Combloux Giettaz

To day we had a perfect days skiing. Fiona, Antony and Reuben Berg started by skiing knee deep powder through the trees and the skied off the back of the Christomet lift towards Giettaz. A ten minute walk with the skis over the shoulder set us up with a dream descent into the village of Geittaz. We then took the chair lift out of the village before skiing down for a late lunch at the Auberge de Christomet which with out a shadow of a doubt is the best Mountain Restaurant I have consistently eaten in.

Weather gone mad

From no snow in the garden and the grass turning green we now have a meter of snow.
Most of Chamonix was either closed or partially open. Reuben Fiona and Antony Berg and I skied in St Gervais and Combloux where there is tons of untracked snow.

Introduction to ski touring

Peter Collins and his two daughters Alice and Lucy and Alison Redesky and her daughter Daisey and her son Oscar came ski touring. On our first day went through avalanche training using bleepers and search procedures. We also learned how to use the skins and the rest of the associated equipment.
The next day we went on the "col du crochue" ski tour behind La Flegere.
Our plan for the final two days was to spend the night in a mountain hut: We drove through to Le Chable where we picked up a helicopter [unbeknown to the girls] and got dropped on the Rosablanche behind Verbier. We then skied the North Face before getting some of the best untracked snow of the season. In the afternoon we climbed up to the "Pantalon Blanc Bivouac Hut" which is situated at the top of a mountain at 3180 meters. We were the first group to visit it this year.
The next day we skied out of the hut before climbing over a couple of cols and skiing down to Haute Nendaz. We then traveled through the Verbier lift system back to the car.

Whitepod

We drove from Chamonix through deep snow and over the col du Montets and round to the small ski resort of Les Marcottes. The weather cleared and we skied powder through the trees with hardly a sole around.
we then drove round to the Whitepods where we spent the night. The next day the plan was to ski tour but instead it rained all day and was pretty miserable.
The following day the weather improved and we skied in Villars and had a very pleasant lunch at the golf club.

la Giettaz

Today there was not much visibility so we skied through the trees at La Giettaz. It snowed all day and we made fresh tracks until we got bored and went home. Hardly saw a sole all day. Brilliant skiing.

Big Change in the weather

Maighread Simmons and I have been skiing in around Chamonix for the last few days. It has been threatening to snow but not much else. Today we went to Courmayeur where it was dumping it down. Huge amounts of fresh snow and not much visibility but because we were skiing through the trees we were just fine.

Rosablanche

John & Finn Cackett and I left Chamonix and drove to Sion Airport. After coffee we jumped in a helicopter and flew to the Rosablanche just behind Verbier. We then skied down to Sievez for a late lunch. We then took a taxi back to the airport to pick up the car.

A New Resort Each Day

One of the beauties of Chamonix is that it is a "Hub" from which you can reach a bunch of world class resorts in less than an hour. So when conditions are not perfect in Chamonix it is possible to jump in the car and go else where. Or in the case of John & Finn Cackett who have skied in Chamonix for years they wanted somewhere different.
We skied in Megeve,La Thuile,Verbier.

Good Tree Skiing

Charles Sherwood and I managed to snatch a day skiing together in Combloux, despite the piste being in poor condition the off piste towards Le Plan was very good. We had the whole place to our selves while Chamonix seemed to be grid locked and not a turn in fresh snow to be found anywhere.

Big Freeze

Finally it got cold dropping by about 20 degrees everything went from bright green to white. John Cackett his son Finn and I headed for Zermatt where we had perfect conditions blue skis and light fluffy powder

Flying Grannies

The 14th year of the Flying Grannies took place in Klosters.This years team included Sue Mills,Carol Wengraff, Joanna Sanders,Viv Turnbull ( Guest appearance from her daughter Lucy]and Val Parker They were joined by an Aspirant Grandpa: James Cropper who seemed to enjoy himself immensely. We had mixed conditions: Good snow high up and rather strangely for January we did get some fantastic turns on spring snow. However the snow was poor low down and the Grannies didn't get as much off-piste tree skiing as they would have liked.

Ice Fall Climbing

We seem to have had days and days of beautiful cold clear weather the result is that many of Chamonix's ice-falls have come into condition. Roger Cunliffe and I have been able to spend the last four days climbing some fantastic ice climbs in and around the Chamonix valley.

