At 4,121 metres the Aiguille Verte dominates the horizon along most of the Chamonix Valley and towers as a stand-alone, sentinel peak at the end of the Vallée Blanche. There a several routes to the summit – all of them long and demanding.

Fewer climbers and authors have captured the peak’s majesty better than the legendary mountaineer and chronicler of Chamonix’s mountainous arena than Gaston Rebuffat. In his influential and widely-revered book, The Mont Blanc Massif –The 100 Finest Routes Rebuffat wrote of the Aiguille Verte: ‘Avant la Verte on est alpiniste, à la Verte on devient montagnard !’ (Before the Verte you are a mountaineer, at the top you become a mountain man.)