Summer's here...valley cragging in the sun

Taking advantage of the recent lovely weather and the snow melt in the valley, there have been some great days of cragging to be had. I've never rock climbed that much around Chamonix or the surrounding valleys and have had my first taste over the past week or two. After a winter spent in big boots and skis it's taken a little longer than last year to start finding my feet again and also to realise that my rock shoes haven't in fact shrunk since last November!! After cragging at several single pitch locations I headed up to Montenvers with Martin yesterday and we dropped down to a four pitch route that started near to the lower part of the Mer de Glace, at Les Mottets. An hour of snow wading (we must have been keen!!) was followed by four abseils and then four long pitches of climbing out again. While the lower two pitches were a little dusty and scrappy in places, the upper two pitches were great and I would like to head back up and have a look at the other two routes that have been bolted here as well as further new route potential. After a short scramble we joined the walking path down from Montenvers and had a lovely walk in the sun back down to Chamonix for a cold pint. Great!