Rochefort Ridge From Torino Hut

The Torino Hut in Italy (3375m). Accessed direct by cablecar from La Palud (saves a 5hr walk up 2000m !!)

After the 4.30am breakfast, off we went into the dark towards the Col du Geant.

Still dark, now, leaving the snow and gaining the steeper loose rock ground - very loose!! I was very glad that there was nobody above us!

Dawn... Still on the rocky approach. There are lots of people below us now, but hopefully they are not directly below.. It is near impossible to not send some rock down..

Spot Alison in blue near the bottom of the photo - still dark , but headtorches are off now... Spot the Midi at the top of the photo - looking stunning in dawn light..

The Midi with the Vallee Blanche

Alison marching off along the Ridge. At this point the wind was strong, and soon started to gust at whatever speed mph...

Little bit of a cornice, let's not go near it !! ...

Mer de Glace

Alison going down into the teeth of the wind, this is where she realised it was time to turn back

Mer de Glace in the background - we're on our way back now

Well, I had to take a look at the Dent du Geant SW face as well. This is half way along the first pitch.

Cosmiques hut on the left. Cosmiques ridge leading up to the midi, and then the Midi-Plan traverse on the RHS...

Looking back up at the rocky approach, after we down climbed it. This is tracherous ground, with almost all the rocks loose, and route finding a little tricky. We were glad to get off before the crowds started down, throwing rocks down as they went!!

Lost my rucsac!

So after hours and hours yesterday morning trying to make a plan, looking at weather, a million new guide books and maps, a decision was made to head for the Torino hut and do the Rochefort Ridge, hoping the bad weather of Monday night doesn't come in early. James Thacker and Mark Walker were on the Frontier Ridge. After an early start for us, but an earlier start for them, we were off... We saw their headtorches in the distance making progress up their ridge - into the bad weather, clag and wind. We had strong cold wind to deal with, and on the way down we even had SNOW! OMG - snow in the Alps, whatever next! When I come here next - I'll be wearing a Himalayan suit !!

Day 2 of St. Chads site specific training

Well that's me home now after a very enjoyable day with the teachers at St. Chads.

Today was focused on group management, safety and problem solving. We expanded on the games and coaching points that were introduced yesterday.

After two days of information download I'm sure the guys had a drink or two this evening to help retain or forget (depending on their experience).

Steep ground and navigation practise

Yesterday and today I have been out with Donnie to give him a refresher on the Summer Mountain Leader syllabus. Whilst we talked over as much as we could; our main focus was a day working on Steep ground hazards and emergency rope work and a day working on enhancing navigation techniques. 

With his assessment coming up soon Donnie like many others gained a lot from building up the confidence in existing techniques whilst looking at some other useful alternatives. 

"If you take me to one more random hillside!!!!" :-)

A sunny day at last!

After postponing our day out last week in the hope of finding some reliable dry weather; Kerstin, Matthew and I were very lucky today down at the Aberdeen sea cliffs.

Kerstin and Matt ready for action!

 
I have spent the last couple of weeks running quite a bit both cross country and in the hills so getting abck to teaching on the rock amidst the rubbish weather was great especially since the sun was out and no jackets were required!

Top rope belaying practice.

Kerstin was looking to get the mileage back on the rock and get her son Matthew the same sort of experience since the weight difference between the two quite rightly makes belaying logistics quite difficult.  We spent the morning on bottom ropes to begin with and moved onto seconding a leader and top rope belaying.  Finishing after lunch they were both hungry for more and hopefully the weather will treat them again for a mountain adventure soon!

Contamine-Grisolle, Triangle du Tacul

So we got the first Midi lift (well, that was the plan, bit late for the first!) up to the top... Geared up and joined the massive queue heading off down the arete

Heading for the Triangle du Tacul across the Vallee Blanche. Our planned route follows the almost obvious left edge.

Alison has now set off to cross the easy bergschrund and head somewhere upwards

Alison in a field of perfect neve to die for

Somewhere high on the first snow field

Look at the sun glistening off the neve - squeaky perfect

Off we go again

Alison hanging out

Entering the freezing shade

We're cold now - but must push on

Now Alison has ALL her clothes on, and is still cold, up we go...

Can you see the tiny people in the Vallee Blanche

:( ..... Eventually we got to a point where the strong gusting wind on the ridge and the freezing shade cold sent us mad.... So we decided to do what we had NOT planned to do - abseil the entire route on a single 50m rope! Obviously we were just retreating for practice...

Down climbing

Still down

Bottom - and quick , get to the sun

So we had a perfect plan - climb the route on a single rope, clean, light and fast... That would have been great, but the alps decided to have some weather!! Wind and cold of all things. So the single rope was awesome, until we decided to retreat and abseil off, so with some poor belays, it meant we ended up down climbing the whole thing! Obviously this was our plan in the first place - a perfect day for testing fitness and acclimatisation - of which I still haven't got any, will go shopping to get lots!

Climbing wall training in Runcorn

Today I've been working with the staff at St. Chads secondary school delivering day one of two of their site specific training.

We spent the day honing in on personal climbing skills and use of the climbing wall before moving to games and activities used both in warm ups and coaching basic movement principles.

The team had a chance to play with lots of different toys also before their day of group work tomorrow

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