Well, it's been only a week since I was packing to leave Chamonix, but I am clearly missing the Alps. Randi's pictures got me excited about the Dolomites in 2020. Posting my 50 pictures to google docs got me reliving a glorious sunset from Auberge du Truc.
So, I pulled Rebuffat's ON SNOW, ICE, AND ROCK off my shelf, and flipped through all the great pictures of this famous Chamonix guide taken by Pierre Tairraz. Next, I pulled off the shelf the famous novel - FIRST ON THE ROPE - by Roger Frison-Roche about guiding in Chamonix in 1925. After re-reading the first several chapters, I remembered that it is quite a delightful book; it's still in print (link below), and I will zip through it in the next couple of days.
Frison-Roche captures the feel of these special mountains, and describes dozens of settings that will ring a bell for anyone having spent time hiking, climbing, or skiing in Chamonix. For instance, I was reminded early on in the novel, about the seracs which collapse, and the avalanches that pour down the gullies around the Red Sentinel on the Italian face of Mont Blanc. What was I thinking in the 1970s when I soloed that route!
Hoping to be back next summer
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