The Dom

What a great trip this was for Peter Little and I . The Dom is the highest mountain in Switzerland and has the biggest ascent from the road head of any mountain in the alps. 3000 vertical meters.
The hut walk is about 4.30 hours. Breakfast was at a grim 2.30am and the ascent was 6.30hours to reach the summit.

The descent had various issues because the weather was so warm and the snow bridges were like butter plus the crevasses were massive. It was critical that we had lots of rope out between us even so there were a few heart in the mouth moments as we sank through the snow sometimes up to our waists.

Mind you any rope is better than no rope. We came across a rescue. Some guy had set off to climb the Dom on his own. He fell in a crevasse. The Hut Guardian reported him missing. Air Zermatt searched the glacier , found his foot prints leading into a big hole. Two Guides went down the crevasses and found him alive but only just. He was air lifted to Berne to "thaw" out.

After the Dom Peter and I were quite tired, we stopped at the Dom hut for a huge pile of Rosti before making our descent.

An Introduction to Alpine Mountaineering

I have just finished a great week with 6 very keen aspiring Mountaineers Andy Alistair Kirsty Julia Mike and Olivier.

On our first day we headed up to La Flegere where we spent the morning throwing our selves down the mountain side and learning how to stop using he Ice Axe. In the afternoon we climbed the Aiguille de la Gliere.
On Tuesday we headed up to the Mer de Glace where we learnt how to use crampons and had a go at some steep ice climbing.
On Wednesday we trekked across the Valley Blanche to Italy and the returned via the bubbles to the Aiguille du Midi.
On Thursday we had a very comprehensive day extracting each other form a large crevasse just below the Les Grands Montets. We finished the day by climbing the aiguille de Grands Montets and clambering over the railings and onto the viewing platform.
Our final day we headed to the Emosson Dam and climbed the imposing Aiguille du Van.
We all then met up for Dinner chez Seaton and finished with a football match in the garden.

Frison Roche Climb

I had a day off today so Andrea and I went to climb one of the most dramatic climbs which over look Chamonix. We took the lift up to the top of Le Brevent Cable car then ran down the snow to the foot of the route.
This was to be Andrea's first big multi pitch route. 5 steep pitches of grades 6a, 5b, 5c ,6a, 5c. complete with Rucksack. Not bad for 11 years old. We were back home for lunch

Perfect weather for a 1st visit to Chamonix

This is what Bob and Sue Rlloram got when they visited Chamonix to climb with me.
We had a very pleasant five days together sampling all sorts of alpine adventures.
On our first day we climbed the Aiguille des Glieres where we could get use to climbing steep snow and some simple scrambling.
Day 2 we climbed the Aiguille du Toule which over looks Courmayeur and has spectactular views of practically everywhere.
Day 3 We took the Aiguille du Midi cable car and we descended into the Valley Blanche before climbing Point Lachaenel.
Day 4 We were back in the Aiguille Rouge to get to grips with alpine rocky scrambling.
Day 5 With everyone feeling a little tired we opted for a day rock climbing above Le Brevent. This was Sue,s first ever rock climbing and I think she quite liked it.

MT BLANC 4810

The weather finally came good at exactly the right time for us. Reuben Berg and I climbed Mt Blanc at 7.15am this morning.
Nevertheless when we met the week before prospects didn't look good. It was cold and raining in the valley and high up there was stacks of fresh snow. However despite all this doom and gloom the long term weather forecast was good for the nights we had booked in to the Gouter hut. So our priority was to gain as much acclimatisation as possible because with out this Mt Blanc would be impossible.

There is probably a small book to be written about our novel attempts to get acclimatised in such terrible weather, but needless to say it worked. Tuesday everything clicked and we powered our way up to the Gouter Hut, arriving ahead of everyone else and bagged the best beds Wednesday we awoke at 1.45am and were away by 2.45am. Perfect conditions underfoot although a little windy. a great trip.

Windy Weather

Norrie & Jane Nicoll called me the other week [I climbed Mt Blanc with Norrie 15 years ago] and they said "what can we do for 3 days which will be fun, not to tiring and not too scary [Only a little scary]"
So on our first day we climbed the beautiful long Via Cordia. The next day I persuaded them to do the Via Ferratta at Plateau D'Assey [as featured in the MTMG video]
Then yesterday the plan was to go for an expedition on the Mer de Glace and learn how to use an Ice axe and crampons. However this didn't work because as we were waiting for the train it was announced that it had closed because the wind was too strong.
So we needed a plan B. As so often in this game there was no plan B, but we quickly came up with one: It was to go and climb the magnificent voie Caline.

