Back on Skis

Just had two very good days with the party which has been organised with Chris Boulton and friends in one form or another for 20 years. They are creatures of habit. They always stay at the Hotel de la Couronne. They always eat in the Office Bar [at least twice] and they always hire their skis from Stamos Sports. Finally they always engage my services for at least two days. Chris,Kevin,Peter,David,Adam,James,Peter,Steven.

On our first day we skied off piste where James Mitchell took this remarkable photo of me on the piste at Le Tour

On the Sunday they all agreed that some skiining was what was wanted in an attempt to burn off some of the 10 tons of cheese they had eaten. So at 8.00am we squeezed everyone into the Land Rover and drove through the Mt Blanc tunnel and then over to Punte Crocce which over looks La Thuile. Here we enjoyed possibly the best weather day of the season

Finally from the summit you are treated to as a good a view of Mt Blanc as any.

African Odyssey Part 1 Kilimanjaro 5894m

The trip did not get off to the best start. I was delayed twice and missed my 1st two flights due to fog in London. Finally arrived at Heathrow eight hours late. Eventually with great help from HRG travel agents I found a flight to Kilimanjaro International airport via Amsterdam and via Nairobi and actually arrived before my partner in crime for the trip Charles Sherwood.

My Next problem was I did not have the required $50 for my Tanzanian entry visa. I was told to go out side the airport withdraw unfathonable amount of Tanzanian shillings [about 80,000] from the ATM , then go to some dodgy guy who would then convert them into Dollars. All while the immigration officer would "look after " my Passport until I returned...

Unsurprisingly the ATM was not working , so back I went , then a very strange thing happened: An American over heard my disagreement and just handed me a $50 dollar bill! Problem sorted.

Charles arrived from Doha we were picked up by Rift Valley Safaris Ltd and driven to fantastic Moivaru Lodge which appeared to me to be in the middle of the jungle. Here we got the first sight of Kilimanjaro which was on the label of the beer bottles we supped.

Our plan was to climb Kilimanjaro as a way off getting some solid acclimatisation for the real challange of making the complete and rarely achieved traverse of Mt Kenya. We were to start our trek on Kilimanajaro by the Machame park entrance. This is apparently considered to be one of the most beautiful routes. We left the Hotel and gradually picked up people who were going to help us , firstly the cook , then the guide Onex and then a second guide JV [never really sure why we needed a 2nd guide] Then we stopped for an hour so they could all have breakfast , then we arrived at the park gates where we went through a mountain of paper work , met our porters [8 of them] and finally set off around mid day.

We trekked up through an area of forest called the Montaine forest. This is of course rain forest and it lived up to its name by raining torrentially. Fortunately this coincided with lunch and as we rounded the corner our rather Colonial looking Tent had been erected , table was laid [complete with table cloth ] tea was served with sandwiches and hot soup.

All this rain did create a load of thick mud so when we arrived at the Macheme camp 3000m we were already filthy. The camps on Kilimanjaro are somewhat busy and seemingly chaotic . There must have been about 250 tents.

The next day our destination was Shira Cave campsite at 3850m. It wasn't long before it was raining again, it was cold wet and pretty much like the average day in the Scottish mountains. The weather was shaping up to be exactly like it had been 13 months previously , when Charles and I had last been on Mt Kenya, namely crap.
However in the late afternoon the weather did clear to reveal impressive views towards Meru peak and behind us the first real view of Kilimajaro. This was more like what we had hoped for.

The trek form Shira camp to Barrunco Hut 3950m involved firstly walking up to the Lava Towers at 4600m before descending down to the Barrunco camp. This was all part of the well tried formula to aid acclimatiastion "climb high - sleep low"
Still after the initial hour of glorious views , it wasn't long before the mist socked in and it started to rain hail and eventually snow.
At least it cleared up in the afternoon to reveal what a fantastic spot the Barrunco camp is. It is situated bang slap under the giant Breach Wall of Kilimanjaro [until 20 years ago some of the finest ice climbs in Africa.]

The next day it wasn't raining and we set off up the steep scramble towards Barafu Hut at 4800m. The first part of this was really enjoyable and my favourite part of the trek so far. Yet as we got higher the landscape changed and it became very lunar looking. The challenge of this day lay with the porters because there is no water at the Barafu Hut camp and so it all has to be carried. This was mostly done in 20 litre buckets. A grim and herculean task balancing 20 kilos of water on your head and struggling up hill at over the height of Mt Blanc.

