Chamonix

The team were dropping fast today. Cockeye Flewett and Mark Holden both left for home after the briefing, Steve Ell had problems with a leaking oxygen system and Andy Holmes was keen to fly on his own so it was down to just me, Dan Pitman and Dane Dickinson to keep the side up. We headed North with some better climbs than yesterday but more humidity around, so by the time we popped into the Sollieres valley we decided to fly with the lower bases out to the West. So we had a nice little cruise past Albertville, Megeve and across to Les Houches before moving onto the slopes of Mt Blanc. There's something about mountains - the crags, the icefields, the grandeur -that's captivating so once more the camera was working overtime. We ran up the Chamonix valley, taking care to avoid the cables on the Aiguille du Midi cable car, climbed over the Mer de Glace and stuck our noses into Switzerland before turning for home. The ridges facing West were still being blasted with sunshine so worked just fine and we had a fairly straightforward run home. Dane wanted to top things up to yet another 500km flight so we turned Serres and ran a street up to the Vercors and town of Die. Then it was home for smokers and derigs. I think that's me done for another year.