Crossing the Vallee Blanche — From Torino Hut to Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix (Part II.)

Vivian is practicing taking her carabiner off because we're going to walk through that fresh avalanche field. It's not good to stand together or it's coerced. That's an avalanche. Doing okay? We are somewhere close to the house. I mean it could be 100 meters, it could be 500. So it is 3 a.m. in the morning now. There is a lot of climbers who are leaving the hut. They got up at 2 a.m., 2.30 a.m. The hut actually had a breakfast ready for them at 3 a.m. And now they're heading out into the mountains. It's gonna be our turn in two hours. And here behind me this is Mont Blanc. One of these moments you guys are coming out. But the big mission has started. It snowed a little bit. It did a little bit, yeah. This is all covered. We have about seven hours to finish crossing the glacier. At the beginning we have one climb. Then we need to cross the crevasse area. The clouds are coming in around 3 p.m. So we need to finish before then. I think Neil is gonna keep it flexible based on weather and other conditions. The snow is nice and firm. The base is frozen and on top of it is just the sugar coat and the fresh glistening. Thank you. You're welcome. The outer layer is frozen a little bit from last night. You know, five centimeters below it's soft. You're good. Okay. What's the name of this peak? Aiguille, again. Aiguille de Tulle. Tulle. Yeah, I can't see what you will see. But basically, when you're descending, you stamp your feet. Whatever feels more comfortable. The good thing is that Viv is short. So she doesn't see over there. It's actually very firm. It's just a sugar coating. So, yep. Photo moment. Cat-like. All right. Okay. Oh, it's pretty melted on this side. I thought you were asking about her zodiac, because you were going to tell us something about her climbing skills based. You're doing okay, Viv? Are you representing well? This little peak behind us. The eastern side that we were climbing up. It was pretty spicy. And the sun was heating up the face. And once the snow started to melt, the rocks became loose. But now, what awaits us is this big wide field. There's going to be tons of crevasses. It's not good to stand together where it's crevassed. So we just heard an avalanche fall of that face. And at the same time, we're walking underneath this thing. So we're trying to get out of here as fast as possible. Viv is doing a great job. We're in the middle of the avalanche field right now. If you look down there, it is super hot. So I wouldn't be surprised if something a little wanted to come down. Lunch time. Even during lunch break, we had to stay apart with the rope stretched. It's very hot today. Vivian might be getting a little bit dehydrated. We lost almost half of our water. We still have a few hours to finish. That cracking, we've been hearing avalanches all over the place for a while now. But we also hear these helicopters flying around. And we saw some people going in some of these sleep chutes. It doesn't sound like a good combination. All the way... Oh, I see it! I just learned that one of the avalanches fell all the way down across the trail up there. Vivian is practicing taking her carabiner off because we're gonna walk through that fresh avalanche field. Now it's gonna be more flat. Vivian is a hero. I don't think she knew how much work she's signing up for. It is not easy to walk in it. But we should be less than two hours from the house at the top. Also, every other minute we can hear more snow sliding down. So we're almost at the top. Here behind me is the way up to Mont Blanc. We saw so many avalanches. It's really hot. And some of it, when it starts cracking, it sounds like a thunderbolt when it hits. It's really loud. The weather was perfect though. The clouds actually help. Because it's so hot that every now and then you need to cool down a little bit. The clouds provide that. We are somewhere close to the house. It's just hard to tell. I mean it could be 100 meters. It could be 500. Last 10 minutes. Maybe 15. Viv, you okay? What's going on? And maybe you can kneel a little bit and drink some water. Eat some. Okay, we have 30 feet to go. It's starting to snow now. This is where Vivian had to climb up. She did okay. I had to take a few breaks which creating any traffic jam on this tiny skinny ridge is not ideal. That's it for today. Heading down and get some food. Afternoon crystal. Maybe two.