France 2019: Besancon

Saturday July 20th: our holiday begins with a trip on Eurotunnel using Flexiplus which is well worth the extra. Up at 6 am (after last night of the bumps until 2 am) to pack and we left at 8 am on time, according to Miranda's schedule.



Besancon is about as far as you can get in a day without driving insanely, and close enough that we can go up tomorrow, so seems a good choice. It's also a nice place. And it's also where M spent a year doing the first year maths course, though she has forgotten all about the city now.



We arrived 19:30 at the Hotel de la Citadelle and after refreshment headed out into town to find food; D had tartare; and after, down to the river to admire the Vauban ramparts reflected on a still clear evening.

Next morning (Sunday 21st July) M and I get up early, 7 ish, to have a look around (GPS trace). The interesting bit of Besancon is inside a meander of the river, which is cut off by a "tunnel fluvial" (part of the canal du Rhone au Rhin) as well as by a more boring road tunnel.



We then went slowly going anticlockwise until opposite the tunnel, then in via the Grand Rue to the cathedral.



Victor 'Ugo woz 'ere. So were the romans. Indeed the approach to the cathedral is framed by a roman arch.



The cathedral was good. We had about an hour to wander around and could have spent much more. Some other time, perhaps.



Then back to the hotel for b'fast with D and E. Speaking of hotel, there are some pix of it's setting, starting here. And here are the young master and mistress, all fresh and eager at the start of our adventure.



The next step is to head out from Besancon through the Jura to Switzerland and Chamonix; but that's the next story.

France 2019: practical information

So I don't have to put it in amongst the pretty pictures elsewhere.

Getting there

We drove, via the channel tunnel. This was for a variety of reasons: ease of organisation; flexibility; convenience of movement when there; and having a mobile storage locker for spare kit. It cost most of a tank of fuel each way (say, 2 * £100) and somewhat above £200 for the chunnel (say, £500). Plus overnight accommodation, since we didn't bomb down. Leaving at 8 we got to Besancon at 7 ish, so if we'd driven faster with fewer stops we could have got to Cham in a day. But that would have done us no good, as we wanted to go up. Also Besancon and Troyes are well worth seeing.

The Cham valley has good public transport (train line; buses) which would have got us everywhere we wanted to go. So (apart from the freedom from having to organise anything in advance, no small matter with me) maybe the mobile storage locker was the main advantage (but maybe Chamonix has storage? See here or here (though that last is well below les Houches)). Set against that the hassle of finding a parking space (use Biollay (see here, open the "white zone" bit; note that on Google maps it seems to be called "parking montenvers") unless it's full which it will be, in which case head 500 m NE along the "chemin du pied du Grepon" to the Planards, not really marked on Google maps) and the worry about whether your stuff will be there when you come back (it was).

Without the free locker we'd have had to take everything up with us, which would have been doable if we'd been ruthless, and known exactly what we needed. Which we didn't. So if I had to do it without a car, I'd take one ultra-lightweight set of "valley clothes" and otherwise rely on mountain clothes; just one rope (we took a second for some sport-climbing in the mid-week but could just about have got away with one rope); not too much gear (what do you need it for anyway); and fewer spare books (oh no).

Hotels and appartments

We got ours from booking.com. Hotel le Chamonix was nice: central, convenient, two stars. We returned. No AC if you're there during a heatwave (we were); good wifi; a bar on the other side of the building. In Argentiere the appartment in Résidence Grand Roc - Bruyères was fine inside if a bit brutalist outside; and again conveniently located. In les Houches the Hôtel Les Mélèzes was disappointing, if OK for a quick overnight.

Going up

From le Tour, we went up to the ref Albert Premier using the cabin then siege Charamillion. This saves you a couple of hours walking up (and down, if you get the return, which you probably should).

For the ref Couvercle off the Mer de Glace we got the rack-n-pinion train up to Montenvers from the small gare near the main gare in Cham; this costs the apparently unreasonable E33 each, but they do have a lot of tourists to flog places too, and by the 9 am train it was full (by contrast 8:30 was much clearer; get up early). Again, you can walk if you like, its a couple of hours.

