Alpine Climbing & Skiing: Frost Guiding Blog

An excellent week of climbing. Starting in Arolla - 2 days with lots of snow at la Gouille and l'Usine Électrique - we had a "rest day" skiing then went over to Kandersteg where conditions are still great. We climbed Heizahn, Rattenpissoir and Arbonium - a fantastic 3 days. It's late season in Kandersteg but the ice is still superb and there are very few teams climbing. 

 It doesn't get much better than today - lots of fresh snow yesterday gave us perfect conditions on the Envers du Plan. Knee deep and plenty of fresh tracks, and good snow all the way to Chamonix. 2700m of descent. 

Back to Kandersteg again yesterday - there's a lot of fresh snow and strong winds at the moment, so it seems the best place to be. Short walk-in, good conditions and great routes with low avalanche risk. Much colder than Tuesday, so no drips, good quality ice, and not many folk climbing. We climbed Pingou, the classic line. 

With heavy snowfall and high winds forecast for the Alps we went over to Kandersteg yesterday - a quick trip through the tunnel means it's an easy day trip from Evolene. Conditions are fantastic there, and there were only 3 other people climbing! 

Ski touring today with Aiglon College. The weather was awful - snow and low visibility all day - but we managed a bit of ski touring and some great powder skiing in the trees at Villars.  By the end of the day there was 20-30cm of fresh snow, and lots more forecast for the rest of the week.