When we eventually got some fine weather we seized the opportunity to complete one of the routes I’d fancied the idea of for a long while, the Papillons Ridge. This is an appealing ridge line clearly visible from the Aiguille Rouge and most of Chamonix centre. It goes on and on, as almost every alpine route seems to, for far longer than you first think. We even had ideas of continuing to the top of Aiguille du Peigne. But, starting a bit later than we should have done, plus it being our first trip to any altitude to remark upon, combined to leave us with no chance of the summit. After completing the route and abseiling to the top of the Glacier des Pélerins moraine we had to run (there was no way I was going to walk down to the valley!!) back to the Plan de l’Aiguille téléphérique station just making the last lift down to Chamonix.
On the route, the only other people we met were a pair from the US. They told us that they had been in Chamonix since the 31st of July, and it had rained every day! It turned out that they were a guide and client team. The client had climbed far and wide (US, Chamonix – their third trip, Alaska, and New Zealand) with this particular guide and said that employing a guide allowed all sorts of climbing to get done but without the personal risk. When I asked where the client was staying in Chamonix through all that rainy weather (thinking how miserable I had been after just one week in a tent). The reply was, in a hotel. Nice. Here was my first experience of the ‘rich American climber’! Hotel, guide and world wide climbing, all for two (guides don’t pay their own airfare) and with no personal risk…