The end of November we got a good cold dump of snow . Everyone was happy Eddy the new Bernese Mountain Dog had setttled in and things were looking good.

Then that was it sun sun sun . Come Christmas all the snow had gone.

Eddy now considerably bigger was confused : "What the hell has happened to all the snow?" he said .

So to the tricky question of skiing. Luckily the weather had been beautiful [hence no snow] which it meant it was possible to go high. I always think that Les Diablerets is a very good option and although it is an hour and halfs drive from Chamonix it is worth it. I went there twice in a week once with Peter Whelan and then with Stephen Yeates and Steve Trantum. The snow and conditions were excellent..

A couple of days later again with the 2 Steves we headed through the Mt Blanc tunnel and up to the [I believe] unique revolving cable car : The Helbronner. From its summit we entered the Vallee Blanche via an elevator followed by a tunnel which leads directly to the glacier.

Instead of skiing down the Vallee Blanche [due to a lack of the essential ingredient] We skinned up to the col de Entreve where we were treated to spectacular views in every direction - particularly Mt Blanc :


We then skied back the way we came on some very good snow but at the same time avoiding the double-decker bus swallowing crevasses.
A day later we skied at Grands Montets. Unusually for the Chamonix lift company they had made the effort and managed to open the top of Les Grands Montets where we found some excellent snow. This lead very nicely to the Chalet de Lognan where Eric [better known in Argentiere for his dread lock] is the chef in charge of cheese dishes [which were very good.]

Eventually there was a change in the weather - no more blue skies, but instead rain . Rain rain rain,but at least it would be snowing somewhere? Well actually no. It was just rainat all skiing altitudes. Then it snowed. Then it rained. All this resulted in a massive avalanche risk. A few days past and the weather and snow conditions settled down: momentarily.

Leo Vita-Finzi took a day off from his work with the UN in Geneva to ski with me. We failed to get past he door at Grands Montets because it closed in front of us due to horrendous winds. We headed down to Les Houches which had excellent snow in the morning but when we ventured out after lunch it was raining..

On the 10th January Peter Whelan and I were due to ski together. It was raining hard in Chamonix. Anywhere was going to be better than staying in the valley. A quick look at the meteo showed that through the Mt Blanc Tunnel it was a good deal colder and snowing hard. We went to La Thuile where we had astonishing skiing and a very good lunch

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The Dent du Midi is a magnificently striking mountain viewed from a far. The Swiss guide book describes it as an "Extraordinary edifice of stone" especially when viewed from Rhone valley. However nose up it is a tottering pile of crap. It has several summits which make up its ridge of "dents." At each end there is a Cime. The east Cime is pretty much untenable unless it is glued together by snow and ice. If not then a strong belief in ones immortality is a necessary bit of kit to have with you. In the middle is the Dent Jaune . This is an anomaly in that it is a very good climb. I did a few years back with my very good friend and client Peter Little whom I did so much exploratory climbing with. At the west end is the Haute Cime - the true summit and can be reached without stepping on a glacier and without specialized mountaineering kit [in the summer]

This was to be our objective. Vin,Tony,Dave and I drove around to Champery, and set off from the Paradis Car park on a beautiful Saturday morning. We walked up through a very uninteresting forest following a very boring path for over an hour. Eventually we broke out of the forest to be treated to beautiful views of Champery and in the distance the Rhone valley. The path then snakes around some cliffs before going through a gorge where you turn left and head up a valley to the Susanfe Hut.



A very cosy and considering it was late in the season ,a very busy hut. We enjoyed a sociable evening and the food was washed down with a couple of bottles of the local rouge. Inevitably we were presented with insipid desert which seems to be part and parcel of staying in Swiss Huts - This time: apple-puree. Baby food.

Breakfast was at 6.00am and we were away by 6.30am.At this time of the year it is still dark so we set off with head torches and plodded up to the col du Susanfe in just over an hour.



A pause and a drink and we were off up the Haute Cime proper.There was a surprising amount of snow around which did a lot to enhance the scene because without it you could have thought you were on some lifeless planet - acres of shale.

It might be "just a walk" but its over 1100 vertical meters from the hut to the top. It took us a lung busting 4 hours to get there. But it was worth it as the views were very, very good. Mt Blanc to the south.


Lake Geneva and the Oberland to the north.



Now all was left was the matter of going home. This was to be a brutal 2000 meter descent, back the way we came, stopping briefly at the hut just long enough to buy some drinks and for the legs to seize up. By the time we arrived back at the car we were knackered. Dents du Midi may be only a walk but you underestimate it at your peril.

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Peter Folkman drove from Chamonix to Cortina d'Ampezzo. It is along way. Past Aosta,past Turin,past Milan and then turn left at Venice and head up into the Dolomites. We arrived mid afternoon just in time for a couple of Aperols [Italy's most popular cocktail] sitting in the sunny main square watching the world go by.

On the Sunday we decided to warm up by heading up to the Tre Cima Laverado where we traversed the Paternkofel via ferratta.

This particular one starts in a tunnel.
In the past when I have climbed this via ferratta it has proved to be a very good introduction. However unbeknown to me the descent gulley on the far side had collapsed and the route followed a very long detour. The detour was indeed a very fine one and significantly enhanced the quality of the route. However it did spit us out in the wrong valley and consequently left us with a long unwanted walk back to the car.

On the Monday we decided that our legs needed less of a pounding and so we opted to climb on the Cinque Torri where we climbed the uber classic "Via delle Guide" in absolutely perfect autumn weather. In the afternoon we wandered around the outdoor museum where they have rebuilt the WWI front line trenches very close to the climbing.


On the Tuesday we elected to head to what is considered to be Cortina's most impressive via Ferratta -Punta Anna. The weather was indifferent but as so often in the alps we climbed through the cloud.



On the Wednesday it lashed it down. We did attempt to visit one of the Messner Mountain Museums but this ended in farce. We arrived at what we were lead to believe was the museum entrance only to discover that it was more complicated than that and involved a shuttle bus [no where to be seen] followed by a walk. Walking anywhere in the lashing rain seemed unappealing. We bailed and headed for Chamonix.

Back in Chamonix on the Thursday we awoke to beautiful weather and a sprinkling of new snow down to the trees below 2000meters.Our plan was to climb on the slabs above the Mer de Glacé.
Our plan was almost thwarted by non other than the French Prime Minister who was on a visit to Chamonix. Monsieur Valls was to be treated to a helicopter ride which was to culminate in him watching a PGHM winching exercise from inside the helicopter.
The winching was on the route Peter and I had chosen to climb. Luckily I am on good terms with Captain Ribbes the PGHM top man in Chamonix and we quickly agreed that it would be fine to climb the route next door. The net result is we got "ring side seats" for the demonstration.


