I think you do yourself and H a dis-service, Jon. There's only one other like this in the UKC gallery! So not a cliche, IMHO

Yes, perhaps not Peter - but I seem to have seen this shot a few times elsewhere. When I first did this route, there was an old bit of steel pipe sticking out of the crack, that you clove hitched a sling to. Now there are three bits of fixed gear, the third of which I'm clipping. But worst of all is that there are half a dozen deep drilled footholds up the once smooth wall.

I'd heard about those - perfect as long as your crampons are standard issue! The cynic in me is always a trifle amused at people being shocked at holes drilled in the rock on something that has a restaurant, a microwave tower (I presume that's what the thing on top is that looks like an emergency abort stage for an Apollo space capsule), cables, two active teleferiques and the remains of a third, etc etc...
But perhaps it's just the cynicism of one who is baffled as to why he's never done this route. My usual excuse of laziness won't work here....
:)

Ha, yes I suppose you're right. Strange isn't it. I once had a discussion about sport climbing with someone in the Mönchsjoch hut. He was incandescent with righteous anger about the drilling of holes in rock for bolts - when he'd just ridden up there in the Jungfraujoch railway, surely the biggest drilled hole in a mountain in the world!

Looks a great shot to me.

Thanks Mick. Oh OK, I might change the caption. What about *Geriatric scales Mount Blanc*?