Monday:-
After a rather sleepless night I repacked 3 or 4 times and left the house at around 10:30, after another hour or so of trying to cram everything in the car we set off for Dover...
Fairly smooth drive to Dover aided by listening to old podcasts of Ricky Gervais, Steve Merchant and Karl Pilkington...
Wasn't too impressed with Dover, bit of a grotty town... The ferry was rather boring to say the least, which resulted in a game of 'Bogies' and many confused Europeans.
We drove into the night, getting more and more tired to the point of almost running a red light with a police car behind us. On the way, and while trying to find somewhere to sleep, we came across a humbling sight which kind of put my worries into perspective.
Eventually we stopped at the side of the road and I managed to get 3 or 4 hours sleep by the side of the car. Sam couldn't get to sleep....
Tuesday:-
We started driving at around 6:30 and drove for most of the day, down through Dijon and on toward Geneva. This took quite a while due to tiredness and trying to navigate away from the toll roads, not helped by the crappy French road signs.
After a few short stops + a power nap, we swapped driving turns a few times and eventually hit Geneva while Sam was driving. A very nice city but I was unable to appreciate it at the time, however the motorcyclists there are suicidal...
We finally made it through Chamonix and to Argentiere at around 21:00 and set up camp, ate and collapsed.
Weds:-
Fairly quiet day, chilled out, ate, went for a wander around Arg. and was very impressed with the French supermarkets :)
Thurs:-
First route of the trip, we headed out at around 8 to La Paz and I bought a 10 day non-consecutive lift pass. WE then got the cable car and a ski lift up to L'Index on the Aguille Rouges, and walked up to do the Aiguille Crochues Traverse - 9317ft/2840m above the valley floor.
A great route, a long ridge scramble above exposed ground. Noticed the altitude a tiny bit on the plod up, and were greeted at the start of the climb by a big poo someone had left. Thanks.
Met a few other brits on the climb and the clouds eventually cleared. then had dodgy descent down a loose gully and lots of nasty scree. Enjoyed this at first but my right knee started getting achier and achier...We made it to the lift back down for around 16:00 and then jumped on the lift to the top of the Aguille Du Midi before the last return.
A very impressive place to be standing. 3842m/12604ft. It was really strange being so high up on one side of the valley earlier in the day and seeing this remote high place in the distance, and then in the same day being on top of it looking down on the route we did that morning.
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Lots of tourists and climbers up there, and got my first glimpse of the snow ridge which looks very intimidating. Also got my first big taste of the affect on oxygen up there, combined with tiredness of the day I felt pretty ill.
Friday (today):-
Woke up to continued knee pain so I've had a day of doing nothing much. Finally got round to sorting out some of the recent photos, tidied around camp and then now I'm sat here typing this.. I'm a bit concerned about the knee pain, which I think is connected to the on going problems I've had with my right leg for almost a year now since a bad sprain when I had a short fall climbing. Trying not to let it worry me too much, as climbing and hiking aren't the only things to do her nor the only reasons for this trip. It's be really easy to beat myself up about it, and I'm trying not to feel too pressured to get up on climbs and routes with Sam or the other guys when the arrive, so we'll see how things go.
That's all for now, ended up typing a lot more than I intended and my battery is about to go. It's a shame, it's quite nice sat here on street in the sun :)
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