Staff Training

The best out door shops have the best staff. Staff who know what kit does what how it works. This way they can recommend the correct equipment. With this in mind Adrian & Jad from Stamos Sports in Argentiere joined me for a day on the Mer de Glace
a dry glacier where they could learn everything there is to know about Ice axes, crampons, ice screws, rope management, steep ice climbing, rescue and route finding.

It was their chance to evaluate the latest gear and gave them a much better idea of what works easily and well and what does not!

An Alpine Road Trip

Reuben Berg and I planned a trip where we would climb in a different mountain area through out the week while taking in some of the finest roads Switzerland and Italy have to offer.
We drove from Chamonix to Andermatt then walked up to the magnificent Salbits Hut. The next day we climbed the stunning route "Paralleler Ostgrat" above the hut before moving onto via the impressive Oberalp pass the via Laax to Pontresina.
The weather on the Wednesday was a bit mixed so we headed on and over to the Stelvio Pass which at 2785m is the highest road in Europe. From there we drove to Bolzano where we stopped at the Mesner Mountain Museum where we got to see the great man himself.
Thursday we drove through into the heart of the Dolomites and climbed on the iconic Cinq Terre.
An early start on Friday was needed to make the most of seeing the mighty walls of the Cima Grande before traversing a fascinating war time via Ferratta which passed through a series of tunnels before gaining a ridge line.
It was then time for a dash back to Chamonix, this time via a very hot and sticky Milan with temperatures hitting 38c.

South Ridge Of Salbitschiijen

Peter Little decided to go and climb the South Ridge Of Salbitschiijen. We were not disappointed. It is possibly one of the best climbs of its grade I have ever done. Each pitch was magnificent. We were lucky with the weather too. The previous day had been very windy but for us it could not have been better. The down side was that we were not alone. Another 10 teams on our route. Peter and I managed an out flanking move and got to the front and therefore had an uncluttered run all the way up the route.

The 1st Casualty of war is the plan

This phrases could just as well be attributed to mountaineering trips. Our plan was to complete the mountains above Zermatt which form the border between Italy and Switzerland often referrred to as the Italaian High Level route or the "Spaghetti Tour." Our team was Alan, Mark, Clarke and Miguel plus James Thacker our other Guide

Day 1 We walked to the Gandegg Hut to acclimatise. The weather was windy and rainy which meant that the other people staying in the Hut did not turn up. This was a pity because it was Kate Moss plus a group of super models shooting for H&M's winter brochure and using the Matterhorn as a backdrop.

Day 2 The weather was even worse and so the Kliene Matterhorn lift was again shut so we bailed back to Zermatt where we talked through the options . Our new plan was to get up early and push 2 days into one.

Day 3 The new plan fell apart before it started when the cable car broke down leaving us stranded for 2 hours. We missed our opportunity to get a safe early start and had to re plan , but we could not get a booking in the hut we needed. So we re -booked into a lower hut the Mexxalma hut. We did however enjoy beautiful weather and enjoyed a magnificent traverse of the Breithorn 4164 m.

Day 4 More high winds so we descended the beautiful valley to St Jaques where our new plan was to take a taxi around to the next valley: Gressoney. Our luck changed and we managed to find a Land Rover Taxi straight over the mountain. We arrived at the Gnifetti Hut back on track. This hut would have to be one of the best in the Alps - super friendly staff, excellent food, free wifi and hot showers.

Day 5 Bad forecast we could not get back over the col des Lys to Zermatt. We did however manage to climb Pyramid Vincent 4215 and the Balenhorn4167m. We then had to figure out another way back to Zermatt. We descended back to Gressoney where we struggled to find a taxi. [My usual taxi had cleared off to Tuscany for the summer]
The plan was to drive round to Cervina, unfortunately we arrived too late to catch the lift back over to Zermatt. Fortunatly we did find a very comfortable Hotel and a good Pizzaria which made everything except Pizza.

Day 6. It was raining hard. I jumped out of bed and ran up to the lift station to check it was open. It was not. Too windy. We spent breakfast working out how to get back to Zermatt. Then we learnt the bottom lift was open. We could use it then walk [a very long way] Luckly the wind monetarily dropped and the very kind Italian lift operator ran a cabin for us and we managed to get to the top of the ridge where we made a dash for Switzerland.

Le Mt Blanc 4810

Andrew Parker had harbored a dream to climb Mt Blanc since a failed attempt nearly 20 years ago. Recently the opportunity to have another go materialised

because he was able to take some holiday between jobs.

