Aiguille Crochues Epic

On one of the days we were waiting for the weather to clear again we decided to go up to the Aiguille Crochues and do some climbing there. We learned an important lesson. Don't take advice from strangers on the hills! We got to the bottom of the route just as it began to rain. And thats when the fun started....

One of the party, Diarmuid, got hit in the knee by a rock and started to bleed. We couldn't climb because of the rain so we tended to him first. Penny and Kieran are putting on the dressing while I keep the rain off him with a bivvy bag. (it was a small cut, but you could be forgiven for thinking we were carrying out a field amputation from the photo. Diarmuid, the girl's blouse, wouldn't let us amputate.)

With the route wet we decided to skip the climb and go for a hike instead. A Frenchman we met suggested we go down the right side of this valley, back up the next one and over a col into the Chamonix valley. 3-4 hours walking with about 200m of climbing he said. Fair enough we said.

Eight and a half hours later, after over 700m of descent and then ascent, most of it done in a downpour, we staggered back to civilization. We had stopped briefly at a hut where the guardian agreed it was enough of an emergency that we could use her phone to call for a pick up. She couldn't believe where we had come from and the hut residents came out to have a laugh at us as we headed off on the last hours hike to the road. This is us bedraggled waiting for a lift at Bruet.