The plan for the day had been to start off early from
Chamonix, and travel up on the 6:00 a.m. cable car up the Aiguille du
Midi. This is a special service which is run specifically for climbers
during the appropriate season. We therefore reached the cable station at
5:30 a.m. to avoid too large queues, however at 6:00 a.m. were told that
the cable car would not be running until 8:00 a.m. because of snow at the
top station. We therefore went back to bed for an hour and had a coffe and
cake for breakfast before returning to the cable station.
Mont Blanc du Tacul from the Aiguille du Midi
Al at the summit of Mont Blanc du Tacul
This time we were more lucky, and go to the top at approximately
10:00 a.m. We planned to tackle the North West face of Mont Blanc du
Tacul. This is a PD route for which the guide book gives a recommended
time of 2.5 hours for ascent and 1.5 hours for descent. From the look of
the slope it was clear why there are warnings about it being prone to
avalanche, however the conditions were favourable for us, with some
cloud as we left the Aiguille du Midi. Because it was only a half day
out we travelled extra light, with only one sack, a thin rope and
personal equipment between us.
We descended the snow slope from the Aiguille du Midi cable car
station on to the Vallee Blanche, and from here we headed across past
the Cosmiques refuge to the Col du Midi, from where earlier in the week
we had headed off leftwards to la Tour Ronde. This time however we
carried on across the col to the slope which can be seen to the right of
the second rocky ridge seen in the photograph above. There were only a
few crevasses on the route, and we made good timing up the slope, for
the first time during the holiday feeling quite fit. Part way up the
slope another group commented on the thickness of the `rope` we were
using, referring to it as a bit off Mum's washing line! We paused
part way up to slope to find gloves as the weather was starting to turn,
with the wind picking up. By the time we reached the top of the snow
slope the wind was strong and blowing the snow up so we made use of the
glacier goggles to make seeing easier.
It was quite a gentle walk Eastwards from the top of the snow slope to the
summit rock of Mont Blanc du Tacul, however the wind and snow made it hard
work. We climbed the final rocky section to the summit of Mont Blanc du Tacul.
This was noticably sheltered, especially when compared to the the open ground
we had just walked across. We reached the top in just under 2.5 hours and were
pleased with our timing. We only stopped at the top briefly, and started our
descent rapidly, but carefully on account of the conditions. The walk down was
not too pleasant to begin with, however once we got out of the wind it was OK
again. On the descent it was noticable that the snow was becoming softer
during the day. From the Col du Midi there was just the slog up to the
Aiguille du Midi left, and this is noticably hard work at the end of a day
out. It made me realise why we had chosen to walk to Helbronner after our
first outing, rather than walking back along the Vallee Blanche!
