ARMAND'S PLAYGROUND - Tormod Granheim

ARMAND'S PLAYGROUND

Chamonix Mont Blanc, France, 2019

You can't call yourself a mountaineer until you've stood on the summit of Aiguille Verte, said the legendary guide Armand Charlet. He himself summited the mighty mountain 100 times via 14 different routes, seven of which were first ascents.

When the weather announces its arrival in this massif, the first signs are seen on the three peaks of Aiguille Verte, Grandes Jorasses and Mont Blanc. Seen from below, it can look as if the wind is blowing a white veil and lovingly caressing the peaks. The peaks are putting on their hats, as they say.

But if you are at altitude, you will often feel the arrival of the clouds as a rougher experience. The relentless combination of wind and high humidity creates a biting cold that threatens to creep right into our marrow. I have been frozen a lot, it perhaps goes without saying given my background, but rarely have I been frozen more, and not least more momentarily, than the first time I climbed to the top of Aiguille Verte. The weather we experienced had common features with this photograph, bright blue sky on one side, and a threatening storm on the other.