In reply to Webster:
> these days the 'summer' alpine season is basically May and a week or 2 into june...
> on the plus it means the alpine season doesnt clash with the peak tourist season, small mercies!
I've not been for 5 years and that was after a gap of quite a few years. I was quite shocked at how much things had changed between those last two trips (about 2010 to 2017), particularly in the Mont Blanc massif. Looking down from the top of the Dent du Geant I was thinking, where's the Mer de Glace gone? I don't think it was actually possible to get from the French side to the Italian side of the Vallee Blanche by August of that year as the crevasses were too bad below the Grand Capucin area.
I still harbour a few Alpine ambitions but noting how much worse it has got again I'm wondering if it's realistic?
I've climbed there in May a couple of times (about 20 years ago) and it felt very wintery, lots of deep snow to break trail through, big cornices, few lifts and generally hard work with hardly anyone else about.
Is it still like that in May, as a general rule of course, or is May actually now more like summer conditions used to be?
Also, after last summer's apalling conditions one of the local Mayors (I think) was talking about shifting the season forward by opening the uplift and huts earlier. Was that just idle speculation or are there actually moves to do that?