I spent the last six days working on the highly rewarding Jonathan Conville Mountaineering Trust courses. The details of the courses can be found here .https://www.jcmt.org.uk
The family of Jonathan Conville established the Trust after he died on the Matterhorn in the winter of 1979, aged 27.
The core aim of the trust is to give young people between the ages of 18 to 30 years the foundation skills to start climbing in the alps independantly of professional Mountain Guides.
The courses are 3 days long. They are all based at Les Choselet campsite in Argentiere. [This was the favourite place of Jonathan Conville.]
Me and my fellow Guides were Neil Johnson, Caroline Ogden,Casper McKeever, and Dave Ruskin. We started by checking all the participants gear and then we showed them what we carried in our rucksacks and what they might consider carrying in theirs . Or rather what they might think of not carrying.
After which we went to Chamonix and rode the cable car to the top of Le Brevent where there is still a lot of snow, for some basic training plus lots of good rock ridges to introduce the concept of short roping.
The second day we climbed the south ridge of Les Glieres high above La Flegere, where we saw no one else.
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| South ridge of Les Glieres |
On the final day we drove through the Mt Blanc tunnel and traversed the Aiguille du Toule by its mini north face which was in perfect condition.
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| North Face of Aiguille du Toule |
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| moving towards the summit of Aiguille du Toule with the mighty Verte in the background. |