Rather embarrassingly we had to wait for them to catch up and so we were forced to stop for an extended lunch in our colonial tent. Fried Chicken and chips and several cups of tea [or in Charles case "Milo" his new favourite African drink]

We arrived at camp late afternoon. It was over dinner that Onex our guide broke the news that our next breakfast would be at 11.00pm. We would be out and on our way for our summit attempt by 11.30pm.
This was to be a big day . 1300 meters of ascent. Unfortunately after an hour it proved too bigger day for our 2nd guide JV who was complaining of a "splitter" - altitude headache.
Onex Charles and I continued , overtook everyone on the mountain and arrived on the summit well before dawn and well before all the other parties.

It was super cold. Full Mt Blanc style clothing , duvet jacket and toe warmer T-bags. Plus big boxing glove like mitts. What I had not anticipated was just how fantastic I would find the summit 5894m . I have been lucky enough to stand on a lot of summits , but the top of Africa ranks amongst the best.

After a lot of photos it was back the way we came , firstly around the giant volcanic rim to Stellar Point and then back down the track to the campsite where we arrived at our tents at about 8.30am.
Charles and I were feeling tireder than we had wanted to be.
After a couple of hours lolling in our pits we had brunch. After which was the next challange of the day was the 4 hour descent to Mweka camp 2950m. Again this was a seemingly endless luna like scape which was made even less inviting when it started to rain big time.With this came mud. Lots and lots of mud which made the campsite like something a battle field.
During the night the rain stopped and there was real alarm that a lion was loose in the campsite. This in fact was me snoring. I was tired.

11th January. This was to be a big logistics day and so an early start was needed. We set off for the road head at 6.30am and arrived at the Park Gate at 8.30am. We signed out of the park and collected our Kilimanajro summit certificates. Our pick up arrived and took us to a hotel where we showered and repacked. It was then to Kilimanjaro International airport for our 2.00pm flight to Nairobi.

It was here while waiting for our flight that we learnt about the terrorist attack in Paris. [The last time were in Kenya we were caught up in the fallout from the Westgate shopping Mall atrocities]

At 2.00pm We were told we could board our flight. We went out on to the runway but it took us several minutes to find our plane which was not a tall what I had anticipated but instead a single propeler engined 15 seater Cessanna Caravan.
There were 4 passengers.

The flight was brilliant.

The plane didn't climb higher than 2000 meters during the whole flight and bounced around in the thermals as it flew across the savannah. Nor did it land at Jomo Kenyatta International airport , but instead at Wilson aerodrome. After filling in the Ebola forms and passing through immigration our taxi met us and whisked us to the wonderful Fair view Hotel. The day had run pretty much perfectly. In addition we were greeted by Eddie our guide for Mt Kenya who I have known for over 25 years.

Part 2 to follow!

Traverse of Mt Kenya 5199m African Odyssey part 2

We left the comfort of the Fair View Hotel having scraped most of the mud of our kit, dried it all out ready for our attempt on Mt Kenya. We trundled through Nairobi before hitting the open road . Eddie might be very good at organizing the logistics of our climbing but what he wasn't very good at was finding a suitable place for my birthday lunch. The cafe was like a scene from Hell with Chicken and chips which had been deep- deep fried and then cremated with a blow torch topped off with warm, almost hot beer.

We continued on up to the park gates where we checked in for the week and re fixed the wheel on the Toyata Land Cruiser which was threatening to come off.

We arrived at the beautiful Met Station 3000m at about 3.30pm.
Unlike Kilimanjaro camping, there was just one other tent and plenty of lush grass to pitch the tents on. The last time I had camped here was in 1988. It was during the night that our neighbours tent had been attacked by a lion and we had all had to run off and hide in a hut. This time the only wild life were some pesky monkeys.

13th January we set off walking , again through rain forest , but this time it wasn't raining . Our goal for the day was to arrive at the American Camp , some 1300 meters further up the mountain. This involved negotiating the "vertical bog."Fortunately it was dry and our progress was rapid. We enjoyed stunning views in every direction and got our first view of Mt Kenya

There were very few people about although we did bump into a member of the ZZ-Top tribute band

We arrived at the camp 4300m at about 4.00pm. I was tired and immediately fell asleep in the grass.

The plan for the next day was to walk up to the foot of the route , scope the approach , come back down , pack up , rest up and prepare for our big day. The approach has changed considerably since global warming has decimated the glacier, leaving just a Tarn at the bottom.

15th January 2015 .3.00am.

