Mt. Blanc – Argentiere Glacier
Crossing the Argentiere Glacier
Last year my climbing partner Marc and I headed to the Mt. Blanc area in France and Italy for a three week mountaineering trip. Our guide Owen from Ibex Guides took us up to the Argentiere Hut, which we would use as our base to climb the Aguille du Argentiere.
We geared up in the valley and boarded the gondola and ascended to the first lift station, saving us the first 1000 meter ascent. Our original plan was to take a second car higher up but we were foiled by high winds.
After an hour or so we reached the foot of the glacier where we donned our crampons and set out on to the ice. The glacier would become our classroom for the next few hours where we would refine our travel, rope, and technical skills.
It also served as an opportunity for Owen to evaluate our abilities to ensure we weren't going to be biting off more than we could chew as the trip rolled out.
The summertime conditions on the glacier had melted all the surface snow, exposing a countless numbers of crevasses. Progress was slow, but I enjoyed every minute of it.
Once out of the crevasses we walked across the smooth top of the glacier for an hour or two to reach the Argentiere Hut. The scale of the landscape is incredibly misleading when it comes to judging distances. What seems like "just a few minutes to get there" is really "walk for an hour or two to arrive".
We arrived at the hut, dropped our bags, and planned the following day's objective which would be climbing the nearby Aguille du Argentiere via the Milieu glacier.
Panoramic from the Argentiere Hut
Balcony at Argentiere Hut
Unexpected Perspectives
Every few months I take a run at my photo collection; delete, tag, organize, etc. This time through I stumbled across a few shots that I had taken with the intention of making a panoramic out of but haven't yet.
I researched how to stitch them together (hint: it's easy, there's a 1-click photo merging function in Photoshop) and made a few.
Click the pictures for the full-scale version.
Grand Canyon
I took this sequence on the South Kaibab Trail near Skeleton Point. The trail is currently hugging the cliff face on the left side of the picture. I am descending towards the river. My destination is the narrow band of trees at the bottom of the canyon (running perpendicular to the Colorado River) surround Bright Angel Creek and Phantom Ranch.
Half way down the canyon lies the Tonto Plateau, which you see in the photo above as the flat expanse of land separating the upper and lower canyons.
The following panoramic is taken from Lookout Point which lies on the Tonteau Plateau.
Lookout Point
I loved Lookout Point. You can see the Colorado river stretching along the bottom of the Canyon. Opposite is the North side.
Mont Blanc
This shot was taken after my climbing partner Marc and I had completed climbing the Aretes Des Cosmiques, which runs along the top of the ridgeline at the bottom right of the photo.
You can see Mont-Blanc du Tacul, with Mont-Maudit behind, and further back still the Mont-Blanc. We climbed the three in progression two days prior via the Three Mount Traverse Route.
In the center is the view towards Italy. Following the ascending ridgeline towards the right you see the Rochefort Ridge. Traversing the ridge was my favourite route on the trip.
At the far left you can see a observation deck.
Cortina d'Ampezzo
One of the largest panos I found (15,000 px wide!). I don't recall what route we were on when I shot this. Cortina d'Ampezzo lies in the valley in the center of the shot.
Shockingly Decent Panoramic Photos
The best camera you have is the one you have on you, and many times I've wished that camera shot panoramas. I carry my iPhone most places with me and although I'd never argue it's a serious photographer's camera, in a pinch it can whip up some pretty decent wide shots using Pano by Debacle Software.
A few nights ago I shot this after doing some yoga in the park.
And a few nights prior, this one:
It's pretty straightforward, you have to roughly line-up the photos as you take them shot by shot. It leaves a tracer image on the screen to assist. When done, it saves to your photo album, all stitched together.
It's simple, but it's pretty slick!