Kermesse Folk, Brioche and Haribo

Alison on pitch 3 of Kermesse Folk

Last Monday after doing 'Cris-tal' on the Monts Rouges de Triolet, Alison Culshaw and I walked back to the closed Ref. Dalmazzi. We had access to the winter room, and after a quick search we found a reasonable water source. All we need now is food... We cleared the floor and spilled the rest of our Monday and Tuesdays lunches out. Hmmm, not great - peanuts, oat cakes, dairylea cheese triangles, brioche and some stale croissants - oh, and of course - Haribo. We decided to have an evening meal of - oat cake, cheese triangle, brioche pieces, and peanuts, and a breakfast of old croissants. My packed lunch would be more brioche and Haribo. So basically we went to sleep hungry and feeling a bit sick. Early on Tuesday morning we had to try and stomach a rubbish croissant, which didn't go down well... So we went climbing with a small lunch. We got to the base of Kermesse Folk as it got light and got on with it.

We soon cheered up when we found that the climbing was awesome. On pitch 1 the rock was still cold but there were good moves low down. Pitch 2 included a great steep, juggy hand traverse. We discovered at this point that the climb would be semi trad - the guide book told us to bring some cams, so Alison had 4 camalots. After a couple of weeks on bolts, it took a few minutes to get my trad head back on for the traverse (where are the runout slabs when I need them?) - a perfect steep juggy pitch. Pitch 3 - a steep wall, with some perfect trad cracks to the belay - my fav pitch of the week, if not month!

Alison eyeing up her next lead, about a quarter of the way up the climb

We continued even though we both felt strangely sick. We were eyeing up the clouds, for signs of the forecast storm - we didn't really want to be abseiling off 19 pitches at 3200m in a storm.

Alison cruising

Alison checking the topo - where does the next pitch go?

Spot Alison

On the way down at the end of the day

After a day of eating more brioche and haribo, feeling sick most of the time, it was good to be abseiling off after a great climb, with mostly awesome pitches on a great face. We were glad to get down to an earlier belay where we had left our shoes - my toes were very grateful for a rest, and so we eventually headed back to Chamonix as the rain started. I managed to eat an entire Poco Loco large special for the first time in my life, happy to see the back of the haribo! These last 2 days taught me how far you can stretch 2 packed lunches.

On Wednesday morning in heavy rain, after fighting the Geneva rush hour, I headed back to Fort William - to be greeted by more rain - it's good to be home (the rain is the same, but the rush hour is a bit different in the Highlands!).

Cris-tal Behind The Dalmazzi

Monts Rouges de Triolet from the valley

Last Monday morning Alison Culshaw and I headed over to Italy and drove up the Val Ferret to walk into the Ref. Dalmazzi. The plan was to walk in, do a climb in the afternoon, stay in the hut, then do 'Kermesse Folk' on the Monts Rouges de Triolet, with an early start the next day... So that was plan A! How often do you get to do plan A? When stuff happens, you get to plan B, C or Z! So what could go wrong...

Alison on pitch 1 of Cris-tal

When we got to the hut, we found the hut had closed for the end of the season, the day before! The guardian was busy putting the rubbish together for the helicopter collection, and closing up. We didn't bring a stove, evening meals, breakfast, or anything for a bivvi. On the up side we would save the money to pay for the Hut and meals... We decided to go for our afternoon climb on Cris-tal, and later decide whether to walk back to the car in the evening.

Pitch 3

Alison on pitch 5

Monts Rouges de Triolet above Alisons head

Cris-tal turned out to be pretty good, with some good pitches. Now we had to decide what to do about the closed hut.... Luckily the guardian told us we could use the winter room, which looked pretty comfortable, but what would we do about food?...

An easy multi ab back to the floor

La Tartiflette At Le Brevent

Alison on pitch 3

At the beginning of this week I met up with Alison Culshaw in Chamonix for a couple of days of climbing before the weather would fall apart on Wednesday. On Sunday for an easy low stress day we wanted to make use of the uplift at Le Brevent, but found when we got there that the upper lift was closed for the end of the season, so we could only get to the midstation - Planplaz. We decided not to walk up to 'Crakoukass', but do the 6 pitches of 'La Tartiflette' instead.

Alison on pitch 4

Crakoukass was really busy with about 3-4 teams so we were glad to get a climb to ourselves. The climb turned out to be a mini gem, with quality rock, and little evidence of anybody else using it - the rock was still covered in lichen with zero polish - refreshing after climbing so many polished classics.

Stunning scenery over to Mont Blanc

Alison on the 4a traverse

The last pitch - a perfect 4c pitch

After the final quick ab, and dropping back down to Chamonix, we had time to come up with a plan for my final 2 days in France, before the rain and snow on Wednesday would arrive.

