With
breakfast at 0700 we got ready to descend and return back to the lodge in
Argentiere. What was a surprise was that during the night we had received
20-ish (?) cm of snow. That instantly made me worry about climbing down the
rocky ridge as I assumed it would be making it slippery and harder to see the
outline of the rocks and therefore where the stable footing would be. It turned
out I was wrong; despite several groups had already been down the ridge there
was still plenty of snow and easily enough to get a much better grip than when
we were climbing.
Climbing
down therefore ended up being easier than I had expected. It was still a major
technical challenge but the addition of the snow made it easier, and despite
the overall challenge the descent was surprisingly unproblematic. What also
made it easier was visibility was down to 50-100m so it was impossible to see
far down.
Shortly
before reaching Tête-Rousse we once again came to the Grand Couloir. Gill and
Didier were a couple of minutes ahead of us (Jon, Sara and I) who were taking a
short break shortly before the couloir on a plateau that was angled so we
couldn’t see the crossing. But we did hear a sudden commotion and shouting from
below, but it got quiet again before we started moving.
We
reached Tête-Rousse at around 1015, app 2:15 after departure. We met up with
Didier and Gill and asked them if they had seen anything. Apparently they had
been next in line when a group of 3 were crossing, without having secured
themselves on the wire there. Suddenly a ball app. 1-2 meters across consisting
of snow, ice and rocks came rolling down towards them. They naturally starting
running, the guy in the back slipped off of the path but was caught by the rope
between them, got a grip on the slope and continued moving parallel with the
path now above him. The ball had started slowing down due to the fresh snow
(the snow should statistically have made the crossing safer) and passed by them
within arm’s reach. Didier said that when he and Gill crossed he had never seen
her most so fast. But who can blame her?
After a
couple of minutes break we continued downwards to the train. Instead of
following the path we took on the way up we went down on the glaciers instead
which meant that we could descend by sitting down and sliding, and only close
to the station we were back on the rocky path. This took around an hour before
we arrived back at the train. It was also here I witnessed the most painful
view on the trip; a guy in another group taking out his camera bag, lifting out
the camera and tipping the bag and watching water pour out. There was such a
painful expression on his face.
We took
the train down, continued down with the cable car and drove back to the chalet
in Argentiere where the trip officially ended. We spent a couple of hours in
Chamonix and in the evening back at the chalet we celebrated Gill’s 60-year
birthday.
On the way up to Tête-Rousse Sara was playing here flute with regular intervals when walking, but we didn't hear it again until this break on the way down again. This was the break where we heard the commotion from the Grand Couloir.
The group back at the train; Didier, Sara, Gill, me and Jon.
A picture of the Grand Couloir with how it looks and where to cross. Not a happy place if something suddenly wants to move around near the top...
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