In reply to Fredt:
> (In reply to Gordon Stainforth)
>
> Thanks Gordon, the second question was going to be "were you there in September 1971"
> (maybe I should have put the month in the first question!)
>
> Anyway Gordon, might I ask if you recall any names of other (British) people who were there and may have stayed into September.
When I arrived at Snell's field in mid-August, after a very good season in Bernina/Bregaglia, the weather had turned bad - so
everyone was back in Chamonix celebrating a good year. Among those I remember who were definitely there were: Mick Geddes, Al Rouse, Brian Hall, Pete Minks, Brian Molyneux, Roger Baxter-Jones, my brother, and John Syrett; plus a large crowd of us from the South Wales Mountaineering Club. Huge numbers of other 'names' whom I've forgotten. Rab Carrington, almost certainly. Al Harris, maybe.
> I have one name so far, - Mick Geddes. Strangely I have no record of Al Rouse that year, though he was certainly there in 70 and 72.
He was definitely there. (See below)
> I'm trying to build a picture of what things were like generally that summer amongst the British crowd, through to early September.
It was a year of a monumental piss-up at Maurice's - which would have been on the Saturday night of 14 August. It ended up with the Japs and the Brits standing on tables facing each other, singing very obscene versions of various well-known songs (the Brits led by Pete Minks, IIRC). Actually, it didn't end there, because someone fell off the balcony into the river, and I ended up driving Al Rouse, Brian Hall and John Syrett on a crazy late-night escapade.
As a result, the gendarmarie came up the track to Snell's field the very next morning and lined everyone up in front of the huge boulder to take a group photograph of 'suspects'. It just so happened that I was in the woods taking a crap, so was fortunate enough to miss this. The most incredible thing, though, was that, on top of the very boulder - a bit bigger than the largest of the Cromlech boulders - that was a backdrop to the photograph, was sitting a huge park bench that had been stolen the night before from somewhere in the middle of Chamonix, and the police never spotted it! They obviously never looked up!!
> Were you at Snell's field? Any anecdotes, descriptions of conditions, weather etc would be most welcome.
I could write a lot just about that one Saturday night, and the amazing aftermath, courtesy of Syrett and Rouse working in unison. ... Though that may actually have happened on the Sunday night ...