Wednesday 14 November 2007

Le Petit Balcon Sud

On Sunday Tinks and I decided to have a wander through the forest and up to the Petit Balcon Sud (the small southern balcony). It's an area that sits on the southern side of the Aiguilles Rouges - the chain of peaks that rises up as the northern wall of the Chamonix valley but higher up the valley than Chamonix itself.

It was beautiful - snow in the forest and clouds hanging in the valley. It was a spectacular walk meandering through the trees and looking around at the trails of wildlife in the new snow and looking down at the valley. Luckily the clouds cleared as we approached the highest point of the walk and we saw all the way up to the highest peaks of the Mont Blanc Massif on the southern side of the valley.

The most incredible views shifted in and out of view of the clouds and happily I had my camera to snap a couple of photos. One of the most incredible things was to stand there with Tinks and point at and name the various peaks that stood proud and majestic out of the clouds. We were both speechless at points though and just stood there together in the snow looking at the mountains with the awe-inspiring, amazing views sink in. To top it all off, there was high wind at altitude creating spiralling vortices of cloud on the lee side of the peaks.

The Aiguille Vert (left) and Les Drus (right)


The Aiguille d'Argentiere