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Skye ridge guiding (Rock climbing)
Tuesday 15 April 2008 11:33AM
I’m going to be up on Skye from the beginning of May to the end of June, guiding Cuillin ridge traverses for Mike Lates at Skye Guides. If you fancy joining me for a full traverse (or even an extended traverse if you’re really keen!), or simply some Cuillin munro bagging, please get in touch at es@es-on-ice.co.uk
Heaven…
Inn pin downclimb
Ski touring binge (Alpine climbing)
Saturday 12 April 2008 11:19AM
Been doing loads of ski touring last few weeks. First the Ecrins Haute route with Toby, Dave and Mal, some stunning weather, some really bad weather, lots of windslab, no summits, not much food, big adventure. Pictures here . Then a day tour in the Aiguilles rouges that ended with my binding parting company from my ski, luckily only 500m from the road. Then off to the Oberland on some highly organised swiss transport (9 different trains from Cham to Jungfraujoch, never had to wait more than 10min, no connections missed…) for some properly bad weather. Didn’t get up any of the 5 4000m peaks we’d planned for the week, largely due to the weather but also due to some nasty windslab knocking around. Seemed the same story for everyone in the huts. Did get some good skiing around though, and lots of skiing in whiteouts! Pictures here .
Rushed back to Chamonix last night looking forward to my first proper ski mountaineering race. (I did an uphill only time trial two weeks ago), only to find it had been cancelled due to avalanche danger. Damn!
Packing now as my winter has come to an end here. Got a week in Wales for my Msc, then heading to Corsica with my girlfriend for a climbing/walking/touristing holiday, then up to Skye for 6 weeks guiding with Skye Guides.
West Oberland tour (Alpine climbing)
Thursday 20 March 2008 08:28AM
Managed to squeeze a few awesome days ski touring in with some old Edinburgh friends. Did the first few days of the West Oberland tour in perfect fresh powder with no one else about.
Ski touring is my new favourite thing!
Photos here.
Day routes, skinning and Fontainbleau (Alpine climbing)
Monday 10 March 2008 12:21PM
Been a varied and hectic two weeks. Half recovered from Fantasia, Ross and I went up for a day hit on Pointe Lachenal’s Pellissier gully. The routes hereabouts are great for “active rest” days, the only real hardship being getting up early in the morning to get the first telecabine up the mountain. The routes are short and easy enough to get back down for the last train, but tricky enough to be fun.
Thursday night I caught the sleeper to Paris for a weekend of bouldering and culture with my girlfriend. My first time in Fontainbleau, I’ll definitely be back!
Straight off the sleeper back to Chamonix on Tuesday morning and visiting old friends were keen to ski. Weather pretty awful on Wednesday (coldest I’ve got skiing all winter I think, Le Tour was properly Scottish feeling!) but nice on Thursday, so we toured up to the Argentiere glacier from the Lognan (top lift closed due to high winds). I then left the rest of the group and raced up to the col du tour noir on my own. I’ve not been running at all in Chamonix, and climbing and skiing don’t usually provide the same intensity of effort that running does. I’ve just bought some ski mountaineering race kit though, so it was great to test it out and really push myself going uphill. The pounding headache and nausea at the col was strangely pleasurable, a return to my roots!
Next day I felt pretty exhausted, but Ross was keen and the weather was good, so another “active rest” day was had on the amusingly named but since downgraded M6 Solar (M5+!).
Conscious of the risk of seduction from the convenient routes on Pointe Lachenal, and wanting to take advantage of the early weekend lifts on the Midi, we decided to head up to the routes in the Cirque above the Requin hut the next day. Originally we wanted to do the superb looking Sorenson-Eastman route, but there was already a team on it (they’d stayed at the hut for the night, so were halfway up it by the time we rocked up at 10am!), so we settled for the excellent Ice is Nice (IV, 5. 550m). An awesome day, probably the best alpine ice route I’ve climbed this year (certainly the iciest!). Just missed the last train home so a rocky ski and walk down to the valley rounded off a great day.
Pictures here.