For the ref Tete Rousse we got the Tramway de Mont Blanc from le Fayet (aka St-Gervais-le-Fayet, but St Gervais is actually up the hill  a ways; you can also pick up the tram from St Gervais but parking there looked even harder) which trundles slowly up to the Nid d'Aigle, again for the apparently unreasonable E33 each. The parking near the station will be full; there's spare: follow "P2" I think; under the railway line to rue du Casino / chemin des Lots.

For Cosmiques / Aiguille du Midi, you want the main Aiguille du Midi cable car. This is E63 each, but when you see where it goes you won't think that unreasonable. You can book in advance - or so I now understand - but not just the night before or on the day. So - somewhat panicked by failing to book at 22:30 the previous night - I got up early and got to the ticket office just before 7; there was already a 20 min queue. I got tickets OK but for no particular time; I'd have to come back to queue, apparently. When we did come back, around 10, it turned out they were running a queuing system: cabin 28 was going, the man at the entrance hands out tags to people with tickets; we got cabin 40, so retired for an hour to a nearby cafe, so that was fine. It took an hour to get up, what with shuffling in groups and the mid station queue and all.

Money

Huts in general don't take cards; take cash. If you get a reciprocal rights card then hut accomodation (but not food) is half price (except for private huts like Cosmiques).

Switzerland (Martigny) seems to take Euros (at 1-1 with CHF). We didn't see a guard any time we crossed the border.

Huts

This isn't the place to discuss huts I think; but here's a pano of the boot room in the Gouter.



High huts (Gouter; Cosmiques; even Tete Rousse, but if you try hard you'll find trickles in the snow at the TR) don't have drinkable water, but sell 1.5L for E6/7. So take some up yourself. Or, consider taking chlorine tablets.

Hut b'fast at about E12 for a bowl of coffee, a bit of juice, and a couple of small slices of stale bread, is poor value. But we did it anyway; maybe we shouldn't have. Evening meals are better.

Camping

Strictly prohibited on the Tete Rousse / Gouter route. There's a bloke just above the Nid d'Aigle who has a printed list of bookings, and will want to see your name on it. There's also a bloke in the "hunter / forestry cabin" at ~27xx m just before TR; but he may well be gone late in the day; he didn't check us.

Also prohibited outside of Aiguille du Midi (see photo) but (a) no-one is checking and (b) there was one tent there when we went by. But it certainly wasn't the vibrant tent community of 30 years ago.

The usual "bivouac between sundown and sunup" exception applies.

Pacing

We went up to Albert Premier for two nights (two climbs); down for two nights (one day rest); up to Couvercle for two nights (one climb; but the path to and from Couvercle is epic in itself) and then had four days rest in the Appt in Argentiere, before going for the Big One. The four days rest wasn't pre-planned but we found ourselves in need of it; mountains, full on, are hard work and battering.

Kit

For most of the routes we did, a ski-pole was more use than an ice axe. But we had Grivel Ghosts anyway. On Pointe Isabella I was grateful for the bite of my full-weight axe that I also carried then; on the Tacul face I might have fared better with two proper axes. Otherwise, the obvious: harness, rope, crampons, boots to take them, gaiters; helmets, head torches, gloves, spare gloves, neckwarmers. How warm to dress is always a bit of a puzzle; this was a warm season. On Mt Blanc I had my waterproof trousers on; D+E had, respectively, leggings and lightweight trous and got a bit chilly. I got a lightweight Exped rucksac for the trip and that worked well; oh and the Petzl "Altitude" lightweight harness was very good (except for the gear loops which are a bit rubbish). A 50 m half-rope (8.5 mm) between three seems fine. As for gear... not very useful. A few slings just for the sake of it on some of the ridges. And I used an ice screw on Pointe Isabella but at a pinch could have done without.

Books

Mountaineering in the Mont Blanc Range: Classic Snow, Ice & Mixed Climbs by Jean-Louis Laroche and Florence LeLong. And for the valley stuff, Crag Climbs in Chamonix by François Burnier and Dominique Potard.

