~ Thursday 16th May 2013
Another trip up the Aiguille du Midi...Plan A was to climb the Cosmiques Arete but, with a strong and acclimatised team, I decided to start up the Arete a Laurence below the Cosmiques hut. Plastered in snow, this is a nice warm-up and gave us a great and quiet climb up to a coffee stop in the hut.
Thinking I'd been clever by leaving time for the inevitable Cosmiques abseil bottleneck to clear I was a little surprised to find the team we'd followed out of the lift 2 hours earlier still trying to rig their ropes...surprise turned to disbelief after watching for an hour...and finally to a resigned U-turn and retreat for us. Good luck to the rest of you...did you make the last lift?
