Euro trip part 1

I’ve just got back from a few weeks of van life travelling around part of the Alps with Cat. With neither of us having explored the Ecrins before we thought that would be as good a place as any to start so after a slow and leisurely drive down through France we arrived in Briancon. With the forecast not looking too great we headed up to quiet village of Ailefroide to get a few days of slab climbing in between the showers.

Heading round to the other side of the Ecrins we found solid mountain granite on the Aiguille du Dibona. The Soreiller hut is a 2.5 hour walk up from the valley and situated directly below the South face of the Aiguille du Dibona. As well as only being, quite literally, a stone’s throw from the start of the climbing it is run by the two most welcoming and friendliest hut guardians I’ve ever met. Choosing the classic of the face we started up the Madier route following the main central weakness. Two thirds of the way up the route we arrived at the ‘Fissure Madier’, since the loss of a chock stone the guide books have given this pitch a fearsome reputation of unprotected 6b off width climbing. Although it was the crux of the route it didn’t (thankfully!) live up to its reputation, with ample gear and a couple of painful foot jams all that was needed to overcome the short off width section before more good holds came into reach. Cat was soon running up the easier ground and standing on the top before the quick decent down the normal route and back around to the hut and a wet walk back down to the valley as the heavens opened.

(photo - Cat Freeman)

(photo - Cat Freeman)

Unfortunately the heavens didn’t want to close after we got down so with the weather crapping out for the foreseeable future across the whole of the Alps it seemed like there were two options. Hang around in the rain or head to the Provence (via Orpierre) for some relaxed climbing in the sun and obligatory afternoons of wine tasting? Not a hard choice really....



Eventually we persuaded ourselves to leave the laid back atmosphere of the Provence and give the mountains a second chance. Arriving in Saas Grund only to find people hadn’t been exaggerating about how much snow there still was up high. Stepping off the Hohsaas lift with various plans we soon ended up at plan C and salvaged the day with a nice walk up the normal route on the Lagginhorn above a stunning cloud inversion in the valley below.

Summer Guide Training part 2

A couple of weeks ago we finished off the last of our summer training for the guides course, four full days over in North Wales based out of Plas y Brenin in pretty much perfect weather. Compared with a lot of the other courses there was a lot more 'classroom' time with a number of talks and discussions of all aspects of guiding from client psychology, to making the most out of the internet for marketing.

However the main program for the week was looking at coaching methods. The first morning was spent inside discussing how people learn and looking at teaching/coaching methods, for such a vast subject we only had a short time to briefly touch on it but learnt a lot nevertheless. Putting it all into practise that afternoon we ran a mock fundamental of climbing workshop in the sun at the RAC boulders. Tuesday was a day out on the hill to look at how to teach and assess navigation. Assessment isn't common role for a guide but once qualified there is always the chance of working on ML, MIA etc mountain qualifications where you will be assessing navigational and various other mountain skills. This turned into more of a day of navigation training for me. I knew before hand that it’s a skill I’m weak at (bit of a recurring theme here!)...even though I’ve spent a lot of time in the mountains in Europe it's usually only when you get caught out in bad weather when ski touring that the map comes out, so lots of night nav and days out in crap weather for me this summer.

It was back inside for a full day on Wednesday for a very varied day of talks and many coffee breaks. We finished the day off by putting together a full program for an alpine preparation course we were going to be giving the next day. Working with Andy and James we put together a program that was based around the centre in the morning and going to a local crag in the afternoon. Our students were the new centre assistants from Plas y Brenin and it was good to be working with genuine students rather than mock students where it feels a bit strange and hard to teach people things that you know they are very experienced at already.

Neither Nic, Oli or Lawrance had any alpine experience but all three had aspirations to visit the alps soon and most importantly were really psyched to learn the necessary skills. Through the morning, using various areas of the centre, we covered how to take coils, moving on a glacier and prusiking practise. Over a coffee break we spent a good while flicking through guide books and maps whilst chatting about a typical alpine day and the differences between climbing in the UK and the Alps. After lunch we headed down the road to the small crag of The Pinnacles right in Capel Curig where we practised crevasse rescue and how to move together on classic alpine ground.

