Back to the daily guiding work

After my rest day yesterday where Kacper, Justyna and I climbed on the south face of the Aig. du Midi it was nice to be back in Italy climbing with Frankie today

Frankie was confident to do some out door leading today and sort all the ropes out to make a safe decent.... progress is coming along  impressively well. 

Frankie on more technical slab moves.

South face of Aiguille du Midi

Guides rest day so yesterday we climbed the Baquet- Rebuffat route (first ascent 13 July 1956) on the South face of the Mid.Here is my good Polish friend Kacper Tekieli in action

Justyna Kowalczyk

Justyna loving it!

The technical but short lived 6b moves near the summit

Kacper and Justyna at the summit

Some sport climbing.

After our busy day on the traverse of the Aig. d'Entreves Frankie wanted to go rock so here we were:

Lots of nice bolted rock in the Aosta valley!

This particular crag is in the shade of some wonderful trees which makes it a nice summer venue.

Very Alpine!

Traverse of Aiguille d'Entreves 3600m.

With Frankie we went and climbed this nice traverse from the Refuge Torino  3371m. It's an exposed  excellent climb on good granite where it counts.

One of my guide friend Phil took this quaint image of me.

Frankie on the traverse.

Frankie after a strenuous pull up move

Refuge Torino, easy accessed from the Skyway.

Breithorn, Pennine Alps, first climbed in 1813

Oh, I see I have not done a blog post for ages.The joys of being busy and enjoying my life I suppose.  Not that I do not enjoy posting on my blog, but sometimes there is so much media stuff going on and I do find my self wondering what the hec I am thinking when sometimes I find myself prioritising typing on key boards when I aught to be also finding the time to be out and about chatting with my friends. Today was a pretty special day for me though as in 1999 I guided Gordon and his partner Sue on the Breithorn and today I took Gordon and his 18 year old daughter Frankie up the same wonderful hill, and it was Frankies first 4000 m peak...so it has been a very special day  for me with wonderful moments.

Irata assessment days.

Applus UK, have a great training centre at Grangemouth

The new IRATA dropped objects poster

I have spent the last couple of days IRATA assessing with Umbrella in Trichy, India, 

The four men holding the yellow certificates are proud to become level threes and are now very keen to join the IRATA instructors training programme. They all performed to a very good standard today.

Alpine Club Aspirant members meet

For the past few years now The Alpine club have been hosting a weekend meet in the Lake District where some experienced members and AC member IFMGA guides mentor and pass on Alpine Mountaineering tips to our aspirant club members. Last weekend we were in Patterdale in the Lake district doing just that. We were covering a range of Alpine skills such as roping up for glacier travel, taking coils, moving together, crevasse rescue and short roping skills. There were also evening talks and illustrated lectures.

A well deserved rest

Nick Kekus BMG/Mountain Guide giving some top tips

Z pulley assisted hoist

Our group outside the George Starkey hut, Patterdale.