The recent security alerts throughout the UK meant that Gatwick Airport was chaotic when we arrived to check in for our flight to Geneva with queues stretching outside into the car park, it took nearly 2 hours to get to the desks. The airlines were only allowing small hand luggage on board - no liquids or cosmetics - although despite the notices, numerous loud speaker announcements and staff going around advising what couldn't be taken on board we were surprised to see a young lady having her bags searched and the security officer pulling out toiletries, cosmetics, scissors and various other banned items!

We had spent the day before repacking to make sure that we complied with the new regulations, having to put all the climbing gear into a separate case along with the rucksacks which were now deemed to be too large to go as hand baggage. It might have been a good idea though if Kev had paid more attention when repacking as we would later discover that his walking boot inner liners were still at home!

We arrived in Geneva to find that our luck with holiday reps had improved a little from 2005, we were met and given an information pack and didn't have to wait too long for the transfer to Chamonix but unfortunately we were advised that the evening welcome meeting had been cancelled, not a big thing  really although the cheese and wine would have been nice and it also meant that if we had been dependant upon the rep getting our lift passes we would have had to wait until later the next day.

As we were eager to get out into the mountains we set off to buy our own passes and despite the murky weather took the two cable cars up to Aiguille du Midi and our first views across the snow to Mont Blanc.

It was very cloudy and quite cold, the temperature down to -2 degrees celcius, even a little flurry of snow in the air but it was great to be back. As the cloud broke we had good views down to to Lac Bleu which from this distance looked like a large crater on the moon and the Plan du l'Aiguille

There appeared to be more snow about above the 2500 metre mark than last year and the Alpinistes taking the route along the edge towards the Cosmique Hut were having to walk through quite deep drifts, this group were returning back up to Aiguille du Midi after being forced back from Mont Blanc by the poor weather.

As usual it took us a few moments to get used to the thin air even though we were only at 2500 metres the altitude can make you a little dizzy and short of breath. Of course nothing like the serious hallucinations that can occur with cases of altitude sickness. No teddy bears made from snow waving over Kev's shoulder while Lizzie took this picture, then!

Our fix of snow and first views of the fantastic scenery satisfied, we took the cable car back down and unpacked slightly unsure how we would get on with apartment life compared to hotels. First impressions of the supermarkets were not great, the labelling and quality of products we get at home seems to have improved a lot in the last few years, even the fresh produce here looked a bit lame - the hunt for potatoes large enough to bake would prove to be almost as challenging as some of the walking and climbing!

 All 0ur Chamonix 2006 Photos

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