Fresh from our ‘warm’ time in Italy we decided that the mountains were the only place that would be any good. This was confirmed by our view of the Argentiere icefalls from our little balcony – each day a new bit had fallen off one of the routes. On out last visit all the continenetal climbers skied in to the routes with little rucsacs (and in usually very trendy gear) and it all looked rather easy. We decided to do the same (but without the small rucsacs and trendy gear). Another slight twist is that I can’t ski that well and in any case ski-ing with a large rucsac is next to impossible. Mmmm … good idea??
Enough said about the approach apart from the fact that I neither fell down the North Face of the Midi nor came to grief on the icy crevassed slopes that led to the bpttom of our route – the Pelissier Gully on Point Lachenal. Not a big alpine route (350m) but it did have a repuation for quality. Greta choice and lovely. Some nice icy pitches to start and then it opened up into a nice big sunny (!) groove with some excellent Severe(-ish) rock climbing in crampons and then another 2 or 3 pitches of snow to the top.
wimpyalpinism 
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