Mark the Mountain Guide On You Tube

We now have Mark the Mountain Guide promotional video on You Tube. This was made by my very good friend Faerthen Felix. All the footage was shot by her and her husband Jeff Brown. They borrowed the Girls for the vertigo shots of the girls on the Via Ferrata

View the video on YouTube or watch below:

Wonderful Wonderful way to finish the ski season

On Sunday we decided to take the Dangerous Sisters up to the Grand St Bernard Hospice for the night. Andrea and Florence had already been but this was the first time for Sophie who is only 4 years old.
We set off from the road head and skinned up on our ski mountaineering skis while Sophie had her own personal ski tow [me]
When we arrived the girls spent the afternoon jumping off the roof of the old morgue.
In the evening Andrea gave a Recorder Recital during Prayers and then she had a "Master Class" lesson from Yvon [Top Monk]
In the morning after a visit to the Museum we had a fantastic spring snow descent back to the car.

Week of plan B's

Well plan A had been discussed for many months: Charles Sherwod and I were to attempt a ski ascent of the Aiguille Verte. But when we met the weather was so awful that we couldn't even get our skis on. So plan B was to climb the new route voie Caline
(near the Via Corda) This was quite an undertaking in the rain, but provided some "good sport" and was excellent preparation for Charles trip to the Lake District.
The next day was not much better. We headed to Switzerland with the aim of climbing the excellent --Dyure-le eperon near to Champex. But it started to rain. So we headed to Dorenaz where it was bone dry and got some good climbing under our belts.
The forecast was better but the reality wasn't. We got to the foot of our route and it started to rain. So it was back to Dorenaz where we climbed until our arms fell off.
Now the Forecast was good for Sunday so we decided we could get the skis out for an attempt on Le Buet. We met at 6.00am but still the sky was not clear and therefore didn't freeze. Mind you we still made the effort and climbed for over 3 hours until we hit zero viz and high avalanche risk so we reluctantly turned round and skied down. We didn't make any of our primary objectives but we still were well exercised and had an adventure.

Sea cliff climbing at Finale Liguria

I was in a major dilemma as what we should do. The weather forecast was awful and there wasn't a cat in hells chance of getting any ski tours completed safely. So I said to Chris Dovell " Let's ditch the ski touring idea and go rock climbing" Being super flexible Chris and always up for something different he jumped at the idea and we headed to Finale Liguria which is bout 3 hours drive from Cham. The only problem in this great plan was that it was still raining when we arrived. So we had a long lunch and then headed for Capo Noli which is a sea cliff about 7 km from Finale. The thinking being that the bad weather would pass over our heads. This proved to be more or less correct and we spent 3 days climbing on the cliffs

Stuningly Good Skiing in Zermatt

I drove over to meet Francis Bridgeman, Sahil Sinha and Angus Montgomery who were all staying in Zermatt. The weather was good and so was the snow so we headed up to the Klien Matterhorn the highest lift in the alps. We immediately turned right and dived of the side of the piste to make fresh tracks we then cut further right and headed down to the Stockli glacier. The skiing was exceptional with good snow and continuously changing scenary and a unique pier exit at the snout of the glacier.
The next day we climbed the Breithorn on skis. This was to be their first 4000m peak.
During the next night it snowed a little, but high up it snowed a lot and we were lucky enough to get some exceptional powder skiing.
On the Monday we moved back to Chamonix and ventured into the Vallee Blanche. We skinned across to the Italian side and then skied the Comb de la Vierge finding some excellent snow.
Change of scene meant Francis and I went rock climbing at Barbarine and on our final day together we climbed up to Col Cornu and then skied spring snow down the comb Lachenal. A very good week!

Gressoney Powder Verbier icy moguls Chamonix spring snow

Reuben & Fiona Berg and I started our 6 days together in Gressoney with fabulous sunny weather and dreamy spring snow descents. The next day it snowed a lot. It was cold and misty. But it was worth it because on the Monday we had 30cm of fresh snow and the whole resort to our selves. This was because the lift system had closed for the season just leaving 3 lifts open for the ski tourers. The top lift to Punta Indren was open which gave access to off piste runs with a huge vertical drop of 1600 m.
On Tuesday we moved to Verbier. The conditions here were not as good - it was like skiing down a sloping car park full of VW beatles.
On Wednesday we were back in Chamonix chasing spring snow descents and finally on Thursday we went for a tour up the Argentiere glacier again with good snow.

