We wanted to go up Aguille du Midi on Monday to do the Cosmiques Arete. The weather forecast was not to good, but turned out to be worse. No lifts all morning. Instead we went up to the Index, but we were surprised by an thunderstorm, so no lifts down. We hiked down and went back to the Midi lift station. To our surprise the lift did go up all the way now. It was a proper storm up the Midi with loads of fresh snow. Q and I intended to do some glacier strolling but we teamed up with two British guys for some climbing. The descent down the platform wasn’t particulary good, with no visibility and fresh snow..first tracks down the midi arete 3800m at 14.00h..

When the clouds broke for a second we could see the route and the couloir that meant cutting half the route, so saving time. Because of the time and conditions we decided to go up the couloir. Very fine ice runnels going up. On arete itself we found perfect mixed conditions, covered by a layer of powder snow. We finished it in time for the last lift down.

Guidebook used:
Mont Blanc Massif: Selected Climbs: Col De Berangere - Col Du Geant v. 1

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