The Aiguille d'Entreves is similar to the Cosmiques arete in many ways. Its proximity to a cable car, its short and easy access and its popularity.
The Aiguille d'Entreves is used by Italian guides in the same way the Cosmiques is used by Chamonix based guides. With its proximity to the Skyway Monte Bianco and its relatively low technical grade it offers a great introduction to alpine climbing, amazing exposure and a great place to practice essential Mountaineering skills.
The guide book time for the approach, route and the return to the Torino is 5-6 hours. The route is best done from the south west to the north east, although it is possible to do it the other way you will end up going against the majority of the traffic. Being a popular route there is often a large number of people on the traverse when the weather is good.
Ally Hurst and myself headed up after the recent bad weather for a quick trip around this classic climb that we had both done before. Taking the Panoramic gondola across the Vallee Blanche saved us the long walk in and after taking in the views at the new lift station we headed quickly to the start of the route overtaking large groups along the way. The route was not too busy at the start which was good because it was colder than I thought it would be and without a hat I didn't want to to hang about. Moving quickly along the ridge roped together we were over the summit within 30 minutes.
From the summit we caught up with the crowds. Deciding to down climb after the summit we only brought one 30m rope, which is sufficient if the conditions are dry. However, the shaded descent route was covered with ice and rim-eye, making it very slippery and a nervous down climb. We managed to overtake the guided groups through this section and only had a short section of ridge left before arriving back at the glacier and heading back to the Torino Hut and the Panoramic which would take us back to Chamonix. We completed the route in 3 hours, bin to bin, and just managed to beat the crowds heading along the Panoramic from Italy, going across in separate bins to fill the single empty spaces left by tourists.
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NB: Mountaineering is dangerous. The opinions expressed in these articles are very much time and condition specific and the content is not intended in any way to be a substitute for hiring a mountain guide, undergoing professional mountaineering training and/or the individual's own back country decision making