And Manuel Valls got to see some real climbers.

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This is an account of an ascent of the Matterhorn via the lion Ridge in Italy followed by the descent of the Hornli Ridge into Switzerland. Our climb was made even more special because it coincided with the 150 year anniversary of the 1st ascent of the Matterhorn via the Hornli Ridge. The first ascent was seemingly cobbled together at the last minute by a bunch of toffs, Swiss and French mountain guides and admittedly the very accomplished mountaineer yet possibly over achiever Edward Whymper. It is extremely well documented that half the team did not make it back.



Attempting a traverse like this out of the normal season has its advantages and disadvantages. The clear advantage is that the mountain isn't mobbed by loads of other climbers. Nor is it so warm and often the weather is more stable. The disadvantages are that the route had a lot of late season snow on it. We didn't know if this would make the route more difficult or impossible. In addition the mountaineering infrastructure [cable cars , mountain huts etc] begins to close down.

I say begins, but in actual fact it had already closed down in Italy.Thus leaving us no where to stay and a massive long approach walk to get in position. We started by taking the lift formerly known as the Klein Matterhorn, but now bizarrely renamed the Alpine Glacier Mountain Paradise to its summit and then walked [and fell down] the summer ski piste until we arrived at the very comfortable Theodul Refugio where we spent the night. Next morning we left at about 7.00am and walked down the pistes towards Cervina. A more inauspicious start to our trip is hard to imagine. We were now below the summer skiing and Cervina without snow is not a pretty site. We arrived at the lowest cable car in Cervina- Plan Maison , turned right and started the 1345 meter ascent to the Carrel bivy, stopping en route by the frustratingly closed Abruzzi Refugio to fill our water bottles. [The Carrel bivy doesn't have a reliable water supply.]



I cannot get my head around the fact that this is only a bivy hut by the fact there is no guardian. It is easily busy enough to warrant one. Despite it being low season it was packed and because there was no guardian to police the place a sort of chaos ensued. It doesn't bare thinking about what it would be like in high season. [Oh yes I remember it was closed because the summer heatwave had precipitated huge rock fall.]

Inside the hut was quite miserable: It was freezing even though Charles Sherwood is looking so happy , in fact his teeth are chattering:



Soon after dinner our moral was "boosted" by the return of party of 3 who had spent 15 hours failing to get any where near the top. Still at least they returned...

Breakfast didn't come around fast enough . We were off at 5.00am. Immediately we were in a queue behind two parties. The first were so scarred of the overhanging combination of rope and chain that they freaked out and were passed by Charles and I and another Guide and his client. Fortunately I decided to tuck in behind this Guide and it was therefore he who took the rock on the helmet and not me. Despite being sick and very dizzy he promised he would be okay and so we forged ahead and immediately found ourselves alone.

The route is consistently steep and intimidating and strenuous. It is far more difficult than the Hornli. Dawn broke and we found ourselves on the distinctive flat section of the ridge before the final very steep tower. Progress along the flat bit was slower than anticipated because it is in fact full of notches that had to be negotiated by firstly climbing down into them and then back up again, while not actually making much useful progress. It was at one of these notches that we were caught up by a soloing American climber. Although he caught us up he was reluctant to pass us and wanted to become my 2nd client of the day. I rather view gaining another client half way up a route is rather like a ship taking on salvage. My solution was to avoid the discussion by dithering around ,fiddling in my rucksack and generally not moving till he got bored and decided he would be better off on his own.

More fixed ropes then an overhanging rope ladder then finally the summit slopes.


We arrived on the Italian summit at 10.30am and then traversed to the Swiss summit.

The descent of the Hornli ridge was snowy. However the snow was neve and it actually made it easier than when it is just rock. It also made route finding easier too. We arrived back at the Hornli Hut around 3.00pm stopped just enough time to say hello to fellow BMG Guides Rob Jarvis and Owen Jones who were planning to climb the Hornli ridge the following day.We wished them luck before heading down to the Hotel Schwarzsee where with beer in hand we collapsed.

The next morning we continued on down to Zermatt where we checked into the only appropriate hotel for such an adventure namely the Monte Rosa. The very same hotel Whymper had used when he was planning the first ascent of the Matterhorn exactly 150 years beforehand.

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Getting your boots and waterproofs on in the lashing rain in a car park is something John Young is far more use to than me. He lives in Fort William and climbs on the Ben. I don't any longer.



Nevertheless this is what we found ourselves doing getting ready to go up the "hill" in Gressoney. Our plan was to head to the wonderful Gneffetti hut. [ I only came down from it a couple of days before hand]
The forecast was good for the next few days and we would attempt to climb the south ridge of Pyramid Vincent.




Sure enough the next day was fabulous and we climbed the ridge staying judiciously behind a couple of French climbers who we let break trail for us through a not in significant amount of fresh snow.We weren't quite so clever as a fellow BMG Guide Phil Dowthwaite who then followed us up. But this allowed me to take this photo:



Once on the summit the soft snow was kind to our knees and we were back in Gressoney for lunch. After the obligatory cappuccino and pannini , we headed of on our second part of our plan: To climb the east ridge of Mt Viso.

We drove down and around Turin and while climbing up to the road head passed a brilliant little hotel called La Coletta. We swung in got two rooms and mellowed out. The next day we were treated to a magnificent view of Mt Viso with a ring of cloud around its foot[more of this later.]




We passed through the village of Crissolo and then headed up the seemingly endless and often vertiginous road to finally arrive at a car park [patrolled by a Gnome] at the road head at about 2000m.

The walk to the hut is about 2.40mins. It was soon that we entered the ring of cloud I mentioned earlier. We didn't think too much of it at first, in fact a bit of cloud was welcome to keep the sun off us. However as we got higher it got thicker and by the time we arrived at the very crowded and frankly not very pleasant Quintino Sella hut, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.

This was a real problem for us because it had been our intention to scope out the start of the east ridge the afternoon before the climb. The mist never cleared and so we decided to activate plan B and climb the voie normal both up and down.

We awoke at 4.00 am and were on our way at about 5.00am. It was still dark but he mist had completely disappeared , which was good. The climb is very very long. At first you go down hill and pass a lake before following a rising path which eventually hits a series of chains which are there to help you climb steep ground. After an hour and a half we arrived at a col. On the far side there is a steep unpleasant descent down some ruble where you surrender 140 m of height. You then follow [what the last time I was here about 15 years ago was a glacier] but now is rubble up to a very brightly coloured bivouac hut.



