Saturday, July 30, 2011

Entreves Traverse

Finally winter has left the alps again! With the new snow the mountaineering routes are in amazing shape. Yesterday we took the 6:30 bin up the Aiguille du Midi and marched arcross the Valley Blance to the Aiguille d'entreves. We traversed the route right to left. Really nice conditions all day.

 Climbers on the Arete off the Aiguille du Midi.  Grandes Jorrase in the back


 Looking at the Midi-Plan Traverse.  Aigulle Vert int he distane

 The gang on the Arete

 The first technical section of the Entreves Traverse

The summit of the Aiguille d'entreves


Climbing the knife edge rock arete

Starting to work our way down off the summit


Looking down on a section of the Valley Blanche from the Hellbroner lift back to France

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Pointe Lachenalle/Cosmiques Arete

The famous ice cave

Climbers on the Arete from the Aiguille du Midi station


The rock pitch up to the main Lachenalle summit


Cool view of the Grandes Jorrasse and the Dent du Geant

Summit of the Lachenalle

About half way up the Cosmiques Arete



Getting ready for the crux pitches on the Cosmiques


Mixed climbing on the last pitch of the route




Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Monch - SE Ridge

Well it seems as though the Alps didnt quite get the message that its only the end of July and not November... The past week it has been freezing and snowing down to about 2000m.  I have started getting excited to go skiing already.  Our plan for last week was to first climb the Eiger via the Mittellegi rigde then off to the Matterhorn.  With up to a meter of new snow our best bet at the time was to head up to the Monchsjochutte and climb the SE ride of the Monch.  Not quite as bad ass as the Eiger but in a full on white out and with new snow was a pretty exciting day out!

On the Junghfraujoch train about to head right through the Eiger

A view point along the way to the Junghfraujoch station


The Jungfraujoch (jungfrau col) station.  Hard to believe this train travels through the Eiger and pops out at 3571m in the col between the Jungfrau and the Monch.  Really an amazing work of construction particully since it was built almost 100 years ago in 1912.

Up in the station your not sure if you have just been tele-ported to India as suddenly the population is probably 90% from India.  There even is a "Bollywood" Indian restaurant.   This here is the "ice cave" one of the many authentic points of interest in the station.

Crossing the glacier to the Monchsjochhutte (monch col hut) you would be expecting to encounter such obsticals as crevasses, route finding, ect   But on this trip you mearly follow the cat track around the crevasses but you still do have to look out for small japanese girls wanting to take pictures with you.

Starting the Monch

Snowy climbing low down on the Monch



Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Roma

Had a 3 day trip cancelled and with the weather forecast looking horrible i bee lined to it straight for nicer weather. Rome seemed like a nice option.

 Pillar in the Roman Forum



 Trevi Fountain

 The Pantheon

Statue in the Basilica di San Pietro

 Creepy looking fellow in the Basilica

The Colosseum

Mont Blanc - Grand Couloir

Ahhh the grand couloir on Mont Blanc!! Doesn't that look like fun??

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Mont Blanc - Round 6

Another quick lap up the Mighty Mont Blanc. This time working for Canadian company OnTop. Super condition this week!

2am - feels like your about the start an adventure race or something.  Except the people here are more pushy

Dome de Goute

 Nice light on the Blanc

The Grandes Jorrasses.  With the Grand Combin, Matterhorn, Monte Rosa in the distance


La summit!

Lets not stop here!  Seracs..