Wednesday 19 august
Attempt Petit Aiguille Verte from the Grand Montets Chair lift
Descend the steps and you are in a small compound roped off from the main glacier. There was no snow on the glacier, so we started off up a steep ice slope of hard water ice.
Trying to get the pick in was difficult. When the gradient steepened yet again, we decided this was not the climb we had come to do ( a beginners facile) and turned back.
Several other parties also turned back, and others were struggling on, taking much longer than expected to progress.
We watched parties abseiling back down what again should be a simple descent, and estimated that they must have taken about 6 hours instead of 2 for the trip.
So we went for lunch in Argentiere and revelled in the weather forecast which said ‘persistent scorching heat’
not at home 