Uninspiring and really dangerous alpine conditions.

Another unwelcome heat wave hit the western Alps. The result is that all the snow has been stripped from the glaciers [there wasn't much anyway] The snow that glued all the rocks in place has melted, resulting in massive stone-fall issues. For example , the Gouter route on Mt Blanc is closed for business on the advice of the Préfet de la Haute Savoie: We are into new territory in the sense of alpine conditions in late June. Over the last 10 years the Alps have seen conditions similar to the present ones , BUT they have tended to be at the end of the season. Not at the beginning of the season. Anyway you can charge on blindly with your fixed agenda , pretending that the above letter is just scaremongering , or you can adapt your climbing aspirations. So bearing all this in mind Steve Woollard and I choose to climb long rock climbs which were made of solid rock and objectively safe. On Monday 26th June we drove up to the Emosson Dam and climbed the superb 10 pitch route the Acqua Concert. Tuesday 27th. The weather forecast suggested that this would be our last good day of weather for the week. We headed around to Verbier , drove through the town and then up through the Savoleyres pistes finally parking the Land Rover Defender at 2370 meters. From there it was half an hours walk to the Pierre Avoi where we climbed L'Arete. Once we arrived at the top Steve said that he thought, situationaly , it was one of the best climbs he had ever done. [Steve had done a lot of climbing!]

Wednesday 28th . The weather forecast was correct it rained and we agreed to take the day off. Thursday 29th The forecast was poor for Chamonix the temperature had plummeted . We had a good look at all the forecasts and it seemed that there was a possibility of clear weather in the morning , but only south of Aosta. So I scooped Steve up at 6.45am and we drove down to Arnad. We were at the foot of the route ,the famous and sought after, Bucce d"Arnancia. All was good apart from the fact that it was running with streaks of water which made it much much harder than we would have wanted it to be. At least the water in the cracks was warm. We walked off the top of the crag and stopped in the mystical village of Machaby at the Fort for a cappuccino. This proved to be a minor mistake because we got caught in the afternoon thunderstorm. Friday 30th . The overnight storms had put down unseasonable snow on the peaks around Chamonix. We drove through to Switzerland this time heading down the Rhone valley to Lavey Les Bains. Here there is the little known , but utterly spectacular pillar de la Pissechevre. Eight pitches of steep atmospheric climbing which culminates with the intimidatingly steep final pitch.