tent in the early evening. Train of thought gone: what was that crack, thud! And why is everyone looking our way. Let’s just ignore it, probably stonefall. Got to get up in a few hours anyway.’
And so we did. After a leisurely evening and half decent nights sleep we dragged ourselves out of the tent at 2am to begin the trudge up Mont Blanc. We new that it was just going to be an inane slog all the way, but I kind of like that sort of thing. There’s something about just switching off all unnecessary parts of the brain and just getting on with it.
The crux section on Mont Maudit was longer and more technical than expected, but after a lengthy wait in the long queue and with cold feet, we got on with it and carried on towards the summit of Mont Blanc. Although we were clearly moving slow because of the altitude, we were certainly making good progress. We summited in about 5 1/2 hrs if I remember correctly. A personal best for Sam and a satisfying time for me. On top we bumped into Tom and Jason, our friends from the campsite, purely out of chance.
And so began the descent. A fairly swift one which saw us back at the tent in good time. It also revealed the crevasse that had opened up between the fly sheet and inner! So that’s what the noise was yesterday! It looked as though our tent was holding the glacier together! Anyway, time to head back down to civilization and get a beer.
