Col du Passon, France

The forecast was set to be fantastic and we planned to do another of the Chamonix classic one day routes - Col du Passon.

This involved getting the "Premiere Benne" all the way to top station.. with all the usual hanging around punctuated by intese activity.

From the to station we dropped down to the Gross Rongnon before droppign down to the glacier.

The descent route could be clearly seen as we went up the other side.

Putting on the skins and heading across the glacier to the other side... slightly lower than the route that goes up towards the col de Chardonnay ...  a route we would do the next year

The ascent starts with a diagonal climb tat works up the side of the valley until it is possible to reach a hanging glacier.

 Contouring around this bowl heading towards, what looks like an improbable gulley to ascend from this point.

Over the other side of the valley the lower part of the point de vue route and the return to the Lognan station was clearly visible.

 As we got around the bowl the gulley became more obvious, and it was possible to see the party in front of us making the ascent on foot.

 At the bottom of the gully we changed from skis to crampons and ice ax... One of the things that would become the nature of things through all our trips together ..  when it came to skis I would lead, but the steep ascents on foot were Bryon's forte, and I would struggle to do more than keep up.

The top was quite dis-appointing after the narrowness and the steepness of the gully itself. The top was flat an just a slight col with an easy gentle descent down the other side - in fact you would struggle to identify the top of the gully from here if you came up the other side.

 We stripped of the skins and locked down the bindings, and set off down towards Le Tour.

After dropping a few meters we could see up the glacier to wards the Trient glacier and again where we would go the next year.

The snow was perfect spring snow and the skiing was really very pleasant. We gradually dropped over the dip in front of us, picking a line to the left of the glacier.

At some point this got much steeper as we passed - without seeing- the seracs on the end of the glacier.

After this steep section things evened out a bit and we continued down on easier slopes as we became closer to the Vormaine ski runs.

There was still a few challenges left getting through the bushes in the bottom of the valley, but soon we were coasting to the voramine pistes and a welcome beer in the bar as we waited for the ski bis to take us back to the camp-site.

Our new boots had held up well again and we had proved then in some grade I climbing as well as skiing.

This would be our final route of the year as the next day the weather closed in again, and we headed home.