The Lacs Noir amongst the Aiguilles Rouge

The téléphérique from Plan Praz near Chamonix lifts you quickly up to nearly 1900m asl to La Flegère. Working on my fitness I walked from here up the piste to reach top of the Index chairlift. From here I was to descend for around 100m vertical before beginning the climb up a high, snow banked valley to reach the Col de la Glière. There had been warnings posted at the caisse where I bought my tickets - the advice for walkers was not to cross the Col because of snow but I wanted to check this out as I'm planning to walk this route next week with my group. I thought I'd walk up to the col and check out the problem but as it turned out the problem was before reaching the col.

Crossing the dodgy snow gully

Ahead of me I could see people picking their way carefully across a small snow gully. Without a rope for protection, crampons and an ice axe this can be a bit delicate. A slip will be hard to control and a fast slide will end up in rocks below. On the far side of this gully there were stanchioned hand rails where the path continued across steep rocks to the col. When I got up there I decided I didn't fancy the slippery snow and instead climbed above the snow to regain the path.

An icy Lac Noir in front of the Aiguille du Pouce

 After the excitement it was quickly to the col and then another 100m of up to get to the Lacs Noir which were ice filled and atmospheric below the rocky pinnacles of the mountains. The path slides onto the north side of the main ridge here to get to the next col from where a steep path zig-zags downwards. The views are magnificent and the path interesting once I'd lost a couple of hundred metres altitude. I chose the path advertised as 'steep' which followed a small subsidiary spur downwards through bilberries and little rocky knolls which framed a wonderful view of Mont Blanc and the Bossons Glacier cascading downwards towards Chamonix. 200 years ago this nearly reached the floor of the valley but it's melting back fast.

Mont Blanc and the receding Bossons Glacier

The Aiguille Vert and the Dru above some 'weeds'

This descent takes you back into areas of skiing detritus but not long after turning back towards La Flegère there's a turn, briefly uphill and then traversing a beautiful path.

Walkers silhouetted against Mont Blanc and Mont Maudit

 This path amongst mature conifers offers more of the fantastic panorama, southwards towards the high mountains. This is a pretty stunning walk.

 The distant Aiguille Vert nestled in cloud across the valley from the La Flegère path

Argentière

Argentière sits a few miles above Chamonix in the deep cleft of the vallée de l'Arve, below the highest mountains of the western Alps. I've come here to recce, then lead a week long walking holiday - day walks from a base in the village. I prefer Argentière to Chamonix; it's less busy, smaller, and was where I first came to begin my alpine mountaineering about 30 years ago.

I arrived on Sunday, greeted by 'beau temps', camped a night then headed yesterday up to Lac Blanc via the Aiguillette d'Argentière, a pinnacle of climbers' granite poised high above the village.

Back to Le Tour and the Aiguillette d'Argentiere

It's a steep walk, firstly shaded by conifers on a path which zig-zags up an 800m vertical height gain, to reach the traversing footpath below the Aiguilles Rouge. This followed by a further 400m upwards to the lake itself. I meet a couple of Israeli guys walking the Tour du Mont Blanc and we walked together - English our shared language. It was hot, even beneath the trees' welcoming shade, and by the time we climbed out above the tree line into the full power of the sun I was leaking sweat faster than I could drink. Around 1800m asl the path gets exciting as it traverses into the arena of the Aiguillette d'Argentière, from which the only escape for non-climbers is a series of ladders, ropes and stanchions. Up here the path winds a vertiginous route.

Ladders

Chamois and kid

Hereabouts the mountain chamois are accustomed to people and I passed several, nonchalant, perched near the path. Eventually, around 2100m the steep path joins the main popular route that reaches the Lac Blanc.

This section was very busy with walkers, queuing in places to use the wooden rungs fixed to aid the way over the steeper rocky slabs that bar the way to the lake. I don't much like these rungs, which can occasionally be wobbly, and the presence of queues of people above standing in loose scree makes me nervous. In the dry it seems preferable to trust to friction and wander up the clean rock just to the side.

The glacial troughs of the Argentiere Basin and the Mer de Glace enclose the Aiguille Vert

I didn't linger at Lac Blanc, beautiful though it is. In August the tourist hordes (I know I'm one of them) create a noisy massed picnic, harassed by flocks of Alpine Choughs for easy pickings. I preferred to return a little for my picnic, dropping down to find a much smaller pathway leading off the beaten track down to the Lacs de Cheserys.

Lacs de Cheserys

Alpine Newt

These lower lakes don't have the alpine majesty of Lac Blanc but are quieter. I dangled my feet in the cold water and watched an Alpine Newt swim past on a mission.

Perhaps the most obvious wonder of this walk is the view. The Aiguilles Rouge on which this walk lies face northwards to the grand peaks, the Aiguille du Chardonnet, Aiguille Vert, all the cluster of Chamonix Aiguilles and finally the remote white dome of Mont Blanc rise across the valley on a scale which is difficult to comprehend even as you gaze across.

Mont Blanc across the void

Aiguille Vert

The ranges are split by the wide gulfs of the Argentiere Glacier and the Mer de Glace, though these glaciers are visibly reduced since I was first here thanks to climate change. It's an inspired and mighty sight.

Climber between pinnacles on Aiguillette d'Argentiere

After a picnic by the Cheserys I plunged back down the ladders and into the woods, an hour and a half of rapid descent back to Argentière.

  

Back in the shade, but still high above Argentière