Four years for the Haute Route

Peter Whelan Nigel Costain and I set off on the Haute Route four years ago. We met John Howarth along the way. Like so many times we got bombed out by bad weather in Arolla. We met up each year but the weather thwarted us each time.
This time we again met in Arolla and were joined by John Norris , the well known Chamonix photographer and Rachel Campbell who wanted to know what all the fuss was about.
We headed up to the Bouqutins bivy laden down with food bottles of Claret and Champagne. Needles to say we had a very pleasant time. in the morning starting around 6.00am we headed off. We arrived at the final col - the col du Vallpeline at 11.30am and then skied down 2000 vertical meters into Zermatt for a big celebration.

Dangerous Sisters Hit Zermatt

Andrea and Florenece were invited by Maighread Simmons to fly to Zermatt for a days skiing. We flew across the Haute Route and landed at the top of the resort at 9.00am. We had lunch at the Riffelalp Hotel and in the afternoon we flew back to Chamonix. We left Zermatt at 3.40pm and Andrea was at her recorder lesson at 4.30pm

Winter Mountaineering Skills

Bob Mccormik came out for the weekend inorder to gain some mountaineering skills before he headed off to attempt Mt Elbrus in the summer. We spent the first day learning how to use Ice axe and crampons on the Mer de Glace. Strangely it was far warmer than in the summer and we had the place to ourselves. On Sunday we headed up the Aiguille du Midi and climbed Pt Lachanael. Again we had the place to ourselves and enjoyed perfect weather.

Gibo Club comes to Europe

The Gibo Heliski team joined me to Heliski in Switzerland. The team was lead by [the President] Peter Folkman. With him were David Freud Peter Ward and Ian Ansell. Air Glacier provided us with a helicopter. The first day it snowed so we could not fly. Instead we skied in Combloux in deep powder. On Tuesday we skied from the Trient Plateau into Champex. After a delicious lunch we flew to the top of the Pigne d'arolla and skied into Arolla. That night it snowed so we skied from the lift system. On Thursday we were dropped on the Petit Combin and we skied down to the glacier skinned up the other side and arrived in Mauvosin. We spent the night at the Hotel des Alps in Orsieres. On Friday we had two flights from the Rosablnache. The first descent down to Mauvoisin was mixted with a rather icy gully. The second down to Siviez was a perfect way to finish the week

Strange Where the Clients come from

Seven years ago I fished Wouter out of a crevasse on Les Grands Montets and gave his father my card. Last week they phoned up and asked me to take them ski touring. We did the Col Du Crochue /Berard valley in varied snow but beautiful weather.

Busy Weekend

So I was persuaded by Chris Kevin Adam Pete and Steve to make a rare trip into the Valley Blanche. Surprisingly it was not busy. We had good weather and good snow. We decided to ski all the way back to Chamonix. This was spiced up by the need to use the rope to lower everyone off the end off the glacier. Next day we skied off the back of Le Tour. With a short 15 minute skin we found trackless snow.
On Saturday night Andrea and Florence presented the Bibs to the World Cup skiers at Kandahar.

The Four Heads

So today we planned to climb Point Percee but the road was closed. so we went for a plan B. We went back to the same area as yesterday and climbed the Quatre Tetes. Again quite a lot of up - over 1400 meters but it was worth it because we skied the north face which had plenty of cold fluffy snow- ideal for making lots of turns.

The Gulley above the Supermarket

we had a very good day to day. Chris Dovell and Simon Warren and I climbed up the Couloir de Doran and then skied some very nice snow back to the car

Six resorts in six days

John Cackett and two of his sons Finn and Leo skied six different resorts in six days.
On Tuesday we skied in Combloux and had an excellent lunch at the Auberge du Christomet.
Wednesday it snowed and snowed as we skied super light powder in Courmayeur
Thursday we had blue skies in Verbier.
On friday we skied in St Gervais and had lunch in a real life mngolian Yurt
Saturday we skied in La Thuile where the snow was perfect and so was the lunch at the Offshore.
Sunday we went to the top secret resort of Champex where we skied untracked snow through the trees and finished with another very good lunch at the Lac du Champex.

Flying Grannies go Supercharged.

The Flying Grannies convened in Klosters and were all on very good form. We had excellent conditions and the tree skiing was too good to be true. However if anything the snow was rather deep and so it was decided that they should hire "Nordica Superchargers." Now we had "supercharged grannies" and there was now no stopping them. Huge off piste descents were made from the top of the Gipfel all the way down to the valley time and again. Certainly one of the best flying Granny trips of the last fifteen years and there have been many to choose from.
They are possibly the most experienced off piste ski group in the world with over 350 years of skiing between them.

End of the year.

I can not rememeber a better Christmas for skiing, it has been cold and clear with a good base of snow. This morning we awoke to 10 cm of fresh snow.

A Real Winter.

We are having a good start to the winter. There is plenty of snow and it is cold- very cold minus 15 each morning for the last week

Best Pre season snow ever.

For the last few days It has just snowed and snowed. I have spent over eight hours just clearing snow. Today it stopped and the sun came out [sort off] Despite the best efforts of the Grands Montets staff to not open enough lifts we still had some of the best early season skiing I have ever known.