From the hut we tied the rope to us and moved together over some good but simple scrambling terrain arriving on the summit in a very respectable 4.20 hours.

There is no better view from the summit of Mt Viso. From its summit you can see the entire alpine arc. From the summit of every 4000m peak in the alps you can see Mt Viso. This is what makes it so famous.




In addition it you look south you can see the Mediterranean sea.

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In July 2014 Lloyd Donavan came out to join me work six days climbing. It was without doubt the worst week of weather I had ever known since I have been guiding. So this year Lloyd came out in August with the "promise" that it couldn't be as bad as the previous year.

Well the first 2 days he was here it never seemed to get light and it rained stair rods continuously. The only conclusion was that LLoyd was cursed.

Then there was an improvement in the weather and we decided to climb above La Flegere. Cursed again - while everywhere else it was a pleasant late summers day we some how managed to find ourselves in a sandwich of torrential rain. We made a pathetic attempt to climb the L'Index but after 2 pitches prudence took over and we retreated.
Once back in the valley we enjoyed an afternoon climbing above Averyon.
Then we decided to leave Chamonix and go some where else. Italy. Our plan was to head to Gressoney.

We headed up to the Gniffetti Hut in zero vis.

The next day was different. Lloyd got agoraphobia because this is the first time he had see anything in a long while.


We climbed the Vincent Pyramid , the Balenhorn Coro Nero before dropping back down to the hut for a second night.

Next day we set of up to the Margherrita Hut ticking of the Parrotspitze and the Zumsteinspitze .


The food and welcome in the hut was as good as ever and we got a stellar sun set looking down on the Matterhorn.

In the morning we also got an equally stellar sunrise from the toilet window this time looking down on the Italian Lakes and Milan.

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Some times there is s long interval before clients return. In the case of Peter Collins and his two daughters Alice and Lucy it was about 10'years.
But return they did. Well at least Alice and her Dad returned.



Lucy had some how contrived to fall over playing net ball and was sporting a strap on leg splint. Not the ideal way to restart your alpine climbing career.

So it is as left for Alice and her father to climb with me.



On our first day together we climbed the Petite Aiguille Verte. Even this early in the season conditions had deteriorated because of the extreme heat wave the Alps is currently enduring.

It was felt that with the snow next ice conditions being so sketchy the most appropriate thing was to go and climb on some solid rock high above La Flegere.

This coincided with a change in the weather and we found ourselves climbing enveloped in a big cold foggy cloud . I felt distinctly under-dressed. Later in the afternoon having climbed the Eperon Sublime we headed for some rock climbing at Les Gaillands. The sun came out and we ended up too hot! Never happy.

On our final day we climbed the famous Clocher Clochtons high above Plan Praz at Brevent. This is a fantastic route with all sorts of manoeuvres, rappelling, lowers , and of course the iconic tyroleant raverse which it is so famous for.. The weather was beautiful. Just as good as when Peter and I had climbed it last time 20 years ago

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I was a mildly dissapointed that there wasn't room in the helicopter for me for the final flyover shoot. The doors had been taken off the Lama III, the camera man , Simon, had been clipped into a hard point on the helicopter and Alex the Producer had had his seat belt buckle duct taped closed.

I was anything but dissapointed when the Italian Pilot then produced two opinel knives and explained that "when we crash, sorry I meant to say IF we crash, it will be easier to cut the webbing than fumble with the buckle/carabiner."

My personal experience of Opinel knives is that they are difficult to open at the best of times. It would be hard to imagine what it would be like doing this in a helicopter rotor failure crash situation.

In addition ,I did ponder that it made a mockery of all the risk assessments , carefully prepared "Method Statements" which I had been involved in prior to leaving for the job.



They did take off and fly around for about 10 minutes before returning , re fitting the doors , collecting me and then we flew back to the Antrona football field where the adventure had started 6 days ago. It concluded a fascinating week in which I had been part of a 3 man team filming the Ibex which climb on the Cingino Dam.

The first issue was how to get all our kit into place using a helicopter , but without scaring the Ibex off the dam. [Apparently Japanese film crew had done just this: landed the helicopter at the dam and ended up scaring all the Ibex away with the net result of nothing to film all week but a dam.]

The solution was to fly up another valley and then enter our valley via a 2700 meter long miserable wet tunnel where wearing a helmet was [in my case especially,] a very good idea.


Meanwhile the helicopter would make another flight with our kit suspended underneath in a "Big Bag". The helicopter would not land but just drop the bag on the ground about a mile around the corner from the Dam


"All" we needed to was lug the stuff back to what would be our home for the week the Cingino Dam Engineers House.




This was fairly knackering . Mind you the plan worked because the Ibex didn't seem too bothered and they were on the dam for an afternoon of salt licking. [Salt licking is apparently why they go to such extremes of climbing the dam]



Next on the agenda was to rig the cable camera across the Dam. This was the reason I was here. The due diligence we had carried out a couple of weeks before meant that I had all the stuff to quickly rig the line.



The state of the art specialist Dactylcam camera was fixed on the line and everything was working.

We retired to our accommodation provided by the ENEL Energy company which owned the dam. We were to lodge with the two D engineers Matia and Jean-Luca. They were pretty laid back characters whose main job [as far as I could ascertain] was to check for leaks in the dam which took about an hour each day, watch sky sports , and lift heavy weights. They did however offer to cook for us- outstanding pasta dishes for breakfast lunch and dinner...

We quickly got into a routine. Simon the cameraman would rise before dawn and get himself established in his Hide which was pitched next to the dam wall in such away as it looked across the Dam.


I would check the anchors on the cable way were okay and then Alex the producer would go about running the cable cam. All was fine until there was a big puff of smoke out of the back of the camera sledge trolley. The thing seemingly gained a mind of its own and zoomed back and forth across the dam on its own volition. Several trans atlantic phone calls to the Geeks that built the thing only confirmed it was dead.



This was not good. We discussed all options and then came up with a solution. We stripped out all the batteries from the trolley,duct taped a couple of Go Pro camera's to the trolley and stuck it on the cable way and then rigged a sort of cable car mechanism where by we could winch the trolley by hand into the middle of the dam.

The shots were brilliant and the potential results breath-taking.

We returned to the foot ball field by helicopter and then five minutes later our kit was delivered back to the car in spectacular fashion.




The Power of Nature will be shown on BBC TV.

