In reply to Webster:
> excuse you? his post was specifically about Argentiere, i.e. chamonix!
Yes, but there's still the (to some unthinkable) option of going somewhere else. It's not the first time that discussions about the conditions in Chamonix are extrapolated to the whole of the Alps. I suspect what you genuinely meant was that if the mountaineering routes around Chamonix are out then you have only two options: rock climb in Chamonix or go home. And that mountaineering somewhere else in the Alps simply isn't an option.
And, there are lots of threads on here where that is the logic: things were bad round Cham, so we came home. I know people who have done that - spend a week in Cham in bad weather and come home early, while elsewhere in the Alps (be it Italy, Switzerland or the Ecrins) conditions are good.
I was in touch with someone recently who simply wouldn't countenance leaving the Chamonix area. He'd rather go home than climb elsewhere.
Post edited at 12:34