Walter Bonatti Hut

We drove through the Mt Blnc Tunnel to a different world. Stacks of snow, cold and great touring conditions. Gavin Foster and I skinned up to the Walter Bonatti Hut and then skied back down through the larch trees. Not bad considering it is still only November

Walter Puppy

A new Bernese Mountain Dog arrived this weekend. He is called Walter. He is eight weeks old. Also we went skiing at Les Grands Montets for the first time this season. Conditions are quite good and there is a good snow cover above 2000 meters

FIRST SNOW

So I have not posted a blog for a while because it was between seasons. We did have perfect weather for week after week, but despite this no one seemed to want to employ me so I decided to paint the house instead. I just managed this before it snowed and got very cold.
Last week we had about 50 cm of fresh snow in the garden and temperatures down to minus ten. Photo was taken by Gavin Foster wwww.skiweekend.com

October mountaineering is as good as any time to be here

Reuben Berg and his son carved out time from thier busy schedules to meet up in Chamonix, chill out and do a couple of days climbing together.
Later in the week Gareth and Caroline made the leap from hill walkers to mountaineers. We climbed the Aiguille du Toule high up in the valley blanche. The next day we took the Aigulle du Midi lift and climbed Pt Lachanael.
On Saturday Agust Gudmundsson and his brother Lydur and their children did thier first rock climbs at Les Gaillands in warm sunny weather.

Leo the Mountain Dog is dead.

This was not a good day in the Seaton household. Leo the Mountain Dog had to be put down this afternoon because despite huge doses of morphine he was crippled by agony due to arthritus and many other problems. He was ten and a half years old and had been a faithful companion to me on many epic ski tours . He looked after Andrea Florenece and Sophie all thier lives without eating any of them or thier freinds. Apart from the girls his passion in life was stealing cheese by braking into neighbours houses and of course pigs ears which he got as an extra special treat. We are all extremely upset.

Wendy Crabb back for some late season climbing

Wendy Crabb flew out to Chamonix for a few days and we climbd the Aiguille du Marbree 3500meters which is high up in the Valley Blanche on the Franc- Italian border.
The next day the weather was indifferent so we drove to Martigny [Switzerland] and we went rock climbing. Wendy took to this lke a "Duck to water."

Early Snow

A big dump of snow last Tuesday put a lot of the higher routes out of condition. Roger Brookes and Martin Read and I had to make some careful descisions about where we should go. In very cold conditins we climbed the Pt Lachanal as our "warm up" route. The next day we climbed the Aiguille de Entreves. On our third day we drove around to the Emosson day and climbed the Aiguille du Van. A beautiful rocky scramble giving some of the best views of MT Blanc in the range.
On our finl day and having let someone else cut the track we climbed Mt Blanc du Tacul 4200m.

Perfect weather and conditions

Peter Little and I enjoyed some very good climbing in the Chere Couloir on Mt Blanc du Tacul. This is a steep Ice climb of about five pitches. The ice was like cork and conditions were perfect. Then we climbed the Aiguille de Rochfort [4001 meters] by its famous ridge.

The North Face of the Eiger.

Charles Sherwood and I climbed the North Face of the Eiger in difficult and snowy conditions. We had two bivy's on the face and one on the summit. We descended by the south ridge. Four days climbing and no sleep but euphoria rules.

Three Countries in three seconds

Charles Sherwood and I climbed the arete Gallet on Mt Dolent 3820m. Yeterday afternoon we walked up to the Mt Dolent Bivy Hut. This morning we set off at 5.00am and reached the summit at 10.15am The top is the meeting point of three countries France Italy and Switzerland. We arrived back at the car at 3.oopm. For 24 hours we saw no one. A big day and very good day out.

Harvey and his Dad tackle multi pitch climbing

Harvey Dovell [7 years old] and Chris his Dad climbed thier first multi pitch rock climb together to day high above Chamonix on Le Brevent. They also got caught in thier first alpine storm. Luckily we found a deep dark cave to hide in. Harvey thought the cave was "dead good."

Scary bridges

We all went on a family outing to do the Via Ferrata de Curalla AD+. Florence noted [and we all agreed] that the first wire- bridge suspended above the void was scary.

Albert the Alpinist

Over the years Chris Boulton and I have climbed and skied all over the Alps. This time Chris returned with his eldest son Albert [12 years]. It was Albert's first time alpine climbing. We spent the first day on the Mer De Glace learning how to use crampons and ice axes.[In the rain!] The second day we climbed the Aiguille du Toule [3495m] which is high up in the Valley Blanche perched on the French Italian border. On our third day we went rock climbing. We started in Chamonix and then we took the cable car to the Summit of Le Brevent and climbed on the crags near the top.

Girls on Tour

So Andrea had a 8.45am tennis match. She was then met by her Father and Lucy [Our Au Pair] and we then climbed the 600 meter Via Cordia in the astonishingly fast time of an hour and half. Andrea then went for another swim and then went for a two hour mountain bike ride and then finished the day with another swim.

First Alpine Climb

Oliver Nailard and John Fitt asked me if I could set them off in the right direction so that they could go off and climb some mountains on their own. We spent the first day on the Mer de Glace the second climbing the aiguille du Crochue and the third climbing Pt Lachenal 3613m

Emrich Brothers do thier first alpine climb

Tom and Luke climbed the route "La Tartiflette" at Le Brevent today. This afternoon Florence Seaton[6years] lead their sister Lize [7 year] up some of the classic climbs at Les Gaillands- Chamonix's famous climbing crag.