Some friends from waaaay back in the Bellingham days came out to climb in the Alps with Kathy and help her kick off the beginning of the alpine season.

Sue Harrington and husband John Fine live in Seattle, and have climbed extensively around the world but had never been to the Alps before. In fact Kathy and Sue shared a rope together frequently in the North Cascades once upon a time; John is a dedicated and skilled rock climber but had spent very little time on snow and ice.

Pausing to take it all in, on the Pointes Lachenal.

Negotiating a tricky snow/ice traverse, John shows that climbing is climbing, no matter what's on his feet!

The next day we headed up Mont Blanc du Tacul. Here we squeeze through a narrow passage, happy to be no wider than we are.

Fantastic views and a rising sea of cloud from near the summit.

Steep but easy, we head back down the summit slopes.

Heading back down, the thunderstorms predicted to build early in the day seem to be holding off.

So we decided to take the scenic route back to the téléphérique via the Cosmiques Arête. Here Sue begins the awkward long rappel into the notch half-way up the route.

The weather is still beautiful! John is getting his fill of snow/ice today.

Sue finishes the last steps up to the ladder finish.

John seems to like this alpine climbing stuff reasonably well! The ladies seem impressed, too.

Our last day was an abortive attempt on the Chérè Couloir in vertical slush which ended in a mad rush for the téléphérique in a storm, so we took no pictures! So we'll end this memory on a happy note, on the tippy-top of Mont Blanc du Tacul. A bientôt!