Earlier this week I climbed the Contamine-Mazeaud straight up the centre of the Tacul triangle. The guidebooks state that this mixed route is almost always in condition and it proved to be a good choice in current conditions. I’ve marked the route in red on the following picture – route finding doesn’t get much easier.
The ice and snow improved in quality with height allowing us to move together quickly on the large central snow field and getting us back at the Aiguille du Midi for 4 and down in Chamonix for tea – a major motivating factor after a cold, unplanned bivi in the Midi station last week.
The weather is still good in Chamonix at the moment although autumn is clearly around the corner with cooler mornings and evenings. The current good spell is due to break on Tuesday or Wednesday next week so I’d better get some more climbing done….
