In reply to graham F:
If it makes you feel any better, I turned back from about 3900m on the Grand Paradiso, zero visibility, heavy falling snow, fresh snow layer over old ice, generally full-on seriousness. Had to front point down a LONG steep snow slope (very hard to tell in zero vis how steep it was), to get out of the situation, when I wasn't quite sure of where it lead to.
Post edited at 12:20