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  Whilst routes to individual summits have their obvious attraction, one of the classic outings of the group is the Traverse of the Dents du Midi (D, IV). Starting from a base at the Auberge de Salanfe, this magnificent expedition is reckoned to require around 15hrs in all, under good conditions. First achieved in a southwest–northeast direction in 1893 by one-time President of the Alpine Club, J P Farrar, with the guides Pierre-Louis Délez and Daniel Maquignaz, the traverse is said to be considerably easier when tackled from east to west (AD, III+). Though normally attempted in summer, it was first completed solo in winter in 1974, but the route still demands to be taken seriously, for the ridge is over 3km long and prior knowledge of individual sections would be a great benefit to anyone considering tackling what is, after all, one of the finest outings of its grade in the Alps.

ABBÉ CLÉMENT: FIRST MAN ON TOP

Abbé Jean-Maurice Clément, who it is thought made the first ascent of the Haute Cime du Dents du Midi at the age of 54, was a cultivated man with a library of a thousand volumes on natural history and medicine. Desperately unhappy with the parish to which he had been sent in 1780, he was on bad terms with his parishioners with whom he had frequent quarrels, and felt severely restricted by the limitations imposed by his valley. Perhaps this was why he climbed Haute Cime alone. According to a letter published in the Journal de Lausanne, he climbed what he termed ‘two central peaks’ on 22 August 1788. Although his description of the climb does not make it easy to identify his ‘two central peaks’, it has long been assumed that the Haute Cime was one of them. ‘The weather was fairly fine,’ he wrote, but despite the quality of the view from the summit, he was apparently not sufficiently inspired to describe it. ‘The time I spent on the top was too short to enable me to give a useful and interesting account of the things which struck me. It would require a second climb, which I shall never make unless with a companion.’ After that he abandoned any desire to climb elsewhere.