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I was joined by Dee Anand for six days. Dee came out last year at pretty much the same time and we climbed Mt Blanc together. The only problem was we arrived on the summit in thick cloud. Well pretty much the same thing happened on this trip every time we arrived on a major summit we saw nothing.

On the Monday the weather forecast was indifferent for Chamonix. But just over in Switzerland it was much better . So we headed up to the Emosson Dam. Parked the car and jumped on a free shuttle bus which whisked us to the other side. [The bus was provided by the construction company who are repairing a leak in the dam wall!

We climbed the Aguille de Van which proved to be an ideal shake down day.

On the Tuesday we did the classic traverse of the Crochue .We did stay dry , but we saw nothing!


Dee had to take my word when I announced we were on the top.


Then on the wednesday believe it or not the sun came out! So we were all psyched to head up the Aguille du Midi. Yet when we turned up the whole world had the same idea and the Que was round the building. Plan B - through the Mt Blanc Tunnel and up the brand new lift at Helbronner. This proved to be a much better bet. The new lift is sensational. As the cable car goes up, it also spins around on its axis. The lift station is like a cross between a 5 star hotel reception/a cathedral. It is jaw dropping. We were able to do the complete traverse of the Aguille du Marbree.


Thursday - we now had a stellar forecast and so we headed round to the Grand Paradiso. We walked up to the Vittorio Emanuelle hut in an easy couple of hours.

Friday breakfast at 4.00 am . We were away soon after. Gradually we overtook all the other parties , not by going quickly but just by not stopping. Yet when we summitted once again the mist had socked in and Dee was once again deprived of a view.



Although we couldn't see much the conditions underfoot were excellent and we charged back down the snow to the hut in 2 hours.

On the Saturday we were a bit tired so we opted to go up to Plan Praz on the Brevent lift where did an excellent but very chilly rock climb .We climbed the Éperon de doite, on the Aiguille Charlanon.

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Just spent a week climbing the peaks around and behind Monte Rosa with Chris Dovell and Lia Heisters. Our plan was to climb up to the Margherita Hut - the highest building in Europe at 4554 meters. It is best practice not to go straight there because if you do you are more or less guaranteed severe altitude sickness.

So we followed what is a tried and tested plan. The first day [with the significant help of the Punta Indren cable car] we walked up to the Mantova Hut 3400m

On the Tuesday it was blowing quite hard


So we put our heads down and headed to the top of the Balenhorn 4107m


before heading down to the Gniffetti Hut at 3625m. Thus following the acclimatisation mantra of "climb high sleep low."

I have started carrying an oximeter on these type of trips because it is a very good quick way of seeing how well people are acclimatissing . A normal reading at sea level would be between 97 and 100. Any reading of below 90 would get you admitted to A&E. You can see the need to be careful with your acclimatisation- The top reading is the pulse the bottom reading is the blood oxygen level on our fisrt night above 3500m


On Wednesday we headed up to the Margerherita Hut but not before knocking of the 10th highest mountain in the alps the Parrotspitze4432m


The position of the Margherita hut is really quite audacious



It may be the highest hut in the alps , but it also the most welcoming, has the best food, and it also has the fastest internet connection of anywhere I have ever been. This is provided free of charge via Turin University who do lots of research into high altitude medicine.

We had hoped to continue from the Margherita hut and climb the 2nd highest mountain in the alps the Dufourspitze 4634m, but there was not going to be possible because the route was plastered with snow and had not been made climb in a least 6 months.

So on the Thursday we contented ourselves with climbing the Zumsteinspitze 4563m, then the Ludroigshohe 4283m then the Coro Nero 4321m and finally Vincent Piramid 4215m. We then headed back down to the Gnifetti hut for the 2nd time where we were treated to excellent food and a very good evening.

We awoke on the Friday and enjoyed a leisurely stroll back to the lift Station , but not before dropping into the Mantova hut for a cappuccino.

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Last week I got a call from the BBC to ask if I could help rig a camera for a unique never been attempted film project.
The plan was to film the Ibex which climb the Cingino Dam in order to lick the salt deposit off the rock. The salt is forced out of the rock by the water pressure .

Rather sensibly it was felt that we should walk up to the dam and make a recce. The plan was to see if we could fix a tensioned cable way across the front of the dam with the intention of mounting a camera.

So I left home at about 5.30am and drove over the Simplon pass to Villa Dollassa in Italy where I met up with Roberto Bianchi who is a wild life photographer and expert on the Ibex.


A few minutes later we were joined by Alex Rankin , the producer of the episode. We all then drove to the head of the Antrona Valley , dumped the car and started the beautiful walk up to our un manned Refuge at 10.00am





It was a fair pull up to the hut taking 4 hours .


We unpacked our stuff and then crept over to the dam which is about 5 minutes walk from the hut we were staying in.

Luckily the ibex were on the dam. The site is simply incredible. I couldn't quite take in how steep the dam wall was and how big the ibex were. Some must have weighed over 300 kg.



We spent the afternoon and the next morning checking out potential anchors and making risk assessments. It was just before we headed down back to the valley that I got to be even more impressed by the ibex: As I stood at the bottom I decided to have a go at climbing the first couple of meters of the dam to see what it was like.

I struggled up about a meter and slipped off!

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So Alison, Yvette, Kevin and I parked the car at the Emosson Dam and started walking across the Dam at about 6.30 am.

Our first challenge was to negotiate the building site . We then traversed the Dam and just beside the road dumped our training shoes and stuck on our ski boots , skis and skins. We then climbed the 800 vertical meters to the Col de la Terrace.





At the col we stripped off the skins and were treated to a spectacular view across to the Aiguille du Chardonnet and the Trient glacier.

By now it was about 9.00am and the snow had already nicely softened up. We were provided with excellent spring snow conditions as we headed back towards the reservoir [which seems to be missing the ingredient it was designed to store]



It was then back the way we came , but not before stopping for "brunch" at the excellent cafe just above the Dam.

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Steve Callaghan contacted me because he wanted to restart climbing after a long lay-off . He felt he was a bit rusty and wanted to brush up on his skills. We devised a plan through an exchange of emails , met up and headed up to the Mer de Glacé. This is a very good place to cover everything there is to know about ice axe ,crampons, rope work , steep ice climbing and look at how stuff has changed in the thirty years since Steve had last been climbing. However it was difficult to imagine how he had ever been away because he took to it all like a duck to water,

This was despite the weather being more arctic than alpine. Winter had seemingly returned and the temperature had dropped by 30c in a week.


We had the whole of the Glacier to ourselves.