France 2019: Notes

Practical information
Besancon.
Albert Premier (Aiguille du Tour; Tete Blanche, Petite Fourche)
Chamonix: rest day
Couvercle and Pointe Isabella
Argentiere
Mt Blanc: Tete Rousse / Gouter
Cosmiques / Rif Torino
Troyes.

Off topic: Yugoslavia, 1989.

fb pix.

Also: Mustelid: Alpine climbing routes crumble as climate crisis continues.

7/26 Friday: attempt on Pointe Isabella. Tldr: fail but close. Up 4:30 b'fast leave 5:30 down where I explored y'day to col on morraine down along yellow poles then we're on our own and after the usual brief flailing we're onto ice then snow then gear up. Brief screeching over scoured flattish rocks the pure snow up up. But it's a long way and we shed 150 m going down. Over some big mostly bridged but still quite disturbing crevasses: progress carefully well spread out. Thence up towards the first snow ridge where the guardienne had warned of "glace" - from someone who had done the route a week ago and we've seen little traces - and yes there's about 15m of 50 deg ice so pitch it cut some steps and put in an ice screw all quite exciting really. Takes an hour and effort though.

Sun on ridge. Up to rock ridge up that second snow ridge the rock again and we're on the summit slopes but late. Stop at noon maybe 100m short but f'cast is storms pm and we want to be below difficulties by then.

Down. Crampons off for longer rock but as usual hard to be sure it is worth it. Carefully down ice me last E "falls" once D not and thankfully me not. Down carefully crevasses then snow some uncertainty as to track nearly miss path over scrapey rock. Rain then hard hail kicks in as we're leaving morraine - again track on rock marked with square but recommended track over morraine not marked. Hut, whew.

Add complaint re party here.

7/27 Saturday: up with alarm 7. Feckless hut folk are unsurprisingly late getting b'fast so pack a bit and look outside waiting. Pano. Let M handle conversation. Head down 8:30 and it takes 4+ hours: could be done faster but it is a long but interesting way. Wonder if going via glacier might be better. Don't stop to play on ice cos E's f'cast says rain later and indeed when we get to Montenvers it does start. Cafe then train down. Car still there - run through rain - up to Arg to get keys to appt Les Neutered and settle in. Soir: local pizza.

7/28 Sunday: down in Chamonix - actually Argentiere - after a week mostly up, except one rest day. That was good but hard and I feel well used and stretched. Today - Sunday the 28th - was a day of rain which was fine. Up 9ish b'fast slowly on what we super-u'd y'day and MED went out for croissants etc. Outside medium rain continues and most shrouds the trees.

Note: pix with some captions on fb.

Our appt in the Rez Grand Roc proves adequate to our first night. We get the double, E the single upstairs with us and D the sofa which he doesn't bother xform into a bed. It's nice to get on well enough with each other for this not to rub. 12:30 go out to buy stuff for lunch but discover super has just shut so get at marche: E15 of olive pate - a slight overbuy perhaps - carrots tomato sliced ham saucisson sec a goat cheese and a big block of Time for only E5. And a flute from the breadman.

14:30: coffee and prevarication done so head out to Martigny to see the tower cos I've passed it by too often. And it's a trip of about the right size. More cloud higher up (return to get passports; comedy trying to leave appt car park) Montets Forclaz border no guards Martigny park walk up to tower. Abeilles on way up. It's only about ten mins. No entry formalities or staff and we can climb right up. Bare stone wood stairs views good. Inside D and I puzzle over odd two storey room in tower side before realising it is a fireplace. Back via paths. Walk to river old wooden arched bridge church small ex voto. Back.

Soir: decide to eat in. Just enough bread. Quiet reading.

