This photo of Steve on the Cosmiques Arete yesterday sums up the first week of season – you can see lots of fresh snow on the ledges beneath him, which thwarted the Mont Blanc teams. It didn’t halt the Alpine Intro groups on Gran Paradiso, or the Mont Blanc groups on the Cosmiques Arete, which proved a great finale on the Friday. The weather in France this week has hit the international news, with 19 deaths in flash floods in the south of the country, but the forecast is now looking good from Monday, so fingers crossed for everyone out next week! The snow will take a few days to stabilise, and for the avalanche risk to drop, but obviously the rockfall risk is very low.