The summer has arrived!
...at last. After the awful start to the season the good weather has finally arrived, as booked by this weeks clients...
The week started ominously with yet more snow and a snow-shoe approach to the Dix hut, but we were rewarded with perfect weather and stunning views on the Monday as we broke trail above a cloud inversion on La Luette. An adventurous day followed on Tuesday, breaking trail up a very snowy Mont Blanc de Cheilon with some impressive cornices on the summit.
A change of scene on the excellent (and still snowy) Couronne de Bréona, then Evolene via ferrata, and finally some fantastic conditions on the 4000m Lagginhorn made for a great end to the week.
Lets hope the good weather continues!
Alpine Summer!
It's been a rough start to the summer Alpine season, with a week of awful weather leaving lots of deep soft snow above 2800m. The old snow is deeply thawed and unstable on steep ground, ridges still very corniced, and rock plastered with fresh snow.
It's not all bad though. Making the most of clear spells we've had some good glacier days, including some exciting abseiling down a moulin on the Ferpecle glacier (failed to take any pictures) and some good climbing on the Pointe du Pas de Chevre. Yesterday we tried to climb Mont Blanc de Cheilon but with lots of fresh snow diverted up the ridge from the col de Cheilon to La Luette, finding more snow than there was most of the winter!
The forecast is better for next week...
Ceuse
Just back from a quick trip to Ceuse near Gap. Great weather and fantastic rock climbing! I hadn't been to Ceuse for a long time - 15 years - and had forgotten how impressive it is. Perfect rock and so much of it. It's famous mainly as a crag for hard climbing but there's actually brilliant climbing from 6a upwards. We stayed at the excellent Camping les Guérins beneath the crag.
