A few things I recall about the Gendarme.
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Someone tried to blow it up years earlier. They failed to topple it, but probably expedited its demise. Glad I got to do it, though I might have chosen not to, had I realize how badly it had been fractured.
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The unwritten rule in my day was that for an ascent to count, you had to stand on the summit. That might sound like no big deal, but as one of your pics shows, the summit was tilted about 40 degrees which, combined with the exposure, took some fortitude.