Aiguille de Chardonnet-Arete Forbes route.

The Aiguille du Chardonnet, 3824m/12,545ft, is a classically beautiful mountain and we made the traverse, from East to West along the 'Arete Forbes' route. We began very early in the morning with a long glacier approach, from the Albert Premier refuge. We then started the steep snow and ice ascent, navigating large crevasses and leading to the ridge proper, with many rock towers and icy sections to follow. As the sun started to rise, the ridge snaked and wound over and around intricate towers of solid granite and more sections of steep ice that were very exposed. Our ascent was made more difficult, as there was a fair amount of snow, but after 8 hours of climbing up to the summit, we happily completed with a steep technical ascent back to the glacier!