Alpine heatwave ends
The first cloud and snow for 3 weeks
on the Aiguille du Gouter, Chamonix
It's been great for the suntan but you can have too much of a good thing. The searingly hot weather of the past 3 weeks has finally come to an end.
Since late June, temperatures have been inexorably on the rise with freezing levels consistently above 4000m and sometimes even higher than that. The result? The fantastic snow conditions we had in late June have been destroyed with everything turning icier by the day, and rockfall getting to levels last seen in the drought year of 2003. There were even rumours (unfounded) that the Gouter hut was going to close as it did in that infamous year. Many guides have been avoiding the Gouter route on Mont Blanc with stonefall in the Grand Couloir being unacceptable.
Luckily I've been away in Switzerland with the ability to choose to go on rocky ridges, so life has been quiet and stress free! Stay tuned for a batch of photos from a productive July when I get a break in the first week of August