Remarkable Rock Climbing

Turi and Agust spent an afternoon at the local Chamonix crag Les Gaillands. They had never been rock climbing before. They learnt extrordinarly quickly because now armed with the "basic skills" they launched them selves at the most famous rock climb in the Aosta Valley the Bucce d'arancia. A wonderful 10 pitch rock climb.

Still unsettled weather

More poor weather is creating problems. Last night it snowed down to 2000 meters. This photo was taken from our kitchen window by my friend Alan Kimber.

Wendy Crabb becomes an Alpinist

We have just completed an imensely successful three days. Wendy, and I spent a day on the Mer de Glace Ice climbing. We then climbed the Aiguille du Crochue and ran down the snow fields to lac Blanc. On our third day we took the lift up to the summit of the aiguille du Midi and traversed Point Lachanael. Wendy is now a confirmed Alpinist and is going to buy her own mountaineering boots.

Difficult Conditions

The climbing conditions are not good at the moment. There has been a lot of snow followed by hot weather and it has not been freezing high up. Katie Penrose and attempted to climb the Tour Ronde but had to retreat because it was just too dangerous to continue. Later in the week we attempetd to clmb Mt Blanc but only got as far as te Tete Rousse Hut where the winds were horrendous. Once the wind dropped it started to snow. As we walked down to the valley the rain got heavier and it was like being attacked by a garden hose. Some weeks are better than others...

Nevertheless we did have better weather today and climbed the super long Via Cordia which is a unique climb /scramble which is ideal training for long alpine rock climbs.

The Yellow Gnome Awaits

To day Reuben Berg and I went to Les Contamines and climbed "Les Nain Jaune Attends." This is a route with a great name with a yellow Nome who is on hand to welcome you at the top.

Perfect spring snow in the "Combes des Mort"

At 2400 meters there was 50 cm of fresh snow the other night. It settled down very quickly so Andrea Florence and I skinned upto the Grand St Bernard Monastery to spend the night. The girls entertained themselves by jumping off the roof of an out house into a massive bank of snow.
This morning I had the best skiing I have everknown down the Combes des Mort

Plan B

Chris Dovell and I drove over to Grindlewald and headed up to the Monch Hut in glorious weather. The plan was to climb the Jungfrau and then ski down. But the next morning we awoke at 5.00am to blasting winds. We went back to bed. At 8.00am we were in the middle of a full blown storm and had no choice but to go back to the valley.
Instead we gave up the idea of skiing and went rock climbing for two days. Yesterday we finished by climbing in Italy just past Aosta at Arnad. We climbed the classic route of the area the "Bucced'arancia

Gran Paradiso 4062m

So we have had more snow coupled with high winds and mixed forecasts. Chris Dovell and I looked at the weather and decided to head to Italy. Yesterday we loaded our skis on our backs and walked up to the VITTORIO EMANUELE hut.
This morning we left the hut at 6.30am and battled our way through strong winds to reach the summit by 10.00am just as the wind dropped so that we could have a cup of tea on the top.
We skied back in half an hour. We would have been back home quickly but the Mt Blanc tunnel was closed due to a lorry full of milk that had overturned spilling milk all over the road.

Le Mont Blanc 4810

14 years ago I promised to ski off the summit of Mt Blanc with Peter Folkman. I had confidently told him that we could get a helicopter to the top. When he arrived in Chamonix I told him he would have to walk. Which he did. Still conditions were not good enough to ski from the summit.
Today we took a helicopter to the Piton Italian and got dropped at 4200meters. Three hours climbing later we skied off the summit of Mt Blanc via the "Corridor route." We were back in Chamonix for 3.00pm

Breche Puiseux 3432 m

Peter Folkman and I have had a good three days ski touring at altitude. We climbed the Col Du Argentiere. Yesterday we were in the Valley Blanche and climbed up to the col du Freshfield. We then spent the night in the Cosmique Hut. We started skiing this morning at 6.00am and climbed the amazing Breche Puiseux. Afterwhich we skied the magnificent Mt Mallet glacier to rejoin the mer de glace.

Grand St Bernard Monastery

So I have just come back from two of my favorite places in the alps. Bill Mills and Nigel Prescott and I climbed up to the Gd St Bernard Monastery.The next day we climbed MT Fourchon 2980 meters and again saw no one despite having perfect weather. After this trip we went up to the Velan mountain Hut where the food and wine was as good as ever. The next day we climbed over the ridge behind the Hut and then skied all the way back to the Super Grand St Bernard ski lift.