We awoke, had our breakfast cooked by the quite magnificent Ashford. Charles elected for a " full English" I didnt fancy this so I had porridge, honey and bananas. Eddie and his side kick Lloydford volunteered to carry our rucksacks to the foot of the route. We all set off at 4.00am.
At 6.00am we aarived at the start. There were 2 Germans, with their Guide Felix, who had climbed a lot on Mt Kenya while taking his degree in Physics at Nairobi University. They set off while Charles and I geared up , Eddie thrust Mars Bar offerings at us. We elected to climb in rock boots carrying our big mountaineering boots in our packs.

The climbing was good and straight forward.

We mostly moved together and quickly. We arrived at Baillie's Bivy after a couple of hours, then overtook the Germans before climbing the very good crux pitch [IV] before some easy scrambling lead to the top of Nelion at about 10.00am. Perfect weather and no wind.

We changed back into our mountaineering boots and got ready for the "real climbing" namely the traverse of the Gate of Mist and the ascent of Bation. We negotiated the ridge which which was just like any typical alpine ridge in the Alps, only higher. Soon we spied some steps in the snow which supposedly lead down to the Gate of Mist. We strapped on crampons and down climbed until down climbing became sketchy and we decided to Rappel the final 30 meters .

[The German climbers elected to stay on the crest of the ridge and then rappel down to the Gate of Mist.]

Their choice was faster , but did require a long rope which we did not have. Anyway we were now in the Gate of Mist and now we had the not inconsiderable task of actually getting onto the summit of Bation. I pulled out the radio at mid day so that we could have a prearranged check in talk with Eddie at back at base camp.

There were about 3 pitches to the summit the penultimate being of outstanding quality. Although probably no more than IV, it felt quite involved at over 5000m ,wearing big boots and carrying a full alpine pack complete with bivy gear.

We summitted at about 1.00pm. The weather was still good and so we were able to initiate the second part of the plan: Namely to traverse and descend the north face route. This was fairly audacious because it required crossing from the southern hemisphere [where it was summer] to the northern hemisphere [where it was winter.] This meant that we would descend the route in full winter conditions.

The descent was choked with snow and I said to Charles that once we leave the summit we were going to be committed because it would be impossible to climb back up. This was my way of making sure he was psyched for what lay ahead. We decided to make lots of short rappels so as not to end up getting the ropes stuck which as it proved would be ultimately faster.
We started down the West Ridge alternatively rapping and down climbing until we reached the iconic Shipton's notch - a key land mark on the descent. We then turned right onto the north face proper and made a series of hair-raising rappels , not least because always the next anchor was buried under snow and had to be chopped out and laboriously cleared with an ice axe.

Sometimes I could not find the anchor point and we were forced to leave slings and mallions behind. Slowly we negotiated Firmins Tower and then entered the Amphitheater where we un-roped and crashed down the scree. After 200 vertical meters we turned left to pick up the line of the next set of rappels. After 3 more rappels it was getting dark. on the equator there is no twilight. It is as if at 6.30pm someone switches off the sun. It was now dark but the ground was not now steep enough to Rap so we down climbed some treacherous loose terrain , finally finding the penultimate Rap. The last Rap to the ground is the key one as it is a long way to the side of the gulley and out of the line of stone fall. It is mission-critical that this last anchor is found. Having a very powerful head-torch with good batteries proved to be important. We found the anchor and we landed on the deck at 7.30 pm.

All that was now required was to find somewhere to stop and rest up. We agreed that we should head for Kami Tarn where we knew there would be water.

This was one of those " How hard can it be?' type moments , well it was hard and in hindsight rather comical , but at the time we were shattered . Our quest to find the Tarn was compounded [amongst other things] by the fact the tarn had dried up to resemble a muddy field.
Eventually after two and half hours of stumbling about we found it and a trickle of water.

Every stitch of clothing was donned [ it was very cold] and then I conjured up tomato soup, Shepards Pie , and a pint of tea topped of with a knock-out sleeping pill each. It had been a long day.

Indifferent start to the "Proper" ski season

There was no snow of any sort before Christmas . In fact on Christmas day I rode my mountain bike up the piste to Brevent.[Which was hard work!]

Then just after Christmas it snowed about 50 cm and it got quite cold -12c.

The problem was that the cold snow fell directly onto the ground which had no snow base. Consequently it all got swept off the piste in a matter of minutes, leaving brown strips everywhere. The one place that seemed to be on another planet as far as good snow conditions were concerned was Les Contamines. Here the skiing was exceptionally good and so this is where we went most of the time .

