Flew in late on the Tuesday night. Drove from Geneva to Pont in the morning, stopping in L'Eau Rousse and walking up Costa delle Chaud, enjoying the grade 1 scrambling for the last few hundred meters. This was a good acclimatization day, getting up to 2500m before turning back and driving on to the hotel for a beer and a good meal.
Up at a reasonable hour on the Thursday for a good breakfast before the walk up to the Vitorio Emanuel hut.
A relaxing afternoon in high temps of 34 degrees was spent looking over Becca Di Moncair which was our second objective. Plenty of Avalanche and rockfall debris but a potential route could be seen through the hut optics and a group later made their way down this route giving us an idea that it would be possible.
Up early and after 2 bowls of the worst coffee I have ever drank we started the route by 0400. It was very warm but we made good progress and enjoyed a good ascent, only marred by the local Guides whose behaviour on top would have them fail an ML assessment. As the sun came over the top we broke away from the groups and pushed on down. We retraced our steps but found the snow to be like wet sugar. As we crossed a convex slope I sank in up to my knees. As I tried to step out the snow bridge wobbled, as did my stomach. I was in the middle of the rope so the others pulled the rope tight and I star fished and VERY carefully crawled out. The rest of the journey was a hard slog, we glissaded as much as possible but it was still a punishing descent. on our return to the hut we checked out our route for the next day on Becca di Moncaire. The avalanche and rock fall debris now covered the whole flank of the mountain so we made the decision to go down that day and climb in the valley instead.
