Cheilon adventure yesterday. After a comfy night at the Cabane des Dix we made an early start for the normal route. There's still lots of snow, but a good freeze overnight meant fast progress and we reached the Col de Cheilon at dawn.
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The rocky scrambling up the ridge is dry and soon we were putting crampons on again for the steep snow above. Although there's lots of snow lower down, the steep slopes up here are getting quite icy and delicate already. The final ridge is still snowy, with some big old cornices, and we kept crampons on to the summit.
.jpg "The steep step to reach the summit")
.jpg "Mont Blanc de Cheilon summit")
As it was still early and we were moving fast, we decided to continue along the traverse of the summit ridge. Excellent, airy climbing with huge exposure down the north face. The traverse works well in either direction but going anti-clockwise means there's some time pressure - the snow descent is sunny, and heating up fast!
.jpg "Fine views East to the Matterhorn and Monta Rosa, and teams on the Pigne traverse")
.jpg "Airy climbing on the traverse")
.jpg "Climbing the pinnacles, halfway along the ridge")
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.jpg "Back on snow, all the difficulties behind us - or in front if you're going the conventional way!")
As expected, the descent was a bit soft at first, but soon improved as we turned back onto the shady aspect. A fine day, and a great effort from Bloxham School climbers - good luck with your A level results!
