It was early August when my buddy Jan, who got me into mountaineering and climbing in the first place, pitched the idea of a Switzerland mountaineering trip. The plan was to summit Schreckhorn. He explained it would involve glacier camping and wonderfully exposed ridge traverses. Obviously, it was a no brainer. I was in.
Jan, myself, and another pal packed our gear and started the six hour drive from Slovenia to the Italian-French border. It was getting dark when the flat of the Padan Plain gave way to the hills and mountains that surround the bilingual Aosta Valley—a gateway to some spectacular snow-capped peaks between Italy and France. We drove the length of the valley and almost literally bumped into the 4,808-meter Mont Blanc massif.
Our campsite for the night was a deserted parking lot just outside Courmayeur, a wonderful little town. Two of us slept in the back of our Renault station wagon and the third member of our party slept outside. No one seemed to mind.