'Needle of Rochefort' — the rocky spike on the Rochefort ridge ('strong rock' in French), companion to the Dôme de Rochefort.
Sharp summit on the famous Rochefort ridge connecting the Dent du Géant to the Grandes Jorasses, reached by an exposed snow arête.
The lower of the two summits on the Rochefort ridge, taken on the same 12 August 1873 outing on which Eccles and the Payot brothers also reached the Dôme. The Aiguille is a true knife-edged snow arête for several hundred metres of its summit ridge and is the part of the traverse that gives the route its character — when conditions are bad it is sometimes turned back from despite its modest grade.
Route lines are approximate — drawn from guidebook waypoints, not GPS tracks. Don't navigate by them.