We met and had a couple of warm up days before heading up to the Cosmiques Hut in order to gain some acclimatisation. It was the following morning that the plan started to unravel because the wind had shut Aiguille du Midi and we could not get back to Chamonix and therefore we could not keep our booking for the evening in the Tete Rousse Hut.

More pressingly we were stuck. So I decided that we should try and escape across the Valley Blanche to Italy. This is what we did , but the conditions were difficult , poor visibility , soft snow and big crevasses a bad mix. Eventually we arrived in Courmayeur where we took the bus back through the Mt Blanc Tunnel.

We were now a day behind schedule which we had to make up. Of course we were not helped by the fact that the train on Mt Blanc is shut and so we had to start walking a couple of hours sooner than we would have chosen.

Six hours and 1790 meters of ascent interspersed with some rain showers we arrived at the Gouter Hut. Not the new shinny one but the old knackered one. [The new one isn't ready yet .]

2.00am Breakfast , 2.45 am get away and we were off. Conditions were good although above the Vallot Refuge it did get very windy. 7.45 am we arrived on the top.

2700 meters descent later the train was still broken.

Alpine Training

Pam Mazoyer and Chris Moss joined me for three days in

order to improve their mountaineering skills.

A day on the Mer de Glace was followed by a fantastic traverse of the Aiguille du Crochue. Then on our 3rd day it rained so we hid in a cave until it stopped. We then drove to Switzerland for some alpine rock climbing training. Only problem was the setting wasn't very alpine - a quarry, a quarry I believed to be disused but clearly wasn't. It was noisy but it didn't rain.

Pt Percee

The weather hasn't been very co operative and anyone with out a flexible state of mind is likely to have been frustrated. Fortunately my team were very flexible and open to all suggestions and so Agust, Turi & I headed around to the Aravis where they made what was in all probability was the first Icelandic ascent of Pt Percee from the Col du Verte via the south ridge in very wintery conditions. Yet as we sat on the summit the clouds parted like a curtain to reveal one of the best views of Mt Blanc in the alps.

Fine Day out on the Cosmiques arete

Scott Todd flew in from the US for a few days in Chamonix and was keen to get up high and do something spectacular. So I suggested we climb the Cosmiques arete high up on the Aiguille du Midi.

We had perfect weather conditions and the snow was like cork. In addition because it was low season [although a Sunday] it was relatively quiet which always add to the aesthetics.

Last Turns of the season and some of the best

We decided to finish the ski season by over nighting at the Grand St Bernard Monastery. Andrea invited some of her friends Mia Ged and Noah plus their parents Shelagh and Martin.

We left the road head in the pouring rain and skinned up to the Monastery. We were the only group there a apart from Pilgrim who was walking from Canterbury to Rome a long the via Francigena.

This morning we awoke to thick mist, wind and drizzle. Never the less we braved the elements and headed out past the lake into Italy. As we traversed we poped out of the mist to clear blue sky



and very good snow conditions.

Sophie and Mummy decided not to go any further but he rest of us headed up to the Fenetre d'en Haut. A quick photo and then we headed back.

Hurricane Hits Chamonix

I bailed from Arolla the previous day and then found my self in Zermatt the next day. I was with Greg Knot and Bill Mills with the plan of attempting what is often called the Italian High Level Route.

The issue was there was still strong winds. We arrived at the top Kliene Matterhorn to find that they had closed the lift. It took some powers of persuasion for them to open for us. Finally we were on our way. Surprisingly there was comparatively little wind and we skied across and down to the magnificent welcoming Ayas Hut.

Saturday 28th the weather was okay , but not good enough for us to attempt the proposed traverse of Castor plus unbeknown to me our next planned hut the Quintino Sella had decided not to open this spring. So we skied down towards St Jaques and then skinned over what proved to be a very big col. In fact it was so big that that someone in a parallel group decided they were too tired and ordered a helicopter rescue. No injury just tired !

We skied down a spectacular run into Gressoney until the snow ran out and had a very welcome Pannini and cappuccino before catching the cable car to Punta Indren . An hours skin took us to the Mantova Hut.

Sunday 29th A hurricane hit Chamonix. There was no power for most of the day and hundreds and hundred of trees smashed through houses , cars and cut roads off. Windows got blown out of buildings cars got turned over amd it was general may- hem . Mean while in the Mantova Hut we had a lot of new snow overnight. It was clear that we would be unable to traverse over the col des Lys and back to Zermatt. We decided to head down to Gressoney. By way of a consolation prize this was not bad because we hit some exceptional snow and some very good skiing.

