Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival.

...Now bear in mind that we began out ascent of the great behemoth at 10:43. We reached the summit at 10:59. The snow started to fall at 11.10. Our decision to abort the mission and leave in the face of gale force winds and increasing snowfall (as evidenced in the top photograph), was taken at 11:23.

It was at this point that Henry turned to me and said - in a French accent, oddly - "Daddy, Henry a bit cold".

So we headed back.

Here is the view from Henry's window as we endeavoured to manoeuvre our way out of the pickle we found ourselves in. Even the normally stoic Elmo was a little perturbed by the tempest that had arisen around us.



I will not lie to you, there were tears. A quick slap in the face from Henry calmed me down however, and we made our way gingerly back down to civilisation (via the bakery). To emphasise the shifts in weather, the photograph below was taken at 11:41, just eighteen minutes after the one at the top of the post. Finalmente!

Having learned our lesson, we begged her forgiveness. In her mighty majestic manner, she gave it freely.


On the way back, we sat in silence and considered our near brush with DEATH.

That's not quite true actually, we had Justine Clark's I like to sing on the car stereo, and I've not had a moment without the bugger circling my brain since.

But that, as they say, is another story.