That’s it now till the summer assessment in mid September, again over in North Wales. I’m going to be working in Yorkshire for most of the summer but aiming to spend a few weeks before the assessment in North Wales putting it all together to hopefully go into the assessment as prepared as possible...

Summer Guide Training part 1

I was in the Lake District last week for the first part of my guides summer training. We started the week off up at Raven Crag in Langdale for a day of multi pitch guided climbing. The aim was to look at all the skills for getting the maximum climbing out of a day with 2 clients. We covered all the various options, one rope, two ropes, climbing in series and parallel. As well as the going up we also looked at and put into practice various way to safely and efficiently get the clients down.

On Tuesday we headed up to Dow crag above Coniston for a day of short roping. This is a skill that is completely new to me, when climbing with mates you either have the rope on, off or you’re moving together with varying amounts of rope out and gear between you. Short roping is used to safe guard clients when going up and down on easy ground. My first round of guiding Andy up and down the side of Dow crag was a complete shambles, there’s just so much to think about all at the same time. Slowly as the day progressed things started to click, I started to get my systems sorted and the whole thing seemed to run a lot smoother. It’s definitely one of the more difficult skills to learn and as a guide is one of the times you are most exposed to risk and danger. Anyway I finished the day having learnt a lot in a short space of time but knowing I’m going to have to put a lot of time in over the summer to get it dialled.

For the final day we drove up to Borrowdale and had a split day between Shephards crag and Black crag. Andy and I headed off with Tim Neil to spend a day looking at coaching techniques for multi pitch climbing. Unlike the first day which was looking at pure guiding techniques to get as much climbing in as possible the final day was aimed at clients who want to gain the skills necessary to go multi-pitch climbing themselves. The emphasis was about building a good teaching progression into the day and getting the clients involved in everything; building their own anchor once they arrive at the stance, belaying the second client up and just generally chatting through everything.

I spent all last week wearing the new Orion softshell, I’ve found this jacket a great choice for cragging in the UK when you’re not too sure what the weathers going to do as you set off up a multi-pitch route. Its over to North Wales next week for the second part of the summer training and hopefully a few days climbing after.

Location, Location, Location

I love the spring time in Chamonix, it’s relatively quiet around the valley, the weather, more often than not, is settled, seasonal work is finished and the options for playing are endless. In the last five days I’ve had four very different days out climbing.

Monday was a big mixed alpine line on a 4000m peak (see previous post ‘Too Late To Say I’m Sorry’). Tuesday ended up as a forced rest day due to not been fit enough for the previous day! Wednesday and we made the steep walk up to Bionassay crag just above Saint Gervais for an afternoon of steep limestone bolt clipping, well trying to anyway, just like the legs weren’t strong enough for a big alpine day the arms definitely aren’t strong enough for Bionassay just yet.

Thursday Colin and I headed up the Midi with skis and rock boots for some alpine granite crack climbing. A quick ski down to the base of the Contamine route on Point Lachenal and you can quite literally step out of your bindings and on to 250m of perfect warm sunny rock (the perfect way to approach a climb??) before abseiling back to the skis. Then a good spring ski back to the Montenvers train station and a late lunch in Chamonix. Friday was multi pitch climbing on the big limestone cliffs of Balme down in the Arve valley. Jonny and I did a route called ‘Le vieux de la montagne’, 7 pitches of technical slabs and steep walls on good quality limestone.

Easy access alpine rock climbing

Colin high on the Contamine Route, Point Lachenal

Top of the Contamine route before a quick abseil down the route and a good spring ski back to the valley

Too Late To Say I'm Sorry, Aig Vert

The volcanic ash cloud may have been causing chaos for travellers all over the globe but luckily it hasn't blotted out the sun in Chamonix yet, quite the opposite. Eventually the weather seems to have settled down here and we've enjoyed some rare stable weather for the last couple of weeks.

Heading up the last cable car to the Grands Montets in the evening Dave and I joined a number of teams already insitu for the evening, including the Spanish Alpine Climbing Team (a.k.a Spanish wads!). We'd headed up to do the Robert Jasper line of 'Too Late To Say I'm Sorry', a 1000m line with 300m of thin ice and mixed climbing starting out of the Couturier Couloir and finishing on the Grand Rocheuse (4102m). Crossing the shrund with the first rays of light we quickly moved together over neve and hard grey ice and the first technical pitch of the route before putting in a belay below the crux pitch.

