Traverse of Pointes Lachenal

Klemen enjoys a day out on the Traverse of the Pointes Lachenal at the foot of Mt Blanc du Tacul above Chamonix with Hilde, Cathrine and Elisabeth.

The traverse is a good introduction to mixed terrain alpine climbing and an excellent training & acclimatization day for further 4000m climbs.







Want to try this? Contact Susie susie@mountaintracks.co.uk

Summit successes all round so far this summer

Klemen traversing the summit of the Matterhorn

The Alps have been blessed with amazing weather since the beginning of July and we have had almost unbroken sunshine for a few weeks. The temperatures have hit a scorching 35 degrees in places and it has been nice to escape up the mountain to cooler temperatures.

Our guides have been out leading trips across the Alps and everyone has enjoyed excellent climbing with ground conditions. Olly guided a group around the Swiss Valais and climbed some of the classic 4000m peaks in the area. Klemen Gricar, who many of you will know from the winter has been busy guiding in Chamonix and Zermatt for us. We have had a group successfully summit the Matterhorn recently, well done to Mark and Andrew for their achievements.

Mark, Andrew and Ross (guide) on the summit of the Matterhorn

Klemen has also guided Hayden and Clifford to summit four 4000m peaks above Zermatt, these were Roccia Nera, East Twin, West Twin and the Central summit of the Breithorn. They also completed ascents of Castor and Pollux to add to their tally; congratulations to them both.

Hayden and Clifford

Matthew Betts and his friends have just finished their trip to Chamonix and the Italian and Swiss Alps. After some warm up days in Chamonix they headed to Zermatt to meet Klemen for the Spaghetti Tour, which is an amazing circuit around the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa area. A report in this morning from Klemen says they climbed eleven 4000m peaks in 6 days, pretty good going.

Matthew and Friends atop the Breithorn

Olly has just set of on an ascent of the Eiger and Matt is away in Saas Grund with Karen and John for a week of climbing. We have a Haute Route Trek starting on Saturday and places still available on another from the 11th – 20th September as well as a Bernese Oberland Trek from the 4th – 11th September if you still want to get away into the mountains this summer.

View from the summit of the Dent du Geant down the Mer du Glace

We have also had some busy weeks in and around Chamonix, the Tour de France once again passed close by; with a stage finish in Morzine/Avoriaz. Lots of people headed across to watch and ride the climb before the riders passed though. Being a Lance Armstrong fan it was sad to see his chances of a podium victory disappear that day in a series of crashes during the day; but it will be interesting to see how Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck fight it out for the win.

We have also had the World Climbing Championships take place in Chamonix last weekend, watching the men’s and women’s finals of the difficulty and speed competitions on Tuesday night was amazing. The huge crowds erupted when French girl Charlotte Durif won the women’s difficulty. Ramon Julian Puigblanque from Spain won the men’s difficulty and afterword’s the crowds enjoyed the firework display to mark the Bastille Day celebrations.

Last Wednesday saw Glen Plake, now a Chamonix resident, and all time ski hero give a talk at the Cinema prior to a showing of the famous, cult movie Blizzard of AHhhhhhh’s. Mr. Plake was then one of the judges for the Nissan Outdoor Games held in Chamonix all of last week. 5 teams put together a short movie showcasing climbing, kayaking, paragliding, speedflying, basejumping and mountain biking. Some outrageous stunts were pulled including basejumping from paragliders, mountain biking off the ski jump in Chamonix and soloing some crazy climbing routs. Team Argon won the competition with their film, you can view all the films at the Outdoor Games Website.

Atop the Matterhorn

Keeping up the success rate, Tjalling Halbertsma, summited the Matterhorn 2 weeks ago with Tomaz Jakofcic as his guide. Congratulations Tjalling. Here are a few photos he sent us of his trip.

Tjalling and Tomaz on the top

One happy climber

Summit of the Riffelhorn

More Summit Success

Congratulations to Damon Marshall and Scott Quincey who made a successful ascent of Mont Blanc yesterday in wonderful conditions.

A perfect day, blue skies, blazing sunshine and light winds gave them ideal conditions for the climb. Klemen lead them safely to the summit and back down to the Tete Rousse hut.

Success on Mont Blanc

On Wednesday Olly guided Jonathan Clare and Richard Jones to the summit of Mont Blanc, congratulations to them both. Despite poor weather early on the Wednesday morning they sat out the morning in the Gouter hut and headed out into the clearing afternoon sun around 3pm.

