Eiger

We had a perfect week. The weather and the plan came together marvelously. Chris and his sister Tamsin Dovell plus me and Chamonix Guide Jean-Christophe Beche climbed the Mittellegi Ridge and descended via the south ridge. Conditions on the ridges were as good as they can get.

Traverse of the Trient plateau

Viv, Fiona, Stephen and Stephen set off from Le Tour and walked to the Albert 1er mountain refuge. For three of the team it was to be their first night in a mountain hut. The next day we awoke at 5.ooam and set off for the Trient plateau. Again this was to be their first time walking on a glacier. We crossed into Switzerland over a col at 3200m and then traversed the Trient glacier before arriving at the wonderful Trient Hut in time for lunch and cold beers on the terrace.
The next day we walked down to the village stopping at the Orney Hut for morning coffee. We arrived in Champex having completed the first part of the famous Haute- Route and [depending on which member of the team you talk to] potentially setting up the walk to Zermatt next summer.

This trip was described by the participants as "Seaton's Saga tours" the moto being brilliantly summed up by Stephen Yates as: "guaranteed to get Everyone Everywhere.... Eventually."

Varied climbing around Chamonix

Last week Reuben Berg took the opportunity not only to do some varied climbing but also to catch up with his adult children. Firstly he was joined by Emma for some rock climbing and then a few days with his son Antony.
We started by climbing the longest rock climb in the Chamonix valley the "Via Cordia."<http://perso.orange.fr/lionel.pernollet/mottets.htm>. This is a great climb to get use to the concept of moving quickly over a variety of rock.
On Monday we climbed the Eperon Sublime above Flegere
We then did the traverse of the Aiguille du Crochue in the Aiguiile Rouge.
Next we had a change of scene and went to climb a Via ferrata at the Col Des Aravis

On Thursday we went and climbed Point Lachenal in the valley blanche.
We finished the week by climbing the clocher- chlochotons above Brevent. The Tyroean Traverse left a lasting impression.

Weissmiess and Monster Trottis

Peter Folkman and I have been climbing above Saas Grund. On Tuesday we traversed the Dri Hornli. A rocky ridge made of perfect grannit. Of its kind it is one of the best routes in the alps. On Wednesday we traversed the Weismiess 4022m. We left the Allmergella Hut at 4.30am and climbed the south east ridge arriving at the summit at about 9.30am.
The descent proved to be tricky. The snow had not frozen and as we descended the snow turned to mush. Near the bottom the snow bridges across the crevasses felt as if they were made of cloud and there were a few heart in the mouth moments. It needs to freeze hard before this route becomes viable.
On Thursday we climbed the spectacular via ferratta on the Jagihorn. Soon to be even more stomach churning by the completion of a wire walk way between the two peaks.
We then hired two "Monster -Trottis" Oversized scooters with moon buggy wheels. We used these to cruise down the track back to Saas Grund. This would have been a wonderful 50 minute descent IF it hadn't started to lash it down just as we saw our ruck sacks and waterproofs loaded onto the cable car .