REPORTAGE – Crystal hunters have been roaming the mountain since the dawn of time. With the melting of the ice, which experienced an exceptional episode this year, the mountain is discovering more and more treasures.
In the high altitudes of our mountains, the force with which the elements open out is always surprising. After a week of terrible storms, here we are walking on the Glacier du Géant in a sunbath, surrounded by the most legendary mountains of mountaineering, eminences plastered with fresh snow in the North, rocky points reddened by the weather in the South. In the heart of the Mont Blanc massif, we taste the rediscovered indifference of the heights, an essential condition for our expedition.
The rope winds between the crevices towards a succession of small needles. In the lead, Jean-Franck Charlet, guide and above all crystal hunter, and second, Danièle, his companion. Near the cliff, the ice leans against the rock. The guide stops on the snowy ridge which surmounts the top of the corbelled glacier and draws his binoculars to examine the wall. Random streaks draw more precisely.
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