7/29 Monday: up at the unearthly hour of 8:30 though actually I also got up at 4:30 as my phone alarm was set and downstairs. B'fast sit then to shops for bread coffee etc. Also looking for Cham crags guide. Bureau des guides not open till 5 and tourist not useful but total-liquidation has a (sadly undiscounted) copy for E27. Back more food off about 11 I think head up to Col Des Montets then back a little park and track just opposite. There's a cluster of boulders we pick Le Transat whick book says is most pop N face is in shade some Spaniards there. Have a play... E does 3c r2 I do 4c r3 D does a harder 4c. Put toprope on and E and I do the slightly longer central 4c and I think D does the 5b r7. Go round to W face lovely by little stream bucolic as book says. 3c r1 to R I do and E does with a little push on her bottom. 4c r7 to L then D fights up the 5c r4 central. Time for coffee. Up to Aig Rouge accuiel who do drinks and ice creams and a choc bar and a nice terrasse for cards for an hour or so. Wx is fine: sun but coolish with wind and evap of last night's rain.

Down other side not far - not as far as le Buet - to railway tunnel boulder park by road hard 3c nice also hard 4c toprope and toprope D on several attempts at 6a. Home and the out to Pet'te Better v good esp E's Perigoudian (gizzard!) and D's summer salad - smoked salmon.

7/30 Tuesday: again 8:30 slow b'fast sun outside.

Richer de Saix: 85m 4c good quite scary as lead and DE's first real multi-pitch.

Soir: galettes / crepes.

7/31 Wednesday: light day. Up to Col de Forclaz for little walk nearly level to the buvette. Cool mostly in shade alongside the bisse. Panels tell us the glacier was formerly exploited for ice but it has retreated a lot since the and the tongue pants easy up above. Pines, running stream, shade and a vin rouge while we play cards. And we share two pieces of apricot tart.

Back to col for cafe and M has E30 salad forgetting sf is 1-1 with Euro but it is good. More cards: I think I just edge ahead of  D.

Down to Tete Noire and finally stop for it's advertised "gorges mysteriueses". Or rather the top thereof: the path goes down down and we don't though I'd like to some time.

Soir: laR  Good but pricey prob worth it.

8/1 Thursday: up 7:30 to get croissants bread b'fast and then packing and cleaning and finding and sorting. Off 9:45.

8/3 Saturday: backfill diary: glorious sunset last night bed upthen up for wee pix E against afterglow v still. English off at midnight seems early to me. 1:50 alarm groan fumble around; cold; faint rime on tent door slow b'fast in hut. Off 2:45 in the darkness lights of valley below Gouter lights above pinprick headtorch lights in strings heading up. As we do. Everything weird in darkness but find path fine cross grand couloir fine up rocks fine. Good time to Gouter 4:40. I was in thin yellow top fleece green Rab raincoat tracksters; swap t'sters for w'proof trous. Rest 30 mins drink eat little choc; pickup stashed kit rope and water. Only boot room is open; salle closed; maybe could access toilets in dortoir.

And up to new ground. We have crampons and a ski stick each but axe on packs. And after some thought roped up. Spoiler: I'd have been happy to solo it as the conditions turned out but there are some well bridged crevasses and lots of the ridges are moderately thin and steep and would have been harder but for the expected track. We're pleased with our speed up to Gouter so press on with faith: previously we'd all been pretty doubtful we'd make it.

Higher the wind starts to cold us and we start longing for the sun. But when we break into sun the wind picks up and we stay cold. Perhaps we're slow to react and protect. Grateful to reach Vallot abri 4360 and respite shiver inside under blankets. E off to toilet returns amused and shocked by their appalling state. Some others come in who have come up from Italian side even colder. Swap fleece for new down and lend D my spare thermal top but E must continue in leggings there is a lesson for us in carrying spares. My hands btw were a little cold in down mitts plus outer mitts but didn't feel the wind.

We have about 400 m to go how hard can that be? Above views glorious and to sides and below if only the wind would let us rest. It's snow ridge all the way except one brief col and looks infinite. Up!

200 m to go: now near certain we will make it and in decent time. But tired. Axes on packs cos can't be bothered to extract a bit dodgy meh the exposures are in general fine.

Note: although many other parties the mountain is so hugeous we're usually alone.