Remarkable

This is the only word I can think to describe the start of the ski season. It is only 8 November. Yet after a recent dump everywhere looks very snowy. The nearest skiing to Chamonix at present is Zermatt. So this is where Scott Todd and I headed. Our plan was to climb the Breithorn 4164m from the highest lift. The trick to getting to Zermatt smoothly is not to get involved with the ridiculous parking and train, but instead to dump the car with Taxi Fredy and get a ride into the bottom of Zermatt. From there we took an electric taxi to the main Matterhorn cable car. This is where things got difficult because the top lift on the Klein Matterhorn cable car was not working. This meant that we would have to stop climbing much much lower down. we rode the gondola to Trockener Steg and put our skis on. We then took the T-bar drag lift all the way up the Theodulgletscher until it broke down! Rather annoyingly we had to abandon it and walk. We took one more drag lift before eventually starting the climb properly at Testa Grigia

It was quite a tough climb but well worth it.

We then stripped the skins off put the skis in down hill mode and skied some very good snow all the way back to the lift station.
The next day after a night in Saas Grund [where we loaded up on some large portions of Rosti] we headed up the lifts of Saas Fee at this time of the year the resort is in high season because all the ski teams are race-training here for the forthcoming winter season. Our plan was to attempt the Allalinhorn 4027m. In the end we made it to just below the Feejoch where a combination of too much unstable snow, big yawning crevasses and a deteriorating weather situation made us stop. This is the photo of our high point

The recompense was some very good powder on the descent.

Exceptional powder considering that we shouldn't really being skiing a tall yet.

Three climbs in three days in three countries

Scott Todd contacted me. He lives in the USA but his job had sent him to Germany for 3 months and he was keen to do some sort of climbing- any sort of climbing while he was in Europe.

So Scott arrived in Chamonix having left Stuttgart at 4.00am. We set off to climb at les Chesery above Argentiere. We had perfect weather and we thought we were climbing well until we were brought back down to earth when we were followed up the route by a hooved animal!A mountain Goat.

We finished by climbing the iconic Aguillette d' Argentiere.

On our next day the weather was indifferent - raining hard in the morning with an improving forecast so we took the gamble to head to Switzerland where the weather was good and we climbed The outstanding Pantagruel at Les Trappistes crag one of Olivier Roduits many outstanding routes .

On our 3rd day the weather forecast was good- I suggested to Scot that we head through to Italy to climb the stunning Bucce d arancia at Arnad. What I hoped it would be a fitting end to our 3 days together. Well we left a sunny Chamonix drove through the Mt Blanc Tunnel to be greeted by misty miserable weather [ not what the forecast predicted] By the time we arrived at Arnad it was raining. Anyway not to be deterred we set off up the climb - Needless to say we were alone. Fortune favours the brave and it stopped raining and we had amazing climbing

Until it started raining again. We had climbed all the difficult pitches and what should have been simple was not simple in the lashing rain and so we decided to retreat by rappel. This was surprisingly simple if not a little wet and muddy.
But all in all Scott got a pretty good taste of multipitch rock climbing in the Chamonix and surrounding areaa and he has promised to return ..

Aravis offers great climbing oppurtunities especially at the end of the season

There is no doubt that if you hit the right weather late September early October can be the most beautiful time to be in the alps.
Peter Folkman arrived for few days climbing. On our first day we climbed the new route Princess which is the final trilogy of the long routes on Les Rochers des Mottets. This is the hardest and probably the best of the three routes , but I made a note to my self not to try and climb it when its damp.. Slippy is not the word.

On Tuesday we set off for the Aravis mountain range but it started raining and we had to abort plan A . Luckly it did stop raining and we managed to have a very good afternoon climbing at Les Gaillands.

On the Wednesday the weather was good and so we headed to the Col de la Colombiere where we climbed the long and remote
Arête des Bouquetins on the Pic de Jallouvre

On the Thursday we returned to a different part of the Aravis - the col des Aravis , for the standout route of the area which must have one of the most photogenic ridges anywhere L'Arête à Marion on the Pointes de la Blonnière. Mind you the approach is relentless and hour and halfs slog up a stoney slope with only a vauge path to follow.

Perfect weather perfect Autumn conditions -

Francis Bridgeman ans I enjoyed some varied climbing in and above Chamonix and then for the second half of the week we headed to Kandersteg and the spectacular Stockhorn

We stayed in Kandersteg at the wonderful 300 year old Ruedihus Hotel which as got to be a must for anyone visiting the town

LA VERTE 4122meters. “ Avant la Verte on est alpiniste, à la Verte on devient montagnard... “

“Before The Verte one is an Alpine Climber, after the Verte one is a real mountaineer.”

So said Gaston Rébuffat one of Chamonix’s most famous Mountain Guides .

The weather in the Alps this summer has been terrible. Twenty two years I have worked in the Chamonix Valley as a Mountain Guide and this has been the worst- whole weeks have been washed out and many peoples mountaineering dreams have been put on hold until may be next year?

