Transition between indoor climbing and out door rock climbing - and learning to lead

Over the past days I have been helping Dave and Cara to climb outdoors, they have been climbing at indoor climbing gyms for a little while now. We were climbing on bolted route in the Aosta valley and Chamonix;

Cara at the top.... no hard hats required a sit a well cleaned and very safe slab to climb on.

Multi pitch and stance organisation. 

So cool for me to have time with Cara.

Dave on second and cleaning the quickdraws.

Dave's first lead.

Beginners sport climbing in the Aosta Valley,

Here we go, another fun day, clipping bolts and teaching skill sin the sunshine!

Arriving at the crag

Dave belaying Cara

Cara getting into the moves

One cannot climb in Italy all day and not have a pizza!

My birthday weekend

Well its an annual event , sometimes I celebrate it sometimes I don't. This year my daughter joined me and we have had a blast!

H, me and C!

Perfect snow crystals on Cara's hair.

Dave, Cara and Hannah

Mer de Glace, H, C and Dave.

A perfect day for me!

Preparing for Mont Blanc - Grand Paridiso ascent

It's important to give some time for ones body to acclimatise to the higher altitude especially for those of us living at  or not very high above sea level. It usually takes around 4 to 6 days to feel comfortable above 3500metres depending on ones fitness level and body type.  It is also a good  idea to try another high mountain before attempting Mont Blanc. This time we climbed the Grand Paridiso.

Nick climbing the final little rock tower to the summit, thanks for the photo Owen!

Owen, Pauls and Nick on the summit.

Mont Blanc training days

Before climbing Mont Blanc many people come for  few days guided instruction where we cover a vast array of mountaineering skills such as;

How to use crampons and ice axes for ice climbing and general mountaineering, including rope work and how to tie on to the rope and how to take rope coils.

 Paula and Owen scrambling on rock ridges and safely moving together

Paula climbing

Pauls and Nick on the Aig D'Entreves

Glacier travel rope work.

Chamonix days and Mont Blanc

Over the past days i have been guiding for Mountain Tracks and its been a jolly good time with almost all the group reaching the summit of Mont Blanc yesterday but for my own client Patryk who after climbing the Gran Paridiso and doing some other acclimatisation forays felt ill at the Refuge Vallot so  prudently he decided to turn around. We did take in the summit of the Dome du Goutier on the way back down.

The cave exit from the Ag du Midi onto the arete

Early morning light on the Grand Jorasses

Mont Blanc summit and col do Dome

Patryk 

\

Mont Blanc with Robert and Adventure Consultants.

We have had a blast on Mont Blanc.

Thanks Cosmin for this Photo of Robert ( on the right) and I  nearing the summit

IFMGA guide Cosmin with his client Jimmy on their return  from the summit as we  ( Robert and I ) were making our way up.

Robert on the summit.

Summit selfie

On the descent, the Vallot refuge in the background

Mont Blanc week with Adventure Consultants

As a IFMGA guide its cool to get the opportunity to work again with Adventure Consultants    This week my companion has been Robert who is super friendly and super fit! We started the week rock climbing then some days up acclimatising and covering various skills based from the Torino Refuge in preparation for an ascent of Mont Blanc.

Pillar Rouge de Brouillard- climb with Kacper Tekieli

and so to continue our climbing adventure:

Climbing in the dark.... Kacper

And the upper pitches

A well deserved Pizza in "Little Boxes," Chamonix.

me, on a lower pitch

We climbed the first 5 pitches of  of Les Anneaux Maguises and then after that the upper pitches of the Bonatti.. It's true climbing on every pitch..... really superb. And then Mont Blanc summit to finish with a cosy night in the Refuge Goutier, thank you Antoine and staff!

Brouillard face , Italian side Mont Blanc

My very good friend Kacper gave me the inspiration and confidence to go and climb a big alpine route on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. I'm 63 and soon to be 64 so it was big deal for me.
That side of Mont Blanc is mind blowing and truly superb... It holds a massive history!

Kasper on the glacier approach to the Eccles bivi hut

Inside the bivi hut

The Eccles Bivi hut

We decided to combine two routes so we did the first five pitches of Les Anneaux Magiues and then finished the climb to the top via the Bonatti route on the Pillar Rouge de Brouillard.

Guides rest days -climbing therapy

Some nice personal climbing therapy with my friend Maggie.

Maggie on Senza Nome - Placche di Oriana -settor sinistro - Italy

Abseiling down the 6 pitch climb.

Caco girls - Switzerland

Maggie leading a 5 b pitch but she was more confident  and climbing better than me on the 6a pitches too. A wonderful rest day for me.

Aiguilles Marbrees complete traverse

The Aiguilles Marbrees has a superb ridge line with some nice alpine scrambling and climbing but also quite a bit of loose rock, the first three quarters of the route is well travelled but the second part which is a bit more technical is not guided quite so much but of course it's a Mont Blanc climb so its still done lots. Frankie and I did the complete traverse the other day, it was superb outing.. and one has the advantage that is relatively easy walk/scramble back onto the glacier rather than abseiling down some nasty loose rock.

Frankie has a quaint habit of using her knees, and then complains that they are sore!

Nice route to the main summit with views of the Aig ou Dent du Geant and Arete Rochfort behind.

Climbing on Placche Pre-de Bard, Italy.

With Frankie we drove through the Mont Blanc tunnel again and continued our drive up the Val  Ferret to the road head at Arp Nouva. From there in just under an hour one can walk to some magnificent granite slabs which are known as the Placche Pre-de Bard. There are 4 bolted lines on the compact slab. They are all about 8 to 9 pitches long of varying difficulty but none of them are over technical and it really is a super location to introduce people to multi-pitch climbing and the skills required to abseil efficiently down once you've climbed to the top. It's an exciting location in the Aiguilles Rouges de Triolet, with abundant alpine wild flowers and the melt waters from the Pre de Bard glacier rushing by.