Sunrise at 4,810m

Two winters of stairwells, weighted packs and 4am alarms led to one morning above the clouds. We left the refuge at 2:40am and reached the summit as the horizon turned copper.

I stood there for eleven minutes — I know because I checked. The sky went from ink to rose to gold, and I remember thinking that nobody would ever be able to describe it back to me properly.

So I had it made. The dial carries the sky over Chamonix at 06:14 on the morning I summited.