I'm interested if anyone has direct experience of the route from the Eccles Bivouac Hut over the col Eccles to the upper Freney plateau and could confirm my understanding.
If there is good snow cover, then the descent from the Col Eccles to the Freney plateau and, more important, the re-ascent to the Col Eccles is doable. But, my understanding is that if the snow cover is poor then you can abseil down to the Freney Plateau (as this is also the way down to the Freney Pillar) but it's very hard to climb back up.
Is that the case?
That implies that if a party backs off the Freney Pillar it might be very difficult to get back. Although, I guess if you can climb the Freney Pillar it might not be quite so bad to get back out.
It also makes me wonder why the Italians haven't put in some sort of fixed line down the abseils to make it possible to get back out in an emergency.
Thanks.
