Setting off from the Col de Geant late one afternoon, John and I climbed until after midnight when we scraped a narrow ledge under the cornice of an ice arete beyond the Dome de Rochefort. After a cold night we made it to the Canzio bivouac before a storm imprisoned us for two nights. Alberto joined us; he was going the other way. The three of us descended to Chamonix after the new snow avalanched. 'The door was blocked by a huge snowdrift; unable to get out, we renamed the refuge, Hotel California.'