Our first day was a success and so the next day we headed up the Aiguille du Midi to attempt the iconic Cosmiques Arete. Not for the first time the Aguille du Midi was slow to open , primarily because it is run entirely for the convenience of the people who work on it and not the paying public. Eventually it did open and we descended the ridge and plodded round to the start of the route. Luckily there was a party in front of us, I say luckily because it was they who ploughed through the 130cm of fresh snow. Eventually they became exhausted and it was left to Steve and I to gallantly plough the furrow.

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The weather messed with our plans again. Peter Folkman and I had a plan to traverse the Eastern Oberland on skis. The weather had different ideas. There was just one day of good weather forecast. We decided to go skiing on Grands Montets. The previous day it had snowed and there was the rumor of very good powder skiing high up.
Unfortunately this was just a rumor and the first run off the top was horrible. Luckily the snow softened up and we did end up having several very good runs and certainly better than the skiing parachutist who seemed to have not seen the cliff.


The skiing down the Argentiere glacier was excellent.

This was to be the last of the good weather. We decided on a radical plan. Ditch the skis and head south to Provence for some rock climbing. Four hours after leaving Chamonix we were in Orpierre complaining about being too hot and smearing our selves in sun cream.
Orpierre is one of Europes key place s for rock climbing.

We booked into the Cean Hotel about 5 km outside Orpierre. The hotel is run by the brother of Luc Alphand the famous French ski racer. It is a good place to stay and even better it serves the family beer : Biere Alphand which we road tested and found to be excellent.

The next day it rained. Then some more. This was the start of the rain that caused flooding in the Chamonix area, plus big full depth avalanches which closed the Montenvers railway. We visited Sisteron and took a look around the Citadel. Well worth a visit.

The next day the weather was great and we climbed on the Quatre heures crag.
The desecent involved a free rappel
After the climbing we drove to Buis Les Baronnies. We found a hotel and went out for dinner in the bustling center of town.
On the Sunday we climbed the one of the classic routes of the area Les Trous on the impossing Saint Julien crag which dominates the local land scape.

On the Monday we decided to climb the new via ferrata which had recently been built. It boasts that it is one of the finest in France. Certainly it is well conceived and well built. Plus the views all around are spectacular.
Once we had finished it was back to the car for the drive back up to Geneva so that Peter could catch his flight home. I then drove back to Chamonix [where it was still raining.]

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Another fine week of weather allowed us to set up a very interesting ski-tour where we even met Christophe Jaquet on the top of the Col du Chardonnet. Christophe is the translator of Mark The Mountain Guide into Marc Le Guide.

Charles Sherwood and his friend Simon Allen joined me for four days. While I have enjoyed many adventures with Charles , Simon was new to ski touring. So it was necessary to build a trip which would hopefully have all the elements of a ski touring challenge but was not too committing.
SO:

On the Tuesday we met up and went to Stamos Sports in Argentiere in order that we could kit Simon out with ski touring skis and all the other paraphernalia associated with ski touring. We then went skiing at Grands Montets primarily so that we could test out all the kit before heading off into the wilderness.

The skiing was awful, icy and very noisy. In an attempt to find something better we ventured off-piste . This was considerably worse. Simon would have been forgiven if he had packed up and gone home then and there. It was not intentional but it probably seemed like some horrendous initiation test.

At least we established that the kit worked and I ascertained that if Simon could ski this then he could probably ski anything. We headed up to the top of Grands Montets. After a very good Croute & salad in the Buvet the top, we skied down the glacier du Rognons. We then stuck our skins on and headed up to the Argentiere Hut for the night. The hut was very busy , but mainly with climbers taking advantage of the good conditions on the North Face of the Doites.

Wednesday we had breakfast at 6.30am. It was up to its normal Aregentiere Hut crap standard - luke warm insipid tea/coffee/chocolate and a miserable piece of bread which had a texture and resemblance to balsa-wood.

Leaving the Hut was tricky because the snow had frozen hard over night and a lot of care was needed. We then skied down the Argentiere glacier and searched for an exit on our right so that we could follow our intended route over the col du Passon. Global warming continues to speed up and cause more issues with glacial retreat. Yet again what should have been a straight forward exit off the glacier was instead a sketchy scramble with crampons.

We climbed up to the col du Passon without incident and from this point we only passed one other skier. We reached the Col du Passon at about 11.00am , then headed across and up to the Tete Blanche . On the way we passed a ski plane that was parked up while its occupants sat in the snow and had a picnic.

We got the descent just right and had some excellent spring skiing all the way down to the Albert 1er Hut. This was the first winter it had been opened , few people seemed to know this and it was consequently quiet.


On the Thursday breakfast was marginally better than the day before , but the toilet was back to the bad old days of huts. One squatter for the entire hut. Pretty much 3rd world standards and not for the sqeamish. If they are going to continue to operate in the winter then something will need to be done.

We left by 8.00am. Continued perfect weather and solitude . We climbed up to the Col du Midi. But first we passed the not very well known, but hugely significant point "Signal Reilly." Reilly was an English surveyor who was with Whymper on the first ascent of the Chardonnet. He used this rock to triangulate the heights of many of the peaks in the area.

At the top of the col du Midi the snow had gone and so there was some more thought provoking route finding through some indifferent rock. It was then around to the Aiguille du Tour. We left our skis and the foot of the couloir , roped up and climbed the south ridge to a perfect windless summit. Simon's 1st alpine summit. It would be hard to imagine a better introduction to it all.


We then skied over to the Trient Hut for a late lunch of Omlettes and beer. The Trient Hut is one of the busiest in Switzerland but not mid week , so we had a very pleasant time. Plus we got to see a very memorable sun set

On the Friday, the toilets were good and so was breakfast. Our plan was to reverse the traditional first day of the Haute Route. We skinned across the Trient plateau to the Fenetre du Saliena. We were confronted with a steep descent. While it might have been possible to ski it later in the day when it possibly might have softened up. But in the condition we found it if we had attempted to ski it , we might have ended up in an unwanted , perhaps terminal slide. So we cramponed down the slope,facing in with our skis once again on our rucksacks.

It was then over to the col du Chardonnet.This was a magnificient wild and wonderful place to be. At the foot of the gulley which leads to the col du Chardonnet, again it was crampons on , skis strapped our rucksacks and a steep climb up to the top where [as I said earlier ]we met the Mark the Mountain Guide translator , Christophe who had just climbed up from the side we were going to ski down.

From this point at 3321meters it would be down hill skiing all the way to the village of Argentiere at 1240meters. Just over 2 vertical kilometers of spectacular skiing rounding off a remarkable and varied 4 days.

