Lecturing, Dry Tooling & Skiing in Chamonix
The great autumnal conditions have broken in the Alps and the long awaited snow has finally arrived. I've been doing a mix of things recently; lecturing, a bit of dry tooling and more recently getting back on the planks (skiing). For the second year running I've co delivered the BMC's Winter Lecture series with Tamsin. We traveled around the UK a bit like rock stars but without the perks and visited Buxton, Leeds, Ambleside, London, Hereford and Birmingham. We had a great time and met some really interesting and motivated folk. Next year will be the last chance to catch this show!
Dry Tooling has been around for a while now and is basically climbing with axes, largely for training. We are lucky here in the Chamonix Valley as we have two good venues (which are all weather) close by, Le fayet and 'the Zoo'. I've been down to Le Fayet a couple of times getting used to this style of climbing. Many of the routes have drilled slots/hooks and are painted to assist in finding them! The difference is actually huge. Without them you quickly develop a pump like no other and are wasted. Once you know where things are and get used to the techniques things actually feel a lot morer reasonable and it'll be interesting to see if it translates to the ice and mixed routes here.
Finally, the snow came! Rob and I set off ridiculously early and went for a skin up to Le Tour (where the base is grassy). We experienced blizzard conditions but also a few great turns on fresh snow before leaving a few tracks in the grass near the car park. We also had a day at Le Bettex where we had a great skin through the ghostlike resort. You would never consider a day tour in these resorts but before they open it's a great way to explore some nice terrain. We were unlucky here though as the beautiful powder we had skinned up transformed super quick as the isotherm rose and we had a terrible ski down. Finally I've been to an offshoot of the Megeve resort. Mark, Jonny and I were looking for high, steep and cold (north facing) snow and we found it! We all enjoyed some early season powder on wobbly legs as we're getting used to using muscles that have been at rest for 6 months.
BMC Winter...
Dry Tooling
early seaso...
the Mulet
early seaso...
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