Saturday, August 25, 2012

Alpine Training




After a long time and children grown up Helen and Martin Whitehouse had decided to restart their mountaineering careers. They hired me to brush up on their skills and look at how equipment and techniques have evolved.
The weather was blisteringly hot and conditions in the mountains were poor because everything was melting and falling apart.
We started our 3 days together by kicking off on the Mer de Glace making sure Helen and Martin knew all there was to know about modern crampons axes and ice screw belays.
Day two: We headed up the Grands Montets where we spent the morning working on crevasse rescue. In the afternoon we climbed the spectacular Aiguille du Grands Montets Ridge.
Day three : We traversed the Aiguille du Crochue. We moved very quickly and so I decided to hand the rope over to Martin and Helen so that they could perfect "moving together" under their own steam. Finally in what has become a bit of a tradition Helen and I swam in Lac Blanc. Unfortunately Martin was too much of a whimp to join us.

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