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This was an exceptional week of ski touring. Chris Dovell Lia Heisters and I left Chamonix at 6.00am. Chris was good enough to drive. I slumbered and apparently snored in the back. We drove via Bern. It was Easter Monday the weather was beautiful and it had recently snowed a lot. The result was that Grindelwald was packed. It took quite a while to park the car , queue to buy tickets and finally board the world's most expensive train [where all the seats were occupied] and travel up to the Jungfraujoch.
Despite the weather being clear there was a very strong viscous wind which coupled with the new snow meant that there was a lot of wind-slab developing. Our plan was to ski tour to the Hollandia Hut via the Louroiter col 3659m. By the time we reached it the wind was "knock you over strong". Nevertheless we need not have worried about the avalanche risk at the col because all the snow had been blown away!
We skied down the Kranzberg glacier in some difficult snow, before stopping to put our skins on and skiining up to the Hollandia Hut 3158.



On the Tuesday we climbed the Abeni Flue 3924m This has all the hard work of a 4000er with out the glory. It was particularly hard because the wind was still very strong. The other two parties turned back leaving the 3 of us to battle on.

A quick photo on the summit and then we skied down through some tricky crevassed terrain until we arrived on the Aletsch glacier. This is meant to be down hill. but what we soon found out is that its not down hill enough to seemingly ski. We tried poling, skating. All three of us tried a different method because there was not one solution better than the other. Yet eventually we put our skins on for the stretch over to the Konkordia Hut. We stashed our skis under a rock and then clambered up the metal stair case to the hut.[See earlier blog entry] Just then the helicopter arrived with the supplies . The Hut dog was especially happy because his dinner was on board.

On Wednesday we headed up and over the Grunhorn col 3279m and over to the Finsteraarhorn Hut,but not before making a detour to climb the Wyssnollen 3590m. The wind had now dropped significantly but it had done its damage to the snow. The descent in good snow would have been very good. But not for us. It was challenging breakable crust. The Finsteraarhorn hut was very busy but because it is such a good hut everything ran smoothly and we enjoyed a good evening.

On the Thursday we headed to the Oberaahorn Hut 3256m. This was a comparatively short day. We arrived at lunch time . Th In contratst to the previous night We were the only guests. The hut was still in the process of being opened for the ski touring season. Chris and Lia decided to help clear the snow from the deck.

Meanwhile The guardian Christoph managed to drop a critical screw while attaching the satellite dish to the veranda. He got involved in a fruitless but heart stopping search for it.

Meanwhile I decided on some "re-hydration therapy" while admiring the view of Matterhorn:




The reason for the short day was partly because the next day was to be big. Very big. Plus partly because we couldn't safely descend the south facing slopes in the afternoon because of the risk of wet slides.

On Friday we awoke at 5.00am. Chris and I then gulped some coffee left out the night before in a vacuum flask . It was then out onto the hut balcony and immediately on to the climb which would take us to the summit of the Oberaarhorn.3629m. Having zoomed up the peak we were treated to a spectacular sunrise.
Plus the first view of where our ski descent would take us.


It took an hour and fifteen to climb and about half an hour to get back to a delicious muesli breakfast. A quick pack up and then the real challenge of the day started .

We skied down the long Oberaar glacier and onto the reservoir, before deciding that it might be best if we didn't actually ski on its frozen surface. At the end of the lake we had some fun and games negotiating and skiing along the top of the dam



The issue with skiing on the top of the dam was that the railings provided no security due to the height of the snow.

Eventually we made it across and this shot shows the entire descent

The day was far from over. Where as it should have been comparatively simple to negotiate the road to the Grimsel pass,[1&half hours on the summer sign post] it proved to be difficult steep terrain . So much so that we couldn't easily skin and so we had to carry our skis and post-hole across steep ground. A slight change of plan meant we headed for the Sidelhorn pass. Magnificent wild terrain and views over to the Furka Pass and the source of the Rhone where we did not see anyone all day.

From here it was very good spring snow and then as we got lower mushy snow , but nevertheless snow, all the way to within 10 minutes walk of the railway station at Oberwald

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John Young arrived at the start of the week with a really bad forecast. Typical of the change in the equinox. There was 50cm of snow very strong winds which all added up to a very high avalanche risk. The net result was that most of the lifts in the Chamonix Valley were shut. So not for the first time we had to drive through the magic weather tunnel to Courmayeur.
On the Monday we skied off piste in the trees. In some very good snow.

Tuesday we drove to La Thuile. The weather was clear but there was a ferocious wind blowing which shut a lot of the lifts , but we still had many good long runs.

Wednesday we headed to the Petit Croix Baulet above Combloux. The weather was better and crucially it had got a lot colder.
From the summit we skied all the way down to Geittaz always on excellent snow but there were a few interesting streams to negotiate, some giving one or two comedy moments.

Thursday we headed back through the Mt Blanc tunnel where the weather was perfect. This time we climbed Punte Crocce.

Friday: Funny how these things work out but Friday was the stand out day of the season. We did the traverse of the col du Crochue col du Berard. Everything came together. Some fresh snow over night which critically fell with no wind. Hardly any other parties on the route .

Once we passed over the col du Crochue we were treated to some fantastic skiing.

Followed by another skin to the col du Berard



It was then that we were treated to the best yet: No one had been down the valley. There was 30 cm of untracked light fluffy snow..

We quickly made the transition from skin to ski mode because we were conscious that with the good weather the snow ould deteriorate. We skied down until the snow changed from powder to spring snow. We stopped had a bite to eat and then continued on down the valley and still continued to find good skiing.

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The Vallee Blanche is famous for many things but what most people skiing it for the first time remember is the ridge at the start. This misses the point because the best skiing is actually from the Italian side. So with this in mind Richard Lewis and I started in Chamonix skied down to just under the Pyramid du Tacul. Here we stuck on our skins and climbed up to Helbronner. This gave us access to the comb de la Vierge and some fabulous skiing.

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Imagine you are in the mountains,the weather is horrible,the visibility is at times zero, the avalanche risk is high. Wouldn't it be convenient if you could just escape inside the slope and get away from it all? Well in a nut-shell this is what we did: Have a look at the time lapse video:


Needless to say this was only part of the adventure which Bill Mills Greg Knott and I had embarked on. The story started on the Saturday morning where we took the mountain train from Grindelwald, through the Eiger before disembarking at the Jungfraujoch station. We stuck our skins on our skis and headed up to the Monchjoch. From there we skied down the very long and flat Emig glacier underneath the Fiescherhorn. It was bitterly cold, yet wild and spectacular - we could just as easily have been in the Antarctic.