Summiting at 7pm having battled through strong winds to reach the summit ridge, a quick stop to enjoy the view and they were back down in the hut by 10pm for a well earnt late dinner and wait until they could get a bed to sleep the rest of the night away.

The Thursday morning dawned bright and clear and they headed back down to Chamonix to celebrate their success. Photo’s to follow in due course.

Success on the Matterhorn!

Congratulations to Anna and David, Elizabeth and Will who all made the summit of the Matterhorn today.

Matterhorn Climber week

Here's a selection of photos from our latest Matterhorn Climber week.
The group are currently (Wed 15 July) in Hornli hut preparing for the summit ascent tomorrow.

If climbing the Matterhorn is on your to-do list, we have availability on our final course this summer, 29 August-5 September. For more information click on Matterhorn Climber.

The Italian High Level Route

Nick Powell and Sarah Hart joined Nick during the last week of June for 6 days on the Italian High Level route...aka the Spaghetti tour!

They enjoyed excellent weather for the week and summitted on 5 4000m peaks only being thwarted on the Dufourspitze due to the amount of snow on the higher elevations.

The following photos are kindly provided by Nick Powell.



From Breithorn West summit looking east



The summit ridge of Castor



Nick, Sarah and Nick (Mountain Tracks) on the summit of Castor.



The view from the summit of Castor looking towards Pollux and the Breithorn



The south ridge of Lyskamm taken from the summit of Castor



From the summit of Castor looking SE towards Quintina Sella



Summit of Zumsteinspitz looking towards Dufourspitze (L) and Nordend (R)

There's still time to join us in the Alps this summer - click on www.mountaintracks.co.uk/summer for trip details or call our office on 020 8123 2978

Swiss 4000m Peaks

Summit ridge on the Weissmies

Summit of the Weissmies

Rock Climbing in Almageller Alp

Cold and windy conditions on the Strahlhorn

Despite some mixed weather the team managed to bag all the peaks on the tick list. The Strahlhorn was our first objective completed in wild, windy and cold conditions. Drew managed to summit despite throwing up due to altitude...at least we could follow the sick trail on the way down! The next objective was a cruisy day on the Allalinhorn despite Tim's (the other Guide) terrible jokes. After a brief hotel night we headed off up to the Almageller hut and our next objective, the Weissmies. The next day began cloaked in mist. This cleared after an hour to reveal magnificent views of the Valais, Monterosa and the Matterhorn. The team now acclimatised were cruising up the south ridge making the summit in 5 hours. Then followed a short but steep snow descent down to the Weissmies hut and our greatest challenge of the week, getting the guardian to smile! Nigel managed to crowbar a smile from him - or was it the sight of Greg's red face that tipped the balance (lobster sunburn)? The last objective the Lagginhorn was in our grasp and done in just under guidebook time. A brilliant finish to a thoroughly entertaining week. Thanks guys for all your humour and sarcasm!
Here is the link to the pictures
Cheers Olly

The Forbes Arete, September 2008

As is obvious from these fantastic photos, a truly exceptional day was had by Karin Burnett and Liz Jones on the Forbes Arete.

The Forbes Arete is a 'must do' hard alpine ridge on the Aiguille du Chardonnay (3850), which is situated in a commanding position above the village of Argentiere. The route is graded AD and is strictly for alpinists with experience.

On the Arete we met none other than Nick Parks and Jeff Colegrave! This lead to some cheerful banter which added to the day's enjoyment.

The Forbes Arete is a long and demanding journey on both snow, ice and rock. The day began at 3am from the Albert Premier Refuge, a 2-hour snow plod, is followed by a steep glacier, up to the arete itself. The arete consists of many consecutive gendarmes, all uniquely difficult in there own way. We chose to keep our crampons on for the majority, but there were sections which felt precarious, and demanded a cool and experienced approach.

We joined forces with Nick and Jeff on the descent, which consisted of 'short roping' and several rappels. All in all it was a long day, the round trip took 12 hours back to the Albert Premiere Refuge.


Often when climbing and skiing we have to adapt to less than perfect conditions, however on occasions the conditions and weather are perfect. This was one of those days, and a magic experience was had by both clients and guides.
A great end to the season.

See you all in the winter...

Matt Dickinson

Climbing in the Monte Rosa, July 2008

A few shots from our recent outing on the Monte Rosa - a successful week with everyone summiting on the Dufourspitze, the highest peak in Switzerland.