We arrived in Gressoney and found a taxi to take us around to Cervina where we hop

ed to catch the lift up and over and back into Zermatt. Only problem was that the lift was closed because of the storm and we were forced to hole up in Cervina for the night. This turned out to be very good because we found a good hotel and a very good [if slightly quirky] restaurant.

Monday 30th. Eventually the lift opened and we made a dart for Zermatt always fearing the lift might close at any stage.
Finally we made it back to Zermatt, where we admitted defeat because the weather and conditions were still against us.

The High Level Route

Continuing the theme of difficult conditions Henry Alex and James [split board snowboarder] met for an attempt on the Haute Route. This was to be Henry's 2nd attempt having been thwarted by the weather on the previous attempt at the Mt Fort Hut a couple of years ago This is what happened. We met and had a days initiation skiing around Les Grands Montets in good powder snow conditions but crap ski touring conditions - ie lots of snow but unstable weather with poor visibility and very high winds. Saturday 21st We set off from the Grands Montets in strong winds. So much so that the cable car closed just behind us leaving us virtually on our own. There was group putting a track in above us who had left from the Argentiere Hut. So we decided to give it a go despite the indifferent weather. We made it to the Trient Hut in deep snow . We were the only group to make it through and we were alone in the Trient Hut. Over night there was an almighty storm which put down a meter of snow. Sunday 22nd We left the Hut in waist deep snow and no visibility. We cautiously edged our way towards the Col des Ecandies before fighting our way up in shoulder deep snow. The reward was un tracked windless powder, virtually to the Village of Champex. From there we transferred to Verbier and the Mt Fort Hut. Monday 23rd We left the Mt Fort at 7.00am in good weather and took in the summit of the Rosa Blanche before finding some exceptional snow on the descent to the Prafleuri Hut which was full of the Swiss Army who were preparing the way for the famous Patrouille des Glaciers http://www.pdg.ch/ Tuesday 24th. This was always going to be a difficult day for James our split boarder because of the traverse above Lac Dix. It wasn't helped by the return of the bad weather. Wednesday 25th. We left the Dix Hut around 7.00am in very strong winds. As we climbed up to the summit of the Pigne d'Arolla it was gail force. The descent down to the Vignettes Hut was difficult and dangerous. A slab was kicked off and tripped us up and sent a couple of us on an unwanted toboggan down the slope. During the afternoon and the evening the dreaded Foehn wind got stronger and stronger. Thursday 26th We awoke at 5 .00am and the wind was howling. There was no choice to to descend down to the village of Arolla thus concluding a very adventurous ski tour even if we did not make it all the way to Zermatt. Still we were the only team to set off from Chamonix and get as far Arolla.

April showers bring unstable ski touring conditions

Peter Folkman had a long term plan to head to the Dolomites for some ski touring. It became apparent that there was no snow.
We changed plans and agreed to head to the Bernese Oberland, but as our week got nearer it was clear that the weather was not going to be co operative for Hut to Hut touring.
Nevertheless we did get some good skiing in.

The stand out days were our descent of the glacier de Morte behind La Flegere where we had knee deep un tracked snow to ski.

It did snow a lot and we had a day skiing the top of Grands Montets in poor visibility but lots of fluffy snow. Plus some crevasse rescue

I think the most rewarding day was when we drove around to Arpy next to La Thuile and climbed the Punte Crocce. This is a wonderful ski tour that leaves from the road head and winds its way up through the trees to a summit with an old Napoleonic ruined Fort with a wonderful view point. Almost as a bonus we had excellent skiing back to the Land Rover. Even better saw no one.

The Bernese High Level Route: Diablerets to Kandersteg

The ski tour from Les Diablerets to Kandersteg is one of the finest multi day ski tours in the alps. Chris Dovell and Lia Heisters and I have just completed it.
One of the things which was truly exceptional about this particular ski tour, was how quiet it was
In total we saw a handful of people on the whole expedition. On two of the days we saw no one.

This was what we did.