However the constant bad weather meant that it snowed a lot, the glaciers and their crevasses remained filled in and the snow plastered the north faces acting as a form of rendering gluing everything in place. Then finally at the end of the season the high pressure built and we were set up with near perfect climbing conditions for climbing on snow and Ice. These conditions were almost unheard of for a generation and numerous possibilities evolved.

At the same time my client of 22 years who has never missed a season Charles Sherwood arrived to a mouth watering combination of a fabulous weather forecast and perfect conditions.

I had identified a particular route for us to attempt. Namely the Nant Blanc Face of the Verte. The face is rarely climbed because it is rarely in safe condition and pretty much never at the end of the summer, but as I have said this was no normal summer.

Yet even with perfect conditions the challenges are considerable : The face is massive from the Bergschund to the summit it is over vertical kilometer. The ice climbing in two sections is vertical and the final key section at over 4000 meters involves scaling an overhanging serac. [I did not know this before we started otherwise I might have not been so keen]
In addition actually getting into position to start the climb was very hard work;

At mid day Charles and I took the Grands Montets cable car to the top and then headed across and down the glacier from where we had to make a series of difficult abseils down a horrible lose gulley towards the Nant Blanc glacier. Things did no go well because the brand new ropes I had bought for the attempt were immediately damaged by loose rocks [one irreparably] which must be some kind of record - an hour old.

We found a place to bivouac at about 6.00pm and enjoyed the setting sun while having our dinner.

Breakfast was at 2.00am the next morning and we were packed and away by 3.00pm.

We scrambled down onto the Nant Blanc glacier and threaded our way through a maze of giant crevasses by the beam of our head torches. This was difficult and I took a wrong turning and headed up a false line. Everyone can get lost in this game the trick is to realise quickly as and rectify the situation , which we did but still it was frustrating and time consuming. Eventually just before dawn we arrived at the start of the route which is marked by a giant crevasse - the bergschund the last crevasses between the mountain and the glacier. The guide book rather unhelpfully suggests it will be between 12 to 15 hours to the summit from this point.

Climbing over the bergschund was steep but thereafter the angle laid back a little for the next 400meters. We made steady but unspectacular progress because the snow was very hard and we were balanced on our crampon front points instead of being able to kick steps in the snow.

10.00am we reached a narrowing of the climb. We were confronted with a pitch of very steep ice- far steeper than anything we had expected. Fortunately the quality of the ice was perfect and the ice axes stuck in the snow like they were being driven in to cork. Perfect nevé.

Above this pitch the route moved onto another giant ice field before heading left to a rocky ridge . By now the the sun had come round onto the face and it got unpleasantly hot added to which bits of melting ice started spraying us from above some of which were football sized!

We were now tired and thirsty and we decided we should stop for the day and bivouac. The problem was we could not find anywhere remotely flat enough and so we just kept on climbing up and up in the vain hope of finding somewhere suitable. What happened was that as we climbed higher the ground became even steeper and so we reluctantly set up a belay and abseiled back down about 50 meters to an area which was the least worst option! We carved a ledge out of the snow - a sort of bucket seat and climbed into our sleeping bags at about 9.30pm. As Charles observed this is know as a “double head torch day” : you start by head torch and you finish by head torch.

We awoke at 4.00am and began to melt snow to brew pint mugs of tea. Packing everything up was difficult because it was all frozen like a board but eventually we were back climbing at about 6.00 am .

Above us was the crux of the climb- an overhanging lump of ice know as the “Calotte" which barres the route to the summit. I arrived at the foot of the feature which was made up of fluted ice and I was not a tall sure that I would get any purchase with my ice axes. Firstly I cleared all the flutings of ice away like a vandal attacking a giant chandler. Then I launched my self at the over hanging ice and climbed what was the most certainly exposed bit of ice climbing I think I have ever done because it felt as if I was hanging above the entire Chamonix valley. I was happy to pull over the lip and see ahead of me much more mellow ground. I belayed and it was Charles turn to follow.

Above us lay the summit of the Verte a short walk away. The scene was stunning and we arrived on the summit at about 8.30am,hardly any wind and not a person in site.

The next challenge was to get down which off the Verte is never simple. Some earlier pre planning- We had learned that the Whymper Couloir was still full of snow [again because of the bad summer] and because we had arrived on the summit early the snow was still frozen and safe, so we headed down the rather narrow ridge to the col and set up the ropes for the numerous abseils back to the glacier. It was a rather hot walk on a soggy glacier to the marvelously positioned Couvercle Hut , some beers, massive omelettes and bed.