A wonderful start to the summer of 2014.
~ Friday, 27th June 2014I'm two weeks into my 2014 alpine season and time just seems to be flying. I spent last week working with the new British Aspirant Guides in Switzerland. All great guys, very strong and good fun to be out with. The future looks bright!!
This week was spent sucking a bit of thin air, with two trips to Mont Blanc in France. The first trip was successful, although we had a cloud down to ground level from the Vallot hut onwards. Not too much of a drama as the wind was surprisingly light and the track stayed clear aiding our return journey. The compass came out for a short while on the Dome du Gouter where wind and snow had completely obliterated any sign of people passing by.
Trip two was also successful, but with much finer weather. We started from the Tete Rousse hut yesterday morning and climbed to the Gouter hut via the Gouter ridge. All in very good condition at the moment. We dumped some kit here, for our return, then carried on, steadily and strongly to the top. Beautiful!! There were loads of people around, very social, with many friends being there, but folk were just happy to be enjoying a big mountain in fantastic conditions.
The Gouter hut provided the usual feast of an entertainingly shocking admin system, fantastic food, wonderful sunset and a pretty amazing view out of the window at dawn. Todays descent was easy and the team returned to Chamonix very happy and ready for a much deserved beer.