Finally the glacier steepened as we skied off the toe of it and eventually arrived at the steps to the Konkordia Hut. These steps provide no finer example of glacial retreat and global warming because , when the hut was built it was at the edge of the glacier.Its now a lung busting 200 meter vertical ascent.

The Hut wasn't busy just another team of 4 French with their Guide Nicolas from St Gervais.

The next day[Sunday] the weather was cloudy and it was snowing lightly , yet there were holes in the clouds so we decided to head over the Finsteraahorn Hut. Roughly 2 and half hours of steady ascent and we arrived at the col. We skied down the other side and into thick mist. You couldn't even see your feet. Finding the Hut perched on the other side of the moraine was a navigational challenge.

The hut wasn't busy - just the French team and us.

Monday the weather was bad. Not a great amount of snow but still the visibility was poor. The forecast wasn't good for the next 2 days. The problem with the location of the Finsterahorn Hut is that it is remote and there is a real chance of getting stuck there if the weather deterioratesand it snows a lot. So we decided to get out while we could and head back to the Konkordia Hut.

The hut wasnn't busy- just us . The guardian cooked us a giant pan of Rosti Cholesterol

Eventually another Guide from Romanche arrived and we all huddled around the fire in the Kitchen.

Tuesday: We needed to leave - Bill and Greg needed to get home. Still the weather was poor After much debate we decided we would ski down the longest glacier in western Europe the Aletch glacier, with the aim of getting to Fiesch.

Again this is utterly spectacular and wild but it was not long before the weather socked in again and it became necessary to ski roped up in case I inadvertently skied into a crevasse because I could not see a thing. We navigated our way off the glacier and headed up a valley to where we had been tipped off that there was a secret tunnel.
The tunnel was not easy to find , but find it we did and there sense of satisfaction.

The tunnel was about 1200 meters long. In the middle of it we came across a weird shrine with lots of burnt out candles. There were apparently no sacrificial body parts lying around but still it was all a bit freaky.

We exited through a door into the next valley

We put our skis on and skied the best snow of the trip down a beautiful valley before making a critical right turn up what in the summer would have been a simple path , but in the current conditions was a precipitous traverse around a big cliff. Still there was a track made by other skiers so how hard could it be? Well it was a few minutes later that we rounded the next corner to come face to face with a man on the phone who was in the frantic process of calling for a helicopter because he and his friend and decided to go on an off-piste "explore" with no idea about anything and had consequently got them selves into a living nightmare situation.

Having established that the helicopter was defiantly coming for them , we bid them Good Afternoon and continued on our way where we traversed into the lift system of Fiescheralp [where we somewhat ironically got lost] Anyway a very nice man let us on the lift and we skied into the resort proper. We stopped out side a Hotel where the hotelier was seemingly touting for customers. He offered us for to stay in his Hotel,in the dungeon. After an excellent meal in his very fine restaurant the next morning we were back on the slopes , this time with beautiful weather and good powder skiing. We rode the cable car to the top of the resort and finally got to see where we had actually spent he last 4 days.

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Peter Whelan joined me for four days off of piste skiing and ski touring around Chamonix. On our final day we were joined by Walter an ascent of Punte Crocce in the Aosta Valley.

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The big snow fall which Chamonix and the surrounding area has desperately waited for finally arrived. It was the sort of season saving snow fall that put down about 100cm in our garden. The immediate result of this was that Chamonix skiing stopped because of the high avalanche risk.

Always in this situation , the solution is to jump in the car and head for Megeve, St Gervais , Combloux where there is always acres and acres of powder skiing through the trees. Pretty much always there is no one else around.

Yesterday 7th Feb I went down the Vallee Blanche for the first time this season with my Icelandic neighbours. We arrived at the Aguille du Midi station to find it deserted. This might have had something to do with the sign which stated that it was -30c on the ridge!

In actual fact the conditions were very good, although there was surprisingly little depth of snow on the Mer de glace. We skied all the wsy to Chamonix.

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Just had two very good days with the party which has been organised with Chris Boulton and friends in one form or another for 20 years. They are creatures of habit. They always stay at the Hotel de la Couronne. They always eat in the Office Bar [at least twice] and they always hire their skis from Stamos Sports. Finally they always engage my services for at least two days. Chris,Kevin,Peter,David,Adam,James,Peter,Steven.

On our first day we skied off piste where James Mitchell took this remarkable photo of me on the piste at Le Tour

On the Sunday they all agreed that some skiining was what was wanted in an attempt to burn off some of the 10 tons of cheese they had eaten. So at 8.00am we squeezed everyone into the Land Rover and drove through the Mt Blanc tunnel and then over to Punte Crocce which over looks La Thuile. Here we enjoyed possibly the best weather day of the season

Finally from the summit you are treated to as a good a view of Mt Blanc as any.

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The trip did not get off to the best start. I was delayed twice and missed my 1st two flights due to fog in London. Finally arrived at Heathrow eight hours late. Eventually with great help from HRG travel agents I found a flight to Kilimanjaro International airport via Amsterdam and via Nairobi and actually arrived before my partner in crime for the trip Charles Sherwood.

My Next problem was I did not have the required $50 for my Tanzanian entry visa. I was told to go out side the airport withdraw unfathonable amount of Tanzanian shillings [about 80,000] from the ATM , then go to some dodgy guy who would then convert them into Dollars. All while the immigration officer would "look after " my Passport until I returned...

Unsurprisingly the ATM was not working , so back I went , then a very strange thing happened: An American over heard my disagreement and just handed me a $50 dollar bill! Problem sorted.

Charles arrived from Doha we were picked up by Rift Valley Safaris Ltd and driven to fantastic Moivaru Lodge which appeared to me to be in the middle of the jungle. Here we got the first sight of Kilimanjaro which was on the label of the beer bottles we supped.

Our plan was to climb Kilimanjaro as a way off getting some solid acclimatisation for the real challange of making the complete and rarely achieved traverse of Mt Kenya. We were to start our trek on Kilimanajaro by the Machame park entrance. This is apparently considered to be one of the most beautiful routes. We left the Hotel and gradually picked up people who were going to help us , firstly the cook , then the guide Onex and then a second guide JV [never really sure why we needed a 2nd guide] Then we stopped for an hour so they could all have breakfast , then we arrived at the park gates where we went through a mountain of paper work , met our porters [8 of them] and finally set off around mid day.