Breche de Berard

Very quiet in the aiguille rouge today. Part of the reason might have been the the train strike , which in the end was just a reduced service. Mind you my group had bigger logistical things to worry about. Imagine 3 women who are all mothers with 3 children each managing to steal a days ski touring together?
Most would say an impossible task but Marie-Claire,Lesley and Christine did it.

Dangerous Sisters Hit the Powder and then the rock

Great thing about the spring here is sometimes it is possible to ski bottomless powder in the morning and then spend the afternoon rock climbing. It was a rare opportunity for me to ski with Andrea and Florence. They had no race training and I had a day off work and there was stacks of fresh snow. Joined by Jeff and Faerthen we headed up La Flegere.
In the afternoon Florence went ice skating and Andrea and Sophie came rock climbing

Crevasse rescue

It is all very well skiing around on glaciers in knee deep powder but there are holes out there and its a good idea that everyone in the group knows how to pull someone out if it all goes wrong. To that end Chris Dovell and Mark Slater spent the day jumping into crevasses and seeing if they could pull each other out.

Col du Passon

There had been lots of snow. It had fallen without wind. It was Easter and the forecast was good. All this adds up to lots of people. The Grands Montets cable car was mobbed so we left via the Bochard cable car which added about 45mns to the trip exactly the same time as queing for the top cable car.
The 1st ski down was good. Untracked liht powder. Chris and Mark were quite quick so we over took a lot of people on the skin up to the Col du Passon but then we got stuck in a long line of people all going up the gulley. I was fearful that all thses people would track the snow. Amazingly when we got to the top everyone turned left and we turned right and our descent was as near as perfect as it is possible to imagine.

Great snow - pity about the Vis

On Tuesday Dan Braverman and I went on our 1st ski tour together over the Col Crochues. As we made our way up we noticed a staggering amount of people below us. The weather got worse and by the time we reached the col there was no visibility and it was snowing very heavily. Unsurprisingly all the other people turned round leaving a group of eight. Again unsurprisingly this group consisted of 7 Brits and Dan [US although he does live in The UK]
Once we got to the final col du Berard we had perfect powder it was just a pity we couldn't see very much. But to good skiers good snow is always more important than good visibility.

Grand Paradiso [almost]

Greg Knott Bill Mills and I headed for the Grand Paradiso national park in Italy on Friday. The forecast was poor for the Friday but it was meant to improve. We drove through sheeting rain which turned to snow by the time we arrived at the car park in Pont. We set off towards the Vittorio Emanuelle hut with the snow dumping down. As we climbed it suddenly got very windy and then just as suddenly the clouds parted , the wind stopped and we were left enjoying a beautiful late afternoon. Unsurprisingly the Hut was not busy.
The next day we climbed La Tresenta 3680 m and then skied back to the hut for a large bowl of Pasta.
On Sunday our plan was to attempt the Grand Paradiso. What we hadn't banked on was that there was a ski mountaineering race to the summit and back. [3 1/2 hours] for the round trip was the estimated winners time].
We made it to 3500m where the wind was brutal. We turned round and the race was cancelled because the conditions were deemded too dangerous.

Mind you: our consolation prize was 1000m descent in light fluffy powder all the way back to the car.

The weather forecast was wrong

The weather forecast was wrong [Thankfully] I arrived at the bottom of Les Grands Montets to meet Robert Blake- James and his 3 sons Richard Hugh and James. News came through that the top of Grands Montets was clear, there was 25 cm of fresh snow and there was no wind. All sounded too good to be true and for once it was not. We skied hard all day but were eventually forced off the mountain as the snow started to collapse under our skis suggesting it was all about to slide away in a great big soggy mush. Still it was good while it lasted

Mark the Mountain Guide goes on tour in Switzerland [again]

I have had a very pleasant three days visiting International schools along the "coast" of lake Geneva. I was there to tell the children how I came up with the ideas and how I wrote the Mark the Mountain Guide books.
On Monday I went to the Ecole Riviera School in Montreux. On Tuesday I visited the International School of Monts-de-Corsier. Today I was at the La Côte International School.

Walking Dead.

This was weird firstly I got told not to wear my ski boots in a the Reception of the Grands Montets Hotel by the Idiot Manager. I pointed out that any Hotel that is only a 150 meters from the Grands Montets ski station and has a floor that isn't strong enough to take mountain boots is crap. And besides my boots weren't ski boots, but the moron wouldn't listen.
That was weird then to day Gerard Clarke and I were skiing down the beautiful Berard Valley having done the Crochue - Berard ski tour in the Aiguille Rouge when we came across a dead goat. Nothing terribly strange about that but this one was standing up.