0300, Glacier de la Brenva, Mont Blanc massif. A cool early autumn night with no moon.

The American-Swedish team are ahead, the Catalans behind. Each climber is lost in their own bobbling pool of light. Trying to follow a good route through the black inky night and contemplating a long days climbing ahead.

A mixture of concern about the impending traverse under the seracs ahead and delight about the magnificent situation we are in. Brenva, Freney, Peutery, Moore, Grand Pilier - names that resonate deeply with Alpinists, and we feel privileged to be here.

We are brought starkly back from the romance and in to the reality of tough alpinism by the descent from Col Moore.

The terrain is easy angled but loose and, in the dark, there is some route finding to be done to find and check each abseil anchor.

Once back on the Glacier our strategy is to make a rapid traverse until under the relative sanctity of the Grand Pilier rock buttress. Later on the Catalans will make a slower rising traverse to gain the start of the route and in doing so remain exposed to the risk of serac fall for a lot longer. After dawn, When the blood curdling screaming, crashing noise of a collapsing serac does arrive it obliterates their tracks but not ours. Luck plays a big factor in mountaineering but so do statistics, and I have been give a number of lessons by the mountains that always trying to tweak them in your favour can keep you alive.

The icy ramp that marks the start of the Ceccinel Nomine proper provides some fine easy angled ice climbing. In the dark it is not entirely clear we are in the right place but we are enjoying the climbing and making good progress. As dawn arrives the ramp runs out into a vertical snow pitch with a smooth left wall of granite seemed with an intermittent crack and line of pegs. Dave inches his way up them with calculated precision whereas with the security of a tight rope from above I just wildly pull on the pegs. This pitch could be climbed free but as a friend of mine used to say "if you have the luxury of free climbing you should be on a harder face!"

Snow and ice conditions remain good and with a mixture of screws and solid rock gear we hoover up the ground moving together. Dave cunningly spots a subtle horizontal traverse that provides the most efficient link between the Ceccinel Nomine and Boivin Vallencant finish. As Chris, A Swedish Guide, leads up steeper ice in parallel with us, the Monte Rosa and Matterhorn our framed behind him and the magnificence of the situation is stunningly obvious once again.

I scoff some more Haribo and reflect that whilst I am passionate about the experiences I give people in the Mountains as a Guide it feels good to be up here 'just 'playing'. Out in the mountains with friend and fellow British Guide, Dave Hollinger. Dave is a veteran of many tough alpine ascents and as solid a partner as anyone could wish for.

As the upper ice-fields give way to the Peutery Ridge and summit of the Grand Pilier it's time for a decent break. I get half my bum on a ledge and dangle my feet over the drop letting them sway to relax from 6 hours of solid front-pointing. This rare luxury of a 'lunch-break' in alpine climbing will cost us a missed telepherique / train and the unrelenting 3500m descent from the summit of Mont Blanc to the valley. For now we have the whole of the upper Peutery Ridge to safely negotiate and being ready for that takes priority.

I had seriously underestimated how far and how long this section of the Peutery would be and with the rope off Dave and I just tried to concentrate on our own little spheres of security, occasionally meeting up to grunt at each about being on the infinite spur! Even with the relentless repetition of movement and exposure the overwhelming feeling was "WOW", what a place! Having climbed the face of the Grand Pilier and the ridge of the Peutery it felt
more like we were in the Himalayas than Alps and it was with relieved elation that we broke through the small cornice and reached the plateau of Mont Blanc du Courmayer.

Having shook hands prematurely we continued slowly along the surprisingly still exposed ridge traverse to the summit of Mont Blanc. Its chapeau had been blown off and we stood marvelling at the clarity of the autumn atmosphere before descending through the evening alpenglow and the long walk down back in to the dark and the small village of Bionassay.

Grand Pilier / Peutery Ridge, Mont Blanc

Evening Alpenglow over the Aravis, descending the North side of Mont Blanc

Rob approaching the cornice on the Peutery Ridge, Mont Blanc

Rob Jarvis & Dave Hollinger on the summit of Mont Blanc after an ascent of the Grand Pilier d'Angle