Ice Season

In case you are one of the people not fortunate to be sitting on beach sipping pinacolada's its ice climbing season in the Rockies! A few routes are officially in: Ranger creek, Shades of beauty, Murchison falls, Nemisis, and the trophy wall. Climbed T2 up on the Trophy wall with local bad asses John freeman and Josh Lavign this week.

The Urpine

Its been 2 weeks so far in Canada. Its great to be back!!!! I really missed Canada and all the friends here. After a quick stay in Canmore AB i headed out to Squamish to do some rock guiding for a local outdoor leadership school. We were lucky to have an amazing weather spell with 30 degree temps and not a cloud in the sky for 10 days!!! Pretty rare for this part of the world this time of year.

Flight back to Canada.  Mont Blanc in the distance

la Plan du Chef

Meg and Paul excited to ship off to the Quartz Pillar

Taking the sea bus to the thievery corporation concert

Thievery Corporation

A little urban bouldering after the concert

Ferry to Nanaimo

Crushing the Squamish Buttress

Angels Crest

Frison Roche - Aiguille Rouge

I figure I have guided 50 out of the past 60 days at this point.  After arriving back home from the Matterhorn at 10pm the idea of getting up for some more climbing was a little tough...   So we opted for a 1030 breakfast.  3 coffees later we managed to make our way to the top of the Brevent lift on the Aiguille Rouge side of the Chamonix Valley to climb the classic Frison Roche (5.10).  Great climb with steep juggy climbing on nice rock.  And my favorite part: you walk down hill to approach and top out at the gondola.  Perfect!

Frison Roche goes up on the right side of the smooth face

James on pitch 2

Pitch 3

Pitch 4 

Pitch 5 

Matterhorn

Back up to the Matterhorn for one last trip of the season. This time we finally had perfect weather and perfect conditions! Nice work James on the super quick ascent!

Sunrise above the Solvay

James on the Shoulder

Climbing the last fixed rope section

Our friend Linus and Douglas approaching the summit

James on the summit

 

Now we go home...

 Looking back up from the Solvay hut

Taking a break to sit in the sun be for down climbing the pitch below the solvay

Rebuffat - Aiguille du Midi

After a long week of climbing the idea of getting up early for the 7th day in row was a little tough but Vivek and I rallied one last time and made the first lift up the Aiguille du Midi cable car to climb the Rebuffat route on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi. This is one of the most famous rock routes in the valley on absolutely perfect granite. 11 pitches to 5.10 in the alpine with a 5 minute decent to the cable car. Hard to beat!!!

the south face

Vivek on one of the lower pitches

The last 5.10 pitch

The 20m rappel back to the lift

Dent du Geant

Next on the list for Vivek and I was the Dent du Geant on the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massive.  This route is a major classic and one of the most fun 4000m peaks i have climbed in the Alps.

snowy climbing on pitch 1

Vivek on the first summit

The real summit and the lady Madonna

Marchand de Sable - Envers

Back to Chamonix with the weather improving rapidly Vivek and I took a quick trip up to the Envers Hut to climb the Marchand de Sable. A 12 pitch 5.10+ in the alpine. Fantastic route and an amazing place!! Cant wait to go back

Hiking on to the Mer De Glace

 

The Dent du Geant on the right

Morning start up the glacier

First pitch at 5.10