Photos by bbirtle

For more, check out http://birtle.com/Pics. The Chamonix Aiguilles are at their most beautiful just after a violent Spring snowstorm. Strong winds and mild, near-freezing temperatures permit snow and ice to be plastered on the steep rock faces. The conditions only last a day or so, so you have to capture it quick. On this day in March, I was working in my Chamonix apartment one evening when the skies suddenly became blue, after what seemed like weeks of snowy weather. I grabbed my camera and ran outside to find one of the most incredible Chamonix sunsets I've ever seen. I filled up my memory card shooting in every direction, but this shot of the Aiguille de Blatiere turned out the best.

For more check out http://birtle.com/Pics. Pete following up pitch one of "Inferno" (6c, 450m) on the Miroir d'Argentine, Swiss Alps Vaudoise.

Belaying up my partner on the first pitch of the classic route up the Aiguille du Midi South Face, Chamonix France.

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."

Sunset on Les Drus, Aiguille Verte, and Les Droites from the Refuge du Requin. More at http://birtle.com/Pics