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