And so the top. 10:30 I think. Group hug. Happy. Brief rest brief selfie and pix it is v windy off down. Get out axe.

Vallot: brief discussion but rest outside in sun wind less here sheltered by hut. Some choc but hard to eat when it doesn't melt in mouth really we should have eaten and drunk more.

Gouter 1:30 realise we can make last train so rest most of 1 h I practically sleep off 2:25 I make camp de base 3:55 pack and clear by the time D then E arrive off 4:20? last train 6:30 E assures me we took 1:30 up so can beat that down well actually no but close and we get the train with 30 mins margin.

Pick hotel on train down - the wonders of our modern world - in les Houches nothing special 3 befs one room; shower gratefully face tender; late pizza dinner.

8/4 Sunday: day off. B'fast 8 then check out then walk 200m to center aka t-junction slow cafe-n-cards in shade its a sunny day then off uphill back to Cx. Biollay full so go bit further to lift parking also crowded - midday sunday high season whodaguessed - but find space to center cafe hotel Pointe Isabella good stay for lunch good must stay here next time. 3 to hotel le Cx checkin - recognised. I have double 3rd floor nice balcony.

All of us are feeling well used let us say esp feet and faces and misc scrapes so not intent to do anything. Oh except phone Cosmiques.

Bad beekeeping 2019

A short summary post, mostly so I can point people to it, should they want to know batch numbers for any of my honey. Not that I think that is likely.

Recolte: Saturday 2019/6/22, so nearly solstice honey.
Hive pix: see this facebook post.
Youtube: vid of filtering.

* Batch number: COTON / 2019 / WMC / OF / V. "OF" is "Old Faithful" is the hive to the left in the pix; "V" is virgin, i.e. filtered only, no heating.
* Batch number: COTON / 2019 / WMC / OF / HT. "OF" as before, "HT" is for "heat treated". Do not despise the honey for this; done properly it doesn't affect the taste, but does leave it rather freer-flowing and less likely to set.
* Batch number: COTON / 2019 / WMC / CT / V. "OF" is "Copper Top" is the hive to the right in the pix; "V" is virgin, i.e. filtered only, no heating.

Honey related fun

* Honey in Antarctica (tweet).

Refs

* 2017: autumn beekeeping
* 2016: bad beekeeping
* 2015: swarm collection and autumn: more incompetent beekeeping
* 2014: bad beekeeping
* 2010: bad beekeeping
* 2009: bad beekeeping

Book review: Grass

Grass, by Sheri S. Tepper. As foreshadowed in my review of Raising the Stones. This is the second time I've read it, and I liked it again. Give me a decade to forget the details and I might even read it again. As I said at RtS, Grass is much better, though having read RtS some of the flaws of Grass become more obvious; most obviously the rather unsubtle philosophy, although it is done much better here than in RtS.

This review is rather perceptive, pointing out a variety of flaws. The letter is so crass as to be almost not a hole, more just an allow-me-this-license, but still. And the sheer awfulness of the church hierarchy as portrayed rather reminds me of the Evil Patriarchy of RtS; she isn't very good at shades of grey. The shame here is that the Evil Church isn't really needed, or could have a much smaller role; in the end, they don't really do anything. The virus, meh, well I suppose it had to have some explanation.

A more subtle hole is what one often finds with these discovering-things-on-strange-planets type books: the unbelievable amateurishness of the "science" or investigation, the degree that things are unsurveilled or the authorities uninterested, and artefacts uninvestigated.

Having said all that, it's a decent story well told that carries you along, especially if you mostly blip over the philosophy.

Incidentally... as an ex-climatologist... I think the notion of an all-grass planet just won't work. Wot no rivers? All the landscape uniformly flat? No seas, no deserts? Pole-to-equator temperature difference so small that grass can survive everywhere? Somewhat similarly to Dune, these points aren't really explored.