Heading towards the line of 'Too Late To Say I'm Sorry' (marked in red)

Getting the second rope out Dave started a snow cleaning mission to unearth ice and a crack to make a difficult traverse rightwards under a roof. The second part of this pitch is the crux, with the main corner lacking enough ice to climb this year previous parties had either aided or freed the crack to the right at M6 to rejoin the corner 10m higher. Wasted from his snow clearing efforts and in the aid of speed Dave reluctantly pulled on a few bits of gear before tensioning across in to the corner. Seconding on a tight rope I just managed to get it clean, only just managing not to hold up one of the Spanish wads who was leading right behind me... impressive to watch.



The next two pitches gave me some of the best mixed climbing I’ve done in a while, good gear, thin ice and an amazing situation leading to the final ice gullies.




The final pitch was probably one of the most aesthetic and quality pitches either of us has climbed in the mountains, a 40m perfect ice runnel finished off the technical climbing.

The amazing final ice runnel

Wanting to get the full mountain experience we carried on up and easy broad gully to join the East ridge of the Grand Rocheuse and it's summit. A short abseil off the top and 15 minutes later we were standing on the top of the Aiguille Verte. Down climbing the Couturier Couloir in perfect conditions we eventually arrived back at our skis and just got back to the valley without head torches.

On the East Ridge of the Grand Rocheuse, summit of the Aig Vert in the top right of photo

Approaching the summit of the Aig Vert

Piolet d'Or 2010

Over the last few years the Piolets D’Or event has come under quite a bit of fire. So when Nick and myself found out a couple of months ago that our ascent of Chang Himal had been nominated I think my initial feelings were firstly very surprised, pretty chuffed but also maybe a small bit sceptical. Looking back at the week now I can safely say there was no need for any scepticism, it genuinely was a really good week, interesting, fun and very enjoyable.

It was also quite a surreal week as the whole event gets quite a bit of media interest over here so from drinking champagne on top of the Helbronner lift to cragging in the Aosta valley there were cameras everywhere. Something I’m glad I won’t have to get used to, but I’d be more than happy to get used to the amount of good food and wine that was consumed over the week! The best part of the whole event for me was meeting a lot of people who share the same passion and interest for the mountains as you do and sharing stories and future plans over a few drinks.

This year they gave out two awards, the first went to the American/Scottish team for their awesome ascent of the North Face of Xuelian West (6422m) in China. This was definitely my pick of the five nominees and I was really psyched that these guys got it, their whole trip was very inspiring, as well as Xuelian West they also made a number of other first ascent in the area during the month they spent there. The second award went to the Kazakh team and their very committing high altitude route on the South Face of Cho Oyu (8201m) in Nepal.

It’s far from the reason Nick and I both go climbing but at the same time having our ascent of Chang Himal chosen for nomination by such an experienced and respected jury, as was this years, was for me a big achievement and something I was quite proud about. I’ve read elsewhere that the Piolets d’Or is ‘struggling for identity’, OK it maybe needs a few tweaks here and there but from how I saw it as a get together and celebration of alpinism it seems just fine.

I didn’t get any pictures from the week but there’s a load of photos here http://www.pioletsdor.org/index.php?lang=en and you can see all 5 narrated films of the nominees here http://www.tvmountain.com/index.php/piolets-or

Late season snow

Spring made a brief appearance over here in mid March but for the last couple of weeks winter definitely had a good go at returning. Waking up a couple of mornings to an unexpected 5 inches of snow in the town and skiing over half a meter of fresh powder up high. I’m still to swing a tool in the mountains this season but to make up for it there have been a few pretty sweet days on the skis making the most of the late season powder.

Here's a few shots from the last few weeks...

Paul skinning up below the Dent de Géant to access the West Couloir of the AiguillesMarbrées

Enjoying perfect spring snow on the Marbrées

Escaping the Easter crowds of Chamonix down in the Vanoise, skinning up to the Col du Genepie

Over a 1000m's of fresh tracks skiing down from the Col du Genepi with not another person in sight.

Pete and Nick skiing off the Midi after the latest storm

Enjoying 60cm of fresh off the Midi