April 15-20 2008 Yours Truly, Pio, Tom Weather: variable, trending towards bleh! Fitness level: practically negative 10 out of 10. Pictures courtesy of: Pio and Tom. Where: Chamonix, FRANCE Aaahh Chamonix: makes your heart jump and hands sweat every time!  Drooool. Gear prep: note the skis, harnesses ice tools, screws and pitons.  Obviously we had big        plans...  Céline and Vincent, who very kindly let us use their house as a gear stash, were        thinking of renting out their parking by the square metre when they saw this mess... First descent of the trip to the Glacier d'Argentière.  Yeehaw. Pio and his travelling yard sale!. Night-time shot, courtesy of Tom. Day 1: let's take it easy and just do a ski descent... ... that's 45 degrees and nearly 1000 metres of vert!!! Yeah right.  Somebody shoot me.  I didn't know a Masters thesis could bring one's        altitude tolerance down from 4000m to 2800m!!!  Holy sufferfest.  It's been a while        since I've been so unfit in the mountains! Later that afternoon: ok let's go REAL easy and bring        the slope angle down to about 20 degrees. And I'm still suffering...  What we had attempted that morning       was the couloir on the right, leading from the summit down to       the crevasses below. Pio and Tom climb to the Col de something while I        stay down below to die peacefully on my own. The descent.  The lower you go, the better you feel!  Yeehaw.  New skis and all... Pio bravely cooking in brutal winds that evening. Day 2: let's try some easy ice... Easy?  Ice climbing?  I didn't know those words could        be put together into the same sentence!  Holy cold and        creepy!!! Yeeeeeaaaah, this is SOOOOO much fun.  No seriously,        I mean it.  I love getting hit by blocks of ice kicked down        by Pierre, followed by faceshots of freezing cold powder        snow let loose by hurricane force winds.  And the best        part is the screaming barfies.  That's for sure!  (Original        quote from Tom during the taking of this picture). See previous picture. See previous 2 pictures, and add to it a strong note of        sarcasm and: ooooohhhh my god, my calf muscles are        going to tear apart. Nikolai: "No, but seriously folks: this is NOT fun AT ALL!!!" Tom and Pierre: "You big sissy-boy!" Nikolai: "Arrrrgh get me off this mountain." Official group excuse for pulling out early: "besides, the weather's crapping out!" That same afternoon: looks nice, no?  Well, not really, since a harsh storm blew in        in the early afternoon, collapsing my 3 season tent and forcing us to make a break,        during this brief respite, to the nearby hut. The storm kept up all night, until noon next day...        That's it, enough of this freezing, altitude sickness        unpleasantness.  Let's get out of here!  The climb we'd        started the dat before was up the ice sheet leading to the        far left col of this photo. Digging the tent and gear out of the wind drift.  Let's skip this joint and head south        to warmer climes!