Book review: Raising the Stones

Raising the Stones aka Arbai #2 by Sheri S. Tepper is a follow-on to Grass, except it isn't really. Grass is excellent (I'm currently in the middle of re-reading it and will review it when finished [now done]) as was The Gate to Women's Country (which I've recently re-read and ought to review). RtS is only very weakly a follow-on, so much so that if you didn't know you wouldn't realise; it is "in the same universe". However, it is a much weaker and worse book than Grass; cruder and less textured. Though to be fair, I did enjoy reading it.

Some of it reminds me of the weaker Jack Vance's - an isolated solar system with different wacky cultures - but without his poetry of language. With him, because it is all for fun, you accept the funny cultures and don't worry about how they could have evolved or survived. But Tepper is Terribly Serious about her Themes, so can't have the same licence.

Speaking of Themes, I should mention them. The main one, laid on with a trowel, is how bad patriarchal cultures that denigrate women are. Unfortunately this is a well-worn topic and she has nothing new to say; and the culture she designs² is so terrible that any chance of subtlety is lost. Here's someone else rather disenchanted with the "philosophy".

The other theme - and here I will be giving some of the book away, don't read this if you still want to read it, though I'm only giving a small bit away - is "how much freedom do you give up for happiness"? Or at least, that's the label I'm putting on a god-like probably-intelligent fungus that spreads underground, and encourage people to spread it. The GLPIF appears benevolent in the book; it only kills bad people, but since these are Really Bad people from the Really Bad Patriarchal Culture, no-one mourns them and the book doesn't really trouble itself with whether killing them ws fine or not. The other thing it does is transmit information, and gently smooth away conflicts in society, so that people don't even notice that the conflicts have gone. This is, unquestionably, messing with people's heads; and yet the book ducks the problem, by having all the main characters agree that yeah, it's all fine. There's also a smaller sub-plot in which another culture, which started with a prophetess¹ telling them messing-with-heads-is-bad, who have morphed that to include not cutting their hair. So if some kind of illuminating tension between GLPIF and messing-with-heads was intended well no, it wasn't illuminating.

My own feeling on this would be very much that the book is deceptive, and effectively draws you into the idea that surrendering freedom of mind for happiness is good. In a way, this is what TGTWC does too, in that it's based on Plato. So perhaps I can suggest that Tepper is so unhappy / outraged about the treatment of women in the world that she's going to give up some freedom of mind for happiness. In a book, the GLPIF can be entirely benevolent - or maybe just playing a long game, who knows - but in the real world, the people you're giving up your freedom to are very unlikely to be benevolent.

Notes

1. The prophetess is called Morgori Oestrydingh. Geddit? No, neither did I. Until I just read that the Trilogy is called the Marjorie Westriding series. Geddit?

2. Called the Voorstoders. I didn't recognise it. This footnotes The Voorstoders are obviously meant (in name and culture) to invoke the Afrikaaner Voortrekkers. Well they do, in terms of subjugation of women (at least I imagine the Vootrekkers did; actually I know little about them) but towards the end there's stuff about virgins-in-paradise which seemed to point towards Muslims. Perhaps they're just a confused mish-mash.

Notes for climbing Mont Blanc

I'm thinking of climbing Mont Blanc this summer, with my children (17 and 21) and without a guide. This post is some notes to myself. Notes for anyone else: I was middle-of-a-rope on the Brenva spur 30 years ago and descended fro the top of that alone back to Aiguille du Midi, so am currently puzzled by the AD-D rate given to that route (i.e., Cosmiques) as ascent.

General resources:

* Petzl leaflet showing the 7 "normal" routes. Gives Gouter PD and Cosmiques PD+. Seems fair.
* Mont Blanc 4810m - 5 Routes to the Summit by Francois Damilano - book
* Mont Blanc Classic and Plaisir Guidebook - book of 80 routes
* The Mont Blanc Range: Classic Snow, Ice and Mixed Climbs - The Book. Now arrived.

Actual plans

Note: planning a full three weeks is presumptuous. Oh ye gods of the mountains, know that I know that this is all tentative.

