July 24-30, 2002.
The weather was sunny, warm, and stable. There was a full moon the day we started. The route is classified PD, and the main challenges were the seracs above the Mer de Glace, the steep finish of the ascent of Mont Maudit, and then again seracs at the Jonction. Standard glacier equipment was necessary but also sufficient: crampons, ice axes, and a rope. We used a Canon Digital Ixus V2 to make lots of photos and video clips - a marvel of compactness (equal in size to a pack of cigarettes), light weight (200g), functionality, and picture quality.
You can click on the pictures to make them bigger. The original jpg file size was around 1M, which has been reduced to 25% for faster downloading.
The ladder down to Mer de Glace.
Early morning on the Tacul glacier.
Trail under Mont Blanc du Tacul.
Going up the lower part of Mont Maudit.
Descent route: arete des Bosses.
Roping up with Marcel and Willem.