Alpine Logistics

We woke up to the magnificent site of the Grandes Jorasses and Monte Bianco basking in the sun above Val Ferret. What a glorious day.

We were both tired from the previous day’s efforts on Gran Paradiso, so we chose a short walk in the near-by Val Veny, which runs beneath the imposing south west side of the Monte Bianco Massif.

This part of the mountain is guarded by steep seraced glaciers ending abruptly above vertical drops in the underlying granite bedrock. It is home to some of the massif’s most serious alpine undertakings: Pilone Centrale, Integrale del Peuterey, Divine Providence and many more. These various ridges, peaks and faces came into sight as we walked west towards Col de la Seinge and the French border.

At the beautiful turquoise waters of Lake Combal we deviated south and followed the Tour du Mont Blanc up a side valley for a short stretch, passing a couple of people with big packs and a slow plodding pace. I looked down the valley towards Val Ferret and the Swiss border and thought how exciting it must be for them to known they’re going to pass through all these beautiful areas under their own steam.

We soon left the TMB, crossed a small stream and began a steep climb up the side of Mont Fortin. Many zigzags and a few snow patches later we reached the top. This mountain gives superb views onto the Monte Bianco massif, into France to the west and Switzerland to the east. Gran Paradiso, the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa were all visible to the south. From the summit it feels like you could reach out and touch the mountains on a clear day like today.

Exhilarated we descended back down through the green, flower-strewn meadows in the valley. What a contrast to the spectacular, barren world of rock and ice sitting above us.

Monte Bianco is famous because it’s western Europe’s highest mountain, but it’s also the birth place of alpinism and a spectacular fortress of snow fields, glaciers and jagged rock formations that have withstood hundreds of thousands of years of battering by the sun, wind, rain, snow, glaciations, global warming…it really does give a great sense of power and magnificence. There is a life time’s worth of climbing to do here: no climber can ignore the call of Monte Bianco’s red granite spires and exposed ridges. I imagined what it must be like to be perched up there somewhere looking down at these green valleys with running water and teaming with life. Lonely and vulnerable to the elements but very privileged.