Glacier du Toule

We thought the snow was good yesterday but today it was even better and we had good clear weather. Tom Henry Xavier and I drove through the Mt Blanc Tunnel and caught the cable car up in to the Valley Blanche. We then skinned up to the col du Freshfield. In the afternoon we skied the Glacier du Toule and again we saw no one.

Stunning snow conditions on the col de la Terrace

Despite the fact that most of the skiing is not yet open in Chamonix there is infact loads of good snow. Today Tom Lyster and Henry Faure Walker and I skinned up to the Col de La terrace and then skied untracked light snow all the way back to the Land Rover. We saw no one all day.

We Have Snow. [At last]

The snow has at last arrived. We had about 20 cm of fresh in the garden. It has been raining all week and snowing down to about 2000 meters.
None of the lifts are open for skiing as yet. Les Grands Montets have some "technical problems" which is nothing new. They decided in October that they better change the cable car cabin. The new one was ordered and would have been delivered but the lorry driver went under a bridge that was too low and sliced the top off the new cabin. The year before they did exactly the same thing with the new cable for the Aiguille du Midi and got that stuck.

North Face Eiger Storms

Charles Sherwood and I went round to the North Face of the Eiger with a perfect five day forecast.
We set off in good conditions and climbed really quickly. But as we got to the top of "The Difficult Crack" it started to snow. The weather came from nowhere.Thinking it was just a passing shower We pushed on and then it just dumped and dumped snow as if someone was emptying bags of flower over our heads.
We had really sketchy climbing to get to the Hinterstoisser Traverse where we just got hit by monster spindrift avalanches.We managed to get to the Swallows Nest bivy which is sheltered from above and slept the night there.During the night the weather cleared and the helicopter came in and took two groups off who were below and who were caught in "no-mans land" and had fallen off.
The helicopter reluctantly offered to pick us off at about 10.00pm and they were relieved when we said we were okay and intended to carry on in the morning. However when morning came it was clear that we were not going up.Going back looked like a Guides worse nightmare so we got a REGA helicopter to pull us off at about 9.00am.Sunday morning.

Perfect October climbing conditions

We now have perfect anticyclonic autumn weather with beautiful clear and warm days. Yesterday Mike Woolford Stephen Yates , Steve Trantum and I climbed Point Lachenal 3613m. To day we drove upto to the barrage du Emosson from where we climbed the imposing Aiguille du Van 2572m.

Introduction to Alpine Mountaineering

Roger Brookes and Martyn Read came to Chamonix with the aim of getting to grips with Alpine climbing. On our first day went to the Mer de Glace where we spent the day learning everything there is to know about ice axes and crampons What to do with them and what NOT to do with them. We finished the day climbing vertical ice out of a crevasse.
Next day we went through the Mt Blanc Tunnel to Italy and up the Helbronner cable car. From there we traversed the Aiguille du Marbrees 3389m in perfect super clear autumn weather.
On our third day we climbed one of the most spectacular routes in Chamonix the Cosmiques Spur. The climb finishes by climbing over the railings onto the viewing platform at the top of the Aiguille du Midi 3842m.
Our final day was frustrated by a change in the weather which meant we couldn't climb Mt Blanc du Tacul4248m. Instead we did one of my favorite routes the very long Via Cordia, a 600m multi pitch rock climb. Some how we completed it without getting wet. Just as we got back to the Land Rover the heavens opened.

Dent Du Midi 3257m

Peter Little and I started the week by climbing high above Montreux We climbed the Dent de Jaman a giant limestone pillar with stunning views over lake Geneva.
Then after some great climbing in the Aiguille Rouge above Chamonix and with a perfect weather forecast we headed off to the remote mountain range of the Dents du Midi where we were lucky enough to climb the spectacular Dent Jaune 3186m via "Vire aux Genevois."

Traverse of Mt Blanc 4810m

Roger Cunliffe has wanted to climb Mt Blanc for several years but each time he was thwarted by the weather or poor conditions. Today the wait was worth it because we traversed Mt Blanc from the Aiguille du Midi over the top and down via the Dome du Gouter. Conditions were perfect. We left the Cosmique Hut at 3.30am. We had a full moon no wind and snow that gripped crampons like cork. These conditions plus our good acclimatization allowed us to move very very quickly and we hit the summit at 9.00am. It was warm enough to picnic on the summit before running down the Bosses ridge past the Vallot Hut then on down to the Gouter Hut down the ridge and finishing up at the Nid d'agile "railway station"