Excellent atmospheric days mountaineering around the Aiguille du Midi with big clouds rolling over in strong Foehn winds from the Southern Aosta Valley. Not a time to be stuck on a big route with a really bad forecast for tomorrow with heavy rain and snow above C. 2800m. This could herald the arrival of an autumn feel to the mountains as it has remained distinctly ‘late summer’ until now.
Lots of teams were enjoying the good snow conditions with tracks going over to Pt Lachenal, Col du Plan, Mont Blanc du Tacul, Cosmiques Arete and over to the Italian side and Punta Hellbroner. Whilst the South face of the Midi was stripped clear of snow, some of the shadier parts of the crag were still snowy from recent storms.
There was a set of tracks topping out on the Frendo Spur, left of Rognon finish, which must be getting pretty icy now. Things may well appear a lot snowier when the clouds part on the high mountains again after the next few days of cool and wet weather.