In the footsteps of Armand Charlet and along the crest of the Arête du Jardin

“Before the Verte, you are an alpinist; on the Verte, you become a mountaineer,” the iconic Gaston Rébuffat left us as a legacy.

While the Aiguille Verte is indeed an emblematic summit par excellence, whose fame reaches far beyond the Arve valley, its neighbours, which also top 4000 m, are talked about much less and deserve to be better known!

In this fine quest for the 4000ers that keeps us busy, the Aiguille du Jardin / Grande Rocheuse / Aiguille Verte triptych had been catching our eye for a while. But as with Les Droites, the conditions for a calm link-up like this seemed hard to find... What's more, last year's major rockfall on the Arête du Jardin left us uncertain whether the route would be passable in future.

But the other day, while we were both at the Couvercle for the ascent of Les Droites, we spotted the couloir leading to the Col Armand Charlet. The route didn't yet look passable, given the nasty bergschrund barring the entrance to the couloir, but snowfall could change everything! And so the plan took ever clearer shape; all we had to do was watch the weather and the snowpack before launching an attempt. The chance came, and full of enthusiasm we managed to get free at the last minute and secure two beds at the hut.

After a sequence of 1 bus, 3 trains and 2 cable cars, we finally have the pleasure of putting on our skis and enjoying a peaceful descent of the Vallée Blanche, before starting the approach to the Refuge du Couvercle. The sun is beating down and our packs are heavy; the decision whether to go via the ladders or the Pierre à Béranger isn't so easy to make... Fortunately the Pierre didn't seem a bad choice, and arriving at the hut in early afternoon gives us almost 10 hours of rest before the assault.

The alarm goes off without us being sure we managed to sleep a wink... The night before a big climb is never easy! Skis on, we plunge into a night as dark as it is calm. We're ahead of schedule: at the end of the approach, we leave the skis, put on crampons and arm ourselves with ice axes to climb the couloir.

It proves less easy than expected, and getting through two gullies in the dead of night, blinded by snow and ice debris sliding down the whole slope and converging into this funnel, will leave us a memorable experience!

We reach the col after a climb that seemed never-ending! The sun is up but the air is still cold and the wind chills us to the bone. The way to the Aiguille du Jardin remains complex and calls on all our lucidity: snow slopes plunging straight down to Argentière, an ice traverse, an airy crest, fresh snow on smooth granite... We realise it will take longer than planned.

The effort was considerable, but we made it: the summit of the Aiguille du Jardin (which can't see more than a few dozen rope teams a year, we reckon…). The atmosphere is spectacular, among all these huge granite blocks — you really wonder by what mystery they still stand in such precarious balance!

A few strategic errors on the way down and very empty stomachs call for a first proper break. The ascent of the Aiguille du Jardin was longer and more complicated than planned, but we like to think that what follows will seem easy after that. And indeed our intuition proves right: the next hour brings straightforward progress towards the Grande Rocheuse and the Verte a little further on — whose summit ridge is downright relaxing after the hours we've just been through!

After a good moment of contemplation and wonder on the summit, the famous Whymper couloir abseils begin. If there's one abseil descent people often talk about, it's this one! Rockfall, a monstrous bergschrund, wobbly anchors, stuck ropes, unplanned bivouacs... So we were very wary of the 16 announced 60 m abseils, for a time of between 55 min and 7 h according to the Vallot guidebook. Fortunately, two hours after leaving the col, the bergschrund is behind us and we're back on the Talèfre glacier. Apart from a few projectiles dodged here and there, our descent goes off without a hitch in a good dozen abseils.

After a lovely ski descent and a last stop at the hut, we still have a few obstacles to overcome before returning to civilisation: the Pierre à Béranger and its canyoning-style moraine, the Leschaux glacier and its treacherous meltwater channels, and finally a Mer de Glace to be crossed water-skiing style.

The Montenvers train: the climb is officially over. Stress, fatigue and doubt can finally give way to joy, wonder and the satisfaction of a dream come true!

The day ends quietly in Chamonix, talking about the next climbs and new ideas at the Petite Blaitière, a charming terrace we warmly recommend!