A SUMMER IN CHAMONIX / JULY - SEPT 1978

Seems to me the biggest challenge to climbing in the French Alps around Chamonix is funding and weather - both of which were in short supply in the summer of '78. The idea was to stay as long as possible, climb often and some how make it work on $10 a day. There's not doubt this would have been made considerably harder without the help of our sponsor - Alain Comeau. More on that later ....

We also had alot to learn about how to climb fast in these mountains. Being slow learners, that took most of the summer to figure out. We were a group of friends, not necessarily a group of established climbing partnerships. As such finding the right mate with the same goals didn't come easy.

Around the 3rd week of July Alain and I were the first ones to arrive. He had an aunt in Geneva, which as you can imagine added a certain comfort level to our journey. He also felt it important that we have a car for the duration. Ed Smith arrived after our Grand Charmoz/Requin adventures. Eventually we left the campgound in Argentierre for the splendid digs of an apartment in the same village. This was made possible by the arrival of Jeff Pheasant, Michael Hartrich and Rick Mulhern on the 16th of August . The apt rental had been setup by Titoune (Marie Meunier) from North Conway that spring.

The weather which had been fickle stabilized around the same time and stayed good (more or less until the 5th of Sept. During that stretch, we got some stuff done — Jeff and Michael were pretty motivated. When the weather went south that first week of September the mood soured and everyone left for home. I contemplated staying, as we had the apt until mid Sept, but in the end the convenience of being able to get back to Luxembourg with Alain to catch our flight closed out another chapter in the long saga of summers in the alpine.