10 August, 2009

Summer Highlights


Since our last update we have had lots of further summit successes! Nick and Adam have lead 2 guests up the SE ridge of the Eiger; Jeremy Paterson and his group of 5 have summitted Mont Blanc last week despite some poor weather at the start of their trip - fortunately the summit morning dawned bright and blue!

On Thursday last week Olly and Adam also reached the summit of Mont Blanc with a further 3 guests! All in all we have had a great success rate so far this summer, everyone has enjoyed some great climbing and been enthusiastic and motivated and coupled with some fine weather have been able to achieve their summit goals.

In the meantime I have been out and about walking, mountain biking and paragliding around Chamonix and the neighbouring areas this summer. In July I survived a week’s mountain biking at the Mega Avalanche race in Alp D’Huez. This is a crazy mass-start race from the highest point in the resort, the 3300m Pic Blanc, right down to the valley floor in Allemont at 700m. The race involves riding your bike (or trying to – is more apt!) from the glacier over snow, ice and rock 32km down to the valley floor negotiating some crazy steep drops and scary rooty switchbacks on the way.

Negotiating the snow...




Nick and I had an amazing flight on our paragliders from the top of the Grands Montets in Chamonix last week, taking off on the glacier on the Pas de Chevre side, and flying close to the Dru overlooking the Mer du Glace. It’s a truly amazing flight climbing in the thermals so close to the famous South West Piller of the Dru.

The view from 3400m from my paraglider...

I have also been out enjoying some long walks around Chamonix, a couple of notable ones are the fantastic walk up to the Gare de Glaciers, which is the old lift station of the original route of the cable car to the summit of the Aiguille du Midi. These old buildings still have the cable cars hanging in them and all the old workings of the lifts. The top station right under the Midi itself is a testament to the builders and their determination to get to the top, getting all the materials up there by hand cannot have been an easy task.
Gare de Glaciers in the shadow of the Aiguille du Midi...

The Bel Oiseau at 2650m above the Emosson reservoir in Switzerland is a great day walk, taking the path that contours along from the dam wall above the righthand side of the reservoir. You turn off and take an easy path towards the slopes of the Bel Oiseau, around 500m from the summit the path pretty much disappears and it becomes an easy “off piste” scramble across the rocks and boulders towards the summit ridge. The views are amazing down to the reservoir and back across to the Aiguille Vert and Mont Blanc. A must walk for anyone wanting a truly wild remote experience.

Emosson Reservoir...

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