magnificent sight on these beautiful mountains

A party leaving du Tacul and travelling on the Valle Blanch. The arete pictured is a fine multi-pitch climb

The Dent du Geant peeking through the clouds from the Aguille du Midi. I had a crappy scanner but you can barely see two climbers in the lower right.

You can't beat the view from Mont Blanc. There are so many alpine, ice and rock routes to keep you busy for a lifetime.

A recent snowfall made dodging cravasses a little tricky on Mont Blanc.

Mont-Blanc in the center and the Grand Capucin on the right.

This picture was taken near Chamonix, when returning to the camping. The interaction of the fog and the sun gave a fantastic view.

"Dent du Geant"(The Giant's Tooth) in the Mont Blanc Massif, France. Located at the end of the Arete de Rochefort (Rochefort Ridge). 5 pitches route, with dificulty of about 5.7. The route is equipped with fixed ropes that we didn't use. We climbed on the same day the Arete de Rochefort and Dent du Geant wich took us 22 hours all together. The climber is Idan, and Ofer took the photo.

Steppo close to Mont Blanc du Tacul. Aguille du Midi in the background.

As seen from the top of l'aiguille de l'M. The background peak is Blaitière, the rock face on the left is part of the Grands Charmoz complex. Photo: Yann Troutet

L'arête des cosmiques, just out of the cable-car station is an outrageously popular climb. On this occasion however, the weather was so bad there were only two parties on the route. Here I photographed the anonymous following party crossing one of several small cols on the ridge. Photo: Yann Troutet

The first of two abseils on the Arête des cosmiques. The streaks in the sky are blowing snow. The dark image is a personal touch. Photo: Yann Troutet

Pierre Callico looking down on a serac face in the Massif du Mont Blanc. Photo: Yann Troutet

Jacques Flamand on the Ménégaux route of l'aiguille de l'M. He had climbed the route once before, over 40 years back! At 67, Jacques now has no complexes about climbing in full-jeans attire! Photo: Yann Troutet

The classic Mont Blanc east (Brenva) face from the way to the bivouac la fourche. In the middle one can see top of Mont Blanc and on the left side the upper part of Peuterey ridge.

Trudging along at about 14,000ft in bad weather on Mont Blanc, France.

Climbing some alpine ice on Mont Blanc du Tacul somewhere around 13000 ft on the route

Doing some Glacier training in Valle Blanche near the Aguille du midi in france

The "tooth of the giant" from the aguille du midi around 12000 ft. at sunup

For more visit http://birtle.com/Pics . I finished off a busy ski touring season living in Zermatt in 2005 with a climb up Mont Blanc, via the Grands Mullets route, with a friend from Chamonix named Nuno. Nuno is one of the most physically fit people I know. Even though I was what I considered very fit and well acclimmatized myself, having skied literally a dozen 4000m peaks in the previous two months, he absolutely dusted me up to the summit. We passed each other on the Bossons Arete, him on the way down, me puffing my way up. "Are you ok Brian?" he asks through cold piercing wind "I'm sorry to launch ahead but I was getting cold. I'll meet you in the Vallot Refuge." A couple hours later I found him there fast asleep, enjoying an afternoon snooze up at 4500m. The next day he went climbing. The guy is a maniac. Anyway as I remember an hour or so out of the Grands Mullet refuge we crested a steep bit and the views of Mont Blanc opened up just as the first rays of the rising sun began to hit them. The formation here is actually the Mur de la Cote step along the ridge between Mont Maudit and Mont Blanc summit. The distinctive lenticular cloud that makes the shot is a sure sign of high winds, and indeed at the summit we were, literally, "blown away."

Superb day, end of september, first to go down towards Gouter refuge over a sea of clouds...

Jim walking the summit ridge of Mount Blanc, France. Climbed from Aguille du Midi, Mount Tacul, Mount Maudit and finally to Mount Blanc.