Aoste and Mt Blanc

What a splendid day that was!We launched around 1100 and went up towards Grenoble to check out the Vercors but the cloudbase was low there, so instead we went out to Seyne and North from there.

It was fairly

straightforward running past Siguret and up over the Vars to Bardonnechia where we thought at first that the cloudbase wasn't going to let us get much further. However, once we crossed Sollieres and hooked a climb on the far side of that valley things ahead looked a little better so we persevered. We didn't quite get to the Gran Paradiso but instead ran down the spur leading to Aoste and then turned left over the Petit St Bernard pass onto the lower slopes of Mt Blanc where cloudbase was a respectable 12,500'. There was a little wobble on the way home when we dillydallyed in some weak climbs near Bardonecchia rather than pushing on to Briancon where in the end we found a nice 7kt climb. We ran home over the Ecrins and into the Gap valley where it was black and gloomy with a monster CuNim sat over Sisteron. Fortunately we were able to just put the hammer down and run straight home to Serres which was still bathed in sunshine. What a super trip to end Mike Collett and Booker's Duo 315's stay - he had a really good run round with Ben Crook.