We trekked up through an area of forest called the Montaine forest. This is of course rain forest and it lived up to its name by raining torrentially. Fortunately this coincided with lunch and as we rounded the corner our rather Colonial looking Tent had been erected , table was laid [complete with table cloth ] tea was served with sandwiches and hot soup.
All this rain did create a load of thick mud so when we arrived at the Macheme camp 3000m we were already filthy. The camps on Kilimanjaro are somewhat busy and seemingly chaotic . There must have been about 250 tents.
The next day our destination was Shira Cave campsite at 3850m. It wasn't long before it was raining again, it was cold wet and pretty much like the average day in the Scottish mountains. The weather was shaping up to be exactly like it had been 13 months previously , when Charles and I had last been on Mt Kenya, namely crap.
However in the late afternoon the weather did clear to reveal impressive views towards Meru peak and behind us the first real view of Kilimajaro. This was more like what we had hoped for.

The trek form Shira camp to Barrunco Hut 3950m involved firstly walking up to the Lava Towers at 4600m before descending down to the Barrunco camp. This was all part of the well tried formula to aid acclimatiastion "climb high - sleep low"
Still after the initial hour of glorious views , it wasn't long before the mist socked in and it started to rain hail and eventually snow.
At least it cleared up in the afternoon to reveal what a fantastic spot the Barrunco camp is. It is situated bang slap under the giant Breach Wall of Kilimanjaro [until 20 years ago some of the finest ice climbs in Africa.]

The next day it wasn't raining and we set off up the steep scramble towards Barafu Hut at 4800m. The first part of this was really enjoyable and my favourite part of the trek so far. Yet as we got hire the landscape changed and it became very lunar looking. The challenge of this day lay with the porters because there is no water at the Barafu Hut camp and so it all has to be carried. This was mostly done in 20 litre buckets. A grim and herculean task balancing 20 kilos of water on your head and struggling up hill at over the height of Mt Blanc.

Rather embarrassingly we had to wait for them to catch up and so we were forced to stop for an extended lunch in our colonial tent. Fried Chicken and chips and several cups of tea [or in Charles case "Milo" his new favourite African drink]

We arrived at camp late afternoon. It was over dinner that Onex our guide broke the news that our next breakfast would be at 11.00pm. We would be out and on our way for our summit attempt by 11.30pm.
This was to be a big day . 1300 meters of ascent. Unfortunately after an hour it proved too bigger day for our 2nd guide JV who was complaining of a "splitter" - altitude headache.
Onex Charles and I continued , overtook everyone on the mountain and arrived on the summit well before dawn and well before all the other parties.

It was super cold. Full Mt Blanc style clothing , duvet jacket and toe warmer T-bags. Plus big boxing glove like mitts. What I had not anticipated was just how fantastic I would find the summit 5894m . I have been lucky enough to stand on a lot of summits , but the top of Africa ranks amongst the best.
After a lot of photos it was back the way we came , firstly around the giant volcanic rim to Stellar Point and then back down the track to the campsite where we arrived at our tents at about 8.30am.
Charles and I were feeling tireder than we had wanted to be.
After a couple of hours lolling in our pits we had brunch. After which was the next challange of the day was the 4 hour descent to Mweka camp 2950m. Again this was a seemingly endless luna like scape which was made even less inviting when it started to rain big time.With this came mud. Lots and lots of mud which made the campsite like something a battle field.
During the night the rain stopped and there was real alarm that a lion was loose in the campsite. This in fact was me snoring. I was tired.

11th January. This was to be a big logistics day and so an early start was needed. We set off for the road head at 6.30am and arrived at the Park Gate at 8.30am. We signed out of the park and collected our Kilimanajro summit certificates. Our pick up arrived and took us to a hotel where we showered and repacked. It was then to Kilimanjaro International airport for our 2.00pm flight to Nairobi.

It was here while waiting for our flight that we learnt about the terrorist attack in Paris. [The last time were in Kenya we were caught up in the fallout from the Westgate shopping Mall atrocities]

At 2.00pm We were told we could board our flight. We went out on to the runway but it took us several minutes to find our plane which was not a tall what I had anticipated but instead a single propeler engined 15 seater Cessanna Caravan.
There were 4 passengers.
The flight was brilliant.
The plane didn't climb higher than 2000 meters during the whole flight and bounced around in the thermals as it flew across the savannah. Nor did it land at Jomo Kenyatta International airport , but instead at Wilson aerodrome. After filling in the Ebola forms and passing through immigration our taxi met us and whisked us to the wonderful Fair view Hotel. The day had run pretty much perfectly. In addition we were greeted by Eddie our guide for Mt Kenya who I have known for over 25 years.

Part 2 to follow!

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There was no snow of any sort before Christmas . In fact on Christmas day I rode my mountain bike up the piste to Brevent.[Which was hard work!]

Then just after Christmas it snowed about 50 cm and it got quite cold -12c.

The problem was that the cold snow fell directly onto the ground which had no snow base. Consequently it all got swept off the piste in a matter of minutes, leaving brown strips everywhere. The one place that seemed to be on another planet as far as good snow conditions were concerned was Les Contamines. Here the skiing was exceptionally good and so this is where we went most of the time .

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This is the only word I can think to describe the start of the ski season. It is only 8 November. Yet after a recent dump everywhere looks very snowy. The nearest skiing to Chamonix at present is Zermatt. So this is where Scott Todd and I headed. Our plan was to climb the Breithorn 4164m from the highest lift. The trick to getting to Zermatt smoothly is not to get involved with the ridiculous parking and train, but instead to dump the car with Taxi Fredy and get a ride into the bottom of Zermatt. From there we took an electric taxi to the main Matterhorn cable car. This is where things got difficult because the top lift on the Klein Matterhorn cable car was not working. This meant that we would have to stop climbing much much lower down. we rode the gondola to Trockener Steg and put our skis on. We then took the T-bar drag lift all the way up the Theodulgletscher until it broke down! Rather annoyingly we had to abandon it and walk. We took one more drag lift before eventually starting the climb properly at Testa Grigia

It was quite a tough climb but well worth it.We then stripped the skins off put the skis in down hill mode and skied some very good snow all the way back to the lift station.
The next day after a night in Saas Grund [where we loaded up on some large portions of Rosti] we headed up the lifts of Saas Fee at this time of the year the resort is in high season because all the ski teams are race-training here for the forthcoming winter season. Our plan was to attempt the Allalinhorn 4027m. In the end we made it to just below the Feejoch where a combination of too much unstable snow, big yawning crevasses and a deteriorating weather situation made us stop. This is the photo of our high point
The recompense was some very good powder on the descent.Exceptional powder considering that we shouldn't really being skiing a tall yet.

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