1st day climbed the Summit of Les Diablerets which is the most westerly mountain in the Oberland

Day 2 .Left the Prarochet Refuge at 7.00am and skied down to Col du Sanetch and then continued to the summit of the Wildhorn.[3248] We skied down to the Cabanne des Audannes

Day 3 In poor visibility we left at around 7.00am and traversed to the Wildstrubel Hutte- possibly one of the best run refuges in the whole of the Alps thanks to the efforts of the wonderful Heinz and Margret.
Day 4 Over onto the summit of the Wisshore. [2904m] [secret listening post for the CIA] and then down onto the glacier Plaine Morte before climbing to the summit of the Wilstrubel[3244m] in fairly windy conditions.
Then a ski down with fresh snow and fresh tracks before a short skin up to the Lammeren Hutte.
Day 5. It was snowing quite hard and the visibility was not good. So we gingerly left the Hutte around 7.30 am and navigated our way over a col before the visibility improved so that we could enjoy some good skiing where we joined a track which eventually lead us back to the cable car which took us down to Kandersteg

Ski Tour from Italy to Switzerland and back again

Charles Sherwood and his daughter Tabatha and I have just finished a wonderful ski tour.
It was Tabatha's 1st ski tour and it had just about everything from really bad snow to light fluffy powder. The one thing it didn't have was bad weather.
We started with a warm up run by skiing the Vallee Blanche , then in the afternoon we drove around to Champoluc [part of the huge Monte Rosa lift system]
The next morning we packed our ski touring kit and headed for our 1st night in the Vigevano Refuge. We spent the day teaching Tabatha how to use the skins and how to deal with awful horrible snow, which wasn't the original plan - but it is what it is.
After a great night in the Vigevano we headed up and climbed Vincent Pyramid 4200 meters. We then had the added bonus of brilliant snow on the descent back to the Mantova Refuge.
The next morning we left the refuge at 6.45am. two and a bit hours later we arrived at the Col de Lys. From there it was 2700meters of wonderful snow down the Grenz glacier all the way into Zermatt.

After a luxurious night in the world famous Riffelalp Hotel we skied down to Furi and picked up the Kliene Matterhorn cable car. From there we skied down the piste back into Italy before peeling off the track and heading down the breathtaking descent down to Champalouc and the car. Click on the tittle to see the whole trip. or paste this link

http://www.kodakgallery.eu.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&localeid=en_GB_EURO&collid=65916206733.8176815832233.1332939119345&page=1

Stair way to heavenly skiing

Just spent 4 days with Mark Locke and Ian Hutchinson. It was hot and it just seemed to get hotter, but because the sun stayed out we managed to find some sublime spring snow.
The most notable was on the Glacier du Toule. Every turn was fantastic but timing was critical. It was too hot and therefore dangerous for a second run so we consoled our selves with a very good run down the Italian side of the Valley Blanche.

Yesterday we skied the Berard Valley again find great spring snow.

Today we skied at Les Grands Montets where the weather was indifferent and the light was flat but we still had a run down the Argentiere glacier and a decent lunch at the Chalet Lognon

A Day off School and a trip out with Mum & Dad

Sophie was given permission by her teacher to skip school and ski the Vallee Blanche with her Mum & Dad.
Sophie scuttled down the ridge and then zoomed down the main section before being treated to seeing her first mountain rescue as some idiot on his own with no Guide fell in a crevasse at the start of the Requin Ice Fall.
We were back at Montenvers by 12.45am .

Meanwhile over in Alpe d'Huez Florence came first [in her age group] in the French National Ski Championships competeing in the Super Giant Slalom.

And over in Germany on a school exchange the biggest Dangerous Sister, Andrea has taken up 5 meter high board diving and the Luge.

High Winds and French love of Train Strikes

The seemingly endless love of striking has made the logistics of getting back from various ski tours a challenge.

Before this I skied the Valley Blanche a couple of times. Bitter winds made the descent of the ridge testing. Too much so for one particular skier who might possibly go to the top of the league table for the shortest ever attempt to ski the VB. It lasted half a turn before he fell over and dislocated his shoulder. The resucue helicopter had fun and games finding a place to land because of all the skiers and the high wind.
Conditions were much better lower down and we even found some fresh snow.

On Saturday I did the Col Crochue/ Col Berard ski tour with Reuben Berg. At the top of the 1st col it was very windy and the snow was like concrete, yet when we got into the Berard Valley we found the snow had been unaffected by the wind and we got fresh tracks. After a quick beer we moved to the Gare to wait for the train which never came because there was a strike. Good of them to tell us.

On Sunday I headed back on the same tour but this time with Richard Lewis , who had requested that he wanted to go home very tired. Therefore we headed up and over the Breche Berard. A couple hours extra up hill. But it was worth it because we found really good snow for the descent. It was once down that we had the fun and games with the replacement bus for the striking train. The issue was the bus wasn't big enough and a load of people got left behind.

To day I skied at Le Tour with Catherine Lucy-Kate and Helen - mothers who had escaped from their children for a days off piste skiing.