Seaton Girls win the Chamonix Race

The Chamonix club des sports had thier end of season race . Like her big sister at the same ageFlorence came first in her catergory. Andrea came third in her's

Mrs Berg Climbs the Breithorn 4130m

We have had about 3 weeks of perfect weather. While this has been quite pleasant, it has been hot and the snow has started to disappear very quickly- forcing us higher and higher up the mountains.
Fiona and Reuben Berg and their daughter Rachael and I skied around Chamonix, then had a day in Les Contamines ski touring. We then did a ski tour in the valley blanche.
We then travelled to Zermatt. The high spot was an ascent of the Breithorn on skis. This was Fiona's first "4000 er" and the start of what promises to be bright montaineering future.

Domes de Miage 3673m

Chris Dovell and I are just back from a day of sensory overload. It started at 7.00am as we travelled through the Mt BlancTunnel to Courmayeur where we were due to rendezvous with a helicopter. Eventually the pilot arrived on his motor bike. He pushed the helicopter out of the hangar, checked the oil and then we jumped in and seven minutes later got dropped at the Col de Infranchissable. From there we skinned up to a higher col before putting our crampons on and climbing one of the worlds most iconic snow ridges to the summit of the Domes de Miage.
We then jumped on our skis and skied down the northface following the Armancette glacier . After exactly 2040m of vertical descent we ran out of snow and walked back to our pre- placed car. We were back in Chamonix by 2.00pm

Easter Sunday Heli skiing

To day we skied the glacier de Grande. It was a month since I had last been there and conditions were very good. We had 1900 meter descent mostly in untracked powder.
It did get rather hot at the bottom and we had to walk out for about ten minutes.

Valley Blanche for very small people

I had a couple of days off so I got the chance to ski the Valley Blanche with Andrea who is eight years old. We did it last May but conditions were not quite so good this time and we had some difficult breakable crust to deal with plus a strong Foehn wind.
To day was Florence [six years old] turn to ski the Valley Blanche. The conditions were much better today so we decided to visit the Cosmique Hut. We did this using our ski touring skis. It was Florence first time on skins but despite being at over 3500 meters she zoomed along. Florence was hoping to see Lorance who is the guardian of the Cosmique Hut and more importantly she is the Mother of Florences best friend. But Lorance was not there so we had a cup of Hot Chocolate and then skied powder down to the bottom in under an hour.

Arolla

So the plan was to finish the Haute Route having been forced down to Arolla two years ago. Peter Whelan,Nigel Costain and John Howarth all met in the village and then headed up to the Bertol Hut. But as we trudged up hill the weather deterioated and we arrived six hours later somewhat shattered. It snowed all night and in the morning we couldn't see a thing. Eventually we decided that going to Zermatt was a bad idea due to reports from various Zermatt Guides that the avalanche risk was too high. So as the weather improved a bit we decided to escape back to Arolla. Our consolation prize was 1500 meters of light waist deep powder all the way to the village.
Back in the village things got really good we checked into the Hotel Mt Collon and the next day we went Heli skiing from the Pigne d'Arolla. We finished our time in Arolla by using the lift system to catapult us up towards some exceptional snow.

Haute Route for science

We have just come back from the Haute Route which we did with out a road break going via La Fouly then onto the Grand St Bernard Monastery through to the Velan Hut and then up and over the Plateau du Coulouir. Conditions were perfect and we didn't see a cloud for seven days. However when we awoke on the eighth day at the Vignettes Hut the bad weather had arrived. We decided to sit it out for a day in the hope that we might make it through to Zermatt, but the weather never improved and the following day we bailed to Arolla in thick snow an very cold winds,
Part of he aim of the trip was to collect snow samples which would be examined for Isotopic variations which might shed light on where and when snow is formed the atmosphere. The research was led by Professor Jim Kirchner from Berkeley University in California and two hugely experienced Avalanche Forecasters Faerthen Felix and Jeff Brown. The final member of our trip was Paul Laudenschalger from Truckee.

As Good As It Gets

On Wednesay we skied at Les Grand Montets. Despite the best efforts of the lift station management coupled with an incorrect weather forecast we enjoyed untracked snow off the top of lift. It was as good as it gets. Or so we thought- because we finished the week by skiing the Glacier du Grande from a Heli drop on the Trient plateau. This consisted of perfect turn follwed by perfect turn .

Very good off piste at Le Tour

Stephen Yeates, John Donner and Mike Woolford skied at Grands Montets in zero viz yesterday and today we were rewarded with good weather and trackless snow at Le Tour.