Off on an overnight adventure...

...if you click for a larger image, I've roughly marked our route. I took this shot part way down the Vallee Blanche on our way from the Aiguille du Midi to the Couvercle Refuge and a night in the mountains. The pink marks our initial skin to the hut - roughly in the red circle. The green dashes are more or less our route up the morning after, the blue dot our approximate furthest point and the red dot our original goal - the Pointe Isabelle.

To get to our initial skinning point we decided on a cruise off the shoulder of the Gros Rognon rather than following the tourist route down. Not a great decision as there was some rapidly transforming and fairly heavy snow - pretty tough with the extra weight we were carrying for the trip.

Christine, Vanessa and myself start the initial plod across the Glacier de Leschaux, with the Combe Lachenal and the Flegere area way off behind. Thanks to Tony and Karl for some of the photos.

Looking towards the first real climb. You can just make out two people ahead in the obvious wide couloir (on the right diagonal section). Some of the guides and maps indicate the approach to be up the moraine slope further to the right. We didn't like the look of some of the debris being spat out from a couple of places in the couloir and opted for the scramble up the moraine.

As the snow runs out its time for the scramble. Tony had to get the rope out not far above this point to help Vanessa and Christine out of a hole - a nice crack that stretched right from them to where I was standing...

...while we were faffing about Karl, who'd been on a tour up the Glacier des Periades with Norma, was catching us up rapidly and watching our slow progress - he opted for the couloir.

We were definitely a little late in tackling the ascent to the hut - could blame the new booking system for the Aiguille Midi, so I will! The scramble through the moraine wasn't so bad in the end - but there was probably as much stuff being spat out as in the couloir.

Next we had to get across this slope fairly quickly - with the temperatures still high a couple of the snowy slopes above to the right gave cause for concern. Even a small slide could knock you off your feet and back over the moraine to our left - it was time to keep some distance between ourselves.

Not much skinning and the skis were back on the pack for an easier hike.

Some of the guide books do have this as part of the approach to the hut - but just down to our left we could have dropped into the last traverse out of the couloir and avoided the walk. Not wanting to run the gauntlet across the couloir - we stuck to our guns and the route.

You can see Karl in the bottom right of this shot - he was already clear of the couloir and onto the final climb to the hut. Regardless of the fact that Karl is pretty quick, its clear that alternating between skinning and boot-packing and all the faffing that entails eats a lot of time...

Above Karl you can actually see two huts, the larger on the left is the summer refuge - still closed up for winter and the other, nestled under a large slab of rock, is the much smaller winter refuge.

Great view looking back - the guys are now on the Talefre Glacier. Dominating behind; the North faces of the Grandes Jorasses, with the Glacier du Mont Mallet coming in from the right - feeding into the Leschaux that in turn eventually joins the Glacier du Tacul forming the Mer de Glace.

To the hut finally - messing around through the moraine had really cost some time - but, as ever, we weren't the last up. The winter hut sleeps around twenty and to our surprise it was more or less full.

You can see Karl heading off in the left side of the shot - sussing out departure options for the morning. I believe the Pointe Isabelle is just to the right of the snowy Plateau de Triolet in the upper centre of the photo.

I wouldn't say we were highly organised, but we made sure to bring just enough - I provided the stove and fuel while Christine, Vanessa and Tony brought most of the food - but big thanks to Karl for the tuna - God, I hate tuna!!

Joys of a decent zoom. A great view of the Dent du Geant behind the Aiguille du Tacul as the sun sets.

Back down onto the Glacier de Talefre and time to put the skins on once more.

A cool breeze was blowing from above and it didn't take long for us to cool down while sorting out the rope. With cold hands and concentration needed I didn't take too many shots through the crevasses...

An hour or so later and we're approaching the final 'skin-able' section, which is pretty much directly above me.

The classic route up is actually just out of shot to the left, but as the glacier has changed over time the better guide books recommend the ridge running diagonally above us to the left.

Tony and Vanessa are just about to turn right and the final approach to the ridge, but directly ahead you can see the original approach. Apparently you can still ski back this way, with a rappel over the dodgy areas. But as we didn't make it on to the plateau above we didn't need to decide which way to come down...

With less mountaineering experience - Karl, Vanessa and myself opt for crampons. Its almost 10.30 - but in the shade its still cool enough for Karl to have his down jacket and gloves on.

Although the snow was in good condition we felt exposed enough to feel no shame in letting Tony belay us!

Christine opted out of coming up the ridge - not a bad choice as the sun soon arrived on the spot were we'd left her and our skis.

From where Tony took this shot we decided to head back down - breaking trail was costing time and it was still a ways to the Plateau de Triolet. The guide book indicated at least another hour after that if we wanted to make it to the Pointe Isabelle and back to the Plateau.

Time for a little skiing. I could lie and talk of great conditions - breakable crust was the order of the day unfortunately...

...still, Karl and Christine don't seem to be having much trouble.

Lower down and we find some better conditions - Karl just heading into a nicely consolidated pitch. You can see he's just above some seracs that pretty much stretched along the whole right hand side of the pitch.

As I dropped in I opted for some big turns - which I quickly reined in as I got flashes of icy nastiness in my vision just before going into my left turns!

The extra weight was a joy as we tackled the exit couloir and general rock dodge...

...a Swiss couple just behind us narrowly missed being clobbered by one small boulder being spat out in the afternoon heat.

This is the way Karl came in the day before - almost at exactly the same time as we came back down. I wonder which is the best way in, I suspect its a matter of appropriate timing.