Monday
morning brought perfect weather. It took about three hours to
climb to Refuge de l'Aiguille du Goûter. It was mostly rock
scrambling, but required crampons in a few places due to the melting
and re-freezing of autumn snows. Security cables were fixed in
the more difficult and exposed sections.
Along the way, we met up with an Australian guy named Trevor.
He worked in Prague as an accountant and was on vacation attempting
a solo ascent. We considered asking him to join us on our rope,
but reconsidered when we found out that this was his first time
on crampons. We never did find out if he made the summit.
The
refuge was equipped to handle 150 climbers, but has been known
to house up to 300 climbers in the peak of climbing season. There
were probably 100 or so up there with us including a French Army
contingent.