* 07/20: leave 10 am; to Besancon [booked, hotel Citadele].
* 07/21: arrive Chamonix / le Tour; to Albert Premier [booked].
* 07/22: Aiguille du Tour; back to ref [booked]
* 07/23: Tete Blanche / Petit Fourche? To valley [booked, hotel le Chamonix, town center]
* 07/24: To Couvercle [booked]
* 07/25: Pointe Isabella, Couvercle [booked]
* 07/26: Moine? Courtes? To valley, or another refuge?
* 07/27
* 07/28
* 07/29
* 07/30
* 07/31
* 08/01: to Tete Rousses "camp de base" [booked]
* 08/02: Mt Blanc; back to cdb [booked]
* 08/03: descent, or reserve day
* 08/04:
* 08/05: to Cosmiques [booked]
* 08/06: Mt Blanc; back to Cosmiques [booked]
* 08/07: descent or reserve day
* 08/08: leave
* 08/09: return to Coton early in the day

Gouter

There's a nice video of the Gouter Route (aka "View Normale") here, which helpfully  includes some pix of the refuges. It also shows you a little of the Grand Couloir, which as I understand it is the icky / dangerous bit. Another, with drone footage! They seems to have stopped in the Refuge Vallot, which is supposed to be an emergency shelter only.

Note that the Gouter is at ~3800, so makes for an easier summit day by ~200 m than Cosmiques.

Here's a bloke soloing it, looks like quite a nice video starting from 2300 m (he ends up arriving at the Gouter - late in the day, so they can't force him to descend - but they charge him E30 extra and get get to sleep in the boot-room since the hut is full). At this point he's nearly at the Tete Rousse, and you can see people camping, though clearly they are getting sniffy about that in 2019. This also seems to show him - and others, so he isn't just a lone nut - fearlessly climbing the Grand Couloir in mid-afternoon; when I'd thought that rockfall made early morning mandatory (vid: rockfall; another; perhaps a clearer one: I think the problem is one crossing). In fact this Petzl document is particularly helpful, has pics and "accidentology". This (2004) discussion says stay at the Tete Rousse and start at 3am. In 2015 it was shut for a while due to deaths.

A blog of someone climbing it from Les Houches in a slightly mad up-n-back in two days.

Cosmiques

And a video here. Doesn't look technically any harder than the Dome de Neige. A vid including some interior of the Cosmiques hut. There appears to be one difficult section on Mont Maudit.

You can camp on the glacier below (around from) the Aiguille du Midi, or stay in the Cosmiques hut. Either way you start from ~3600 and have ~1200 to go up.

Here's one of someone soloing it, after his friend decides not to do Tacul because of an avalanche the previous day in which two people die... no accounting for taste. Nice views of the Maudit "steep bit". Quasi-insanely they appear to have walked up the Mer de Glace over a couple of days, camping en route.

Pretty well everyone gets to Cosmiques via the cable car. But walking (Montenvers to Requin then up the glacier) may also be possible and perhaps good fun and acclimatising. See this SummitPost, or this proper planned course.

Other stuff

A somewhat dismissive title. But there is lots lots more than two huts and one mountain, obvs.

Tour of the Mer de Glace: Requin, Leschaux, Couvercle.

Torino

The Rif Torino is on the Italian side, you'd never guess. Website. It's reached with by walking up from the French side, or by cable car from teh Italian side, which makes it open lots of the year. Vid of Torino to Mt Blanc du Tacul.

Envers des Auiguilles

Fairly readily accessible from the mountain railway. Various rock routes: Bec d'Oiseau.

Couvercle

From the Mer de Glace (Montenvers railway). Vid: 3 jours autour du refuge du Couvercle, featuring walk in, Pointe Isabella (route 8 in The Book) and L'Aiguille du Moine (rock).

Web page. Says may be being partially renovated in the summer but "Toutefois des places seront disponibles". Or this page says "However if there is work, some places will be available on weekdays and weekends, but limited! It will be essential to contact us by phone at 06.87.99.01.66 (no internet reservations possible for now)." But the reservation page now seems fine.

A recent report on Pointe Isabella.