Alpine Round up and more...

I finally have made it back to Scotland and at last I can put my feet up for a few hours! (The Scottish weather is good for something!).

It has been a great season in the Alps, a little warm and as a result some permafrost is melting away, glaciers are retreating and some parts of the mountains are falling down. So this season was mostly about careful route choice. During the first heatwave, I played it safe and focused on the mid mountain routes which proved to be a good idea.

I’m not really sure how to sum up 3 months with out turning this into a big list of routes etc.

After the Eiger prep week with the two Andrews (They didn’t summit the Eiger due to weather), I took a week off and had a lovely time climbing around Chamonix with Lou. She was keen so a mini break from Wales where she is preparing for her first Guides exam.

After Lou jumped on the plane, I went to meet my guest for the coming week. I was working for High Mountain Guides with one guest. It was aimed as a teaching week for up to a group of 3, unfortunately someone dropped out so we were slightly limited to what we can do. A trip to the Albert Premier Hut followed by the Arete du Table (AD) started proceedings and the remainder of the week was to develop the client to be self sufficient in the mountains. Which is nice for me, as I get to be led around the mountains for several days!

After this week, I was over to Switzerland to work for Frost Guiding . I did a total of 4 weeks working with various guests and racking up some good vertical meters. With several ascents of the Matterhorn, Eiger, Zinal Rothorn, Wiessmies, Lagginhorn to name a few. It really is brilliant in Switzerland. The mountains are amazing, chocolate is exceptional and the conditions were very good too.

My final week I was working for Jagged Globe on a Chamonix Climbing course. This was brilliant fun and a great finale to the season. Every day we sought out a cool route or two and over the 6 days we only did one route I have done before, the Cosmiques Arete. Everything else I had saved for guiding days and they didn’t disappoint. Beaming smiles all round at the end of this week. Then I jumped in the van and drove to North Wales…