Tommy On Mont Charvatton

Lena on pitch 2, 6a

Before we had to leave Valle d'aosta we had 1 more day of good cimbing weather, so we decided to do Tommy on Mont Charvatton. This is a 14 pitch route so we started early, and seemed to be first to the obscure parking spot. A team was hot on our heels, parking shortly after us. At this point I realised that for a week or so there had been no competition for our routes, but suddenly - there was a croud. At the route, there was already a team 3 pitches up. The team behind us had caught us at the end of pitch 1. They were climbing better and faster than us, so at the end of pitch 2 we let them pass through. So then away from the crouds we were able to enjoy the route. Pitch 2 was the technical crux and pitch 3 was the gymnastic crux (at A0), but the 6th was my favourite - the moves were just so good on perfect rock.

Lena on the A0 third pitch

The 6a 6th pitch

6th pitch

Lena on the 7th pitch

12th pitch

The route was great, although the last 2 pitches lose a bit of quality from the route as a whole. It was a reasonably long day but we were back in town (village) before dark ordering pizza so all was good. Every route in the Plaisir Selection book so far has been a great climb. If only the days were longer, summer lasted into October, and I had another 2 months off!

Arnad - Plaisir Climbing

Lena on pitch 1 of Bucce d'arancia

Using the Plaisir guides, we did several climbs at Arnad, over several days of the better weather. Bucce d'arancia is a great climb - varied climbing all the way.

Lena on pitch 3 of Bucce d'arancia

Bucce d'arancia

Mitico Vento has a really short approach from the road, and had a brilliant first slab pitch so was waiting to be done after it had dried. The first slab pitch was perfect. Lena had asked for the 5th pitch which was pumpy and overhanging, shown below.

Lena on pitch 5 of Mitico Vento

Mitico Vento

Another day we went to the Topo Pazzo area. It had a tiny walk in approach, so perfect for a day with rain forecast for the afternoon. With lots on offer we found the best climb there was the quality Topo Pazzo 3 pitch climb - the 3 star climb of the crag. Brilliant. As usual the rain stops the fun - ab off and back to the car.

Montestrutto - Climbers Park

At last we found some blue skies at the climbers park

With cold, wet and snowy weather in Switzerland with a poor forecast, we bought the 'plaisir sud' guidebook and headed off to the Valle d'Aosta for slightly better weather. We found mixed weather, with afternoon storms and rain common. We made use of the Montestrutto climbers park a couple of times when there was a small part of the day with climable weather.

Lena at home in the hot weather in the valley

The grading took a bit of getting used to - this was only a 4b

It took a short while to get used to the grading and the rock, but once you find how good the friction is on the rock, the grades make sense.

The climbers park comes complete with cafe and ice creams

Fliegender Teppich - Magic Carpet Ride

Typical slab climbing on Fliegender Teppich

At the end of August, Lena and I took the last of the good weather in Switzerland to do a quick half day slab climb. We used the great new 'plaisir SELECTION' guide book to find 'Fliegender Teppich' in Gerstenegg, just down from the Grimslepass. The slabs in the area are stunning, perfect granite.

Lena walking up the slab on the first 5a pitch

Lena setting off on the next slab pitch

Lena smearing up on the next 5a pitch

Lena on one of the last pitchs

With a little trust in the friction on the rock the route was easy - and a bit like a steep walk! After a couple of hours we were off and planning our next friction slab climb - when it started to rain!
It rained and rained. The rain was the onset of a thunder storm. The rain continued for almost 3 days. On the 1st Sept the snow ploughs had finished opening up the Grimselpass, so we went for a drive to escape - the weather was due to be better at a lower altitude in Italy. The hire car had standard tyres, so I was glad that the temp only went down to 0.5 degrees at the top of the pass, so we didn't have to deal with icy roads.

The slabs had all changed by the 1st Sept - the storm had ended and the snow line was below 1500m

21st July, Voie Frison-Roche -TD

Lena leading the second pitch - surely not supposed to be having this much fun !

Chamonix down in the valley

One of the steeper pitches

The steepest 6a pitch

What shall I do? Jam, thrutch, layback, face climb lol (it turned out to be a layback).

The last pitch (5c). Awesome climbing on perfect rock. This was easily the best pitch of the climb. Even the people in the telepherique had a good time with their perfect viewing opportunity - we were in full view of everybody !!!

It was difficult to know what to do this week really. It has been hot for several weeks, and there has been a great deal of snow and ice melt, so lots of ice routes just aren't there, and a great deal of normal snow is just missing! On top of that the melt has been releasing a great deal of rock, and the rockfalls have been enormous, scary, and to be heard from miles away! - Sometimes blocks as big as houses being released. I had our eyes on the Frendo Spur before I came out, but this was definitely out of the question, the approach was deadly! So, what to do? We decided to keep to rock routes, or the safest of snow/ice routes... So today we got onto the recommended Voie Frison- Roche on the Brevent. It turned out to be awesome sport climbing at an ammenable grade (up to 6a). This was a good chance to flex our sport muscles and look across at the Mont Blanc Massif and dream of other routes. There was a great platform to have a rest before the last / best pitch !