Quick alps trip

End of August I went out to the alps for a few weeks. I was keen to get another big route done, and to do some major summits. I didn’t really have much in mind and was just keen for what ever was in condition. Swaily and John Orr had been out for a few weeks. I met them on the midi plan and did a quick route with swail before he went home. 

With a continuing good forecast, me and John made some plans. We thought the Freney pillar could be a good option. First I needed to get properly acclimatised so, along with Tim Neill, we went up and climbed the grands montets ridge on the Aiguille verte. This is a cool climb and quite an obvious line from the valley, so it was nice to tick off. 

After this John and started the long and committing approach up to the freney pillar. It takes two days to get to the base of the pillar, which is quite a while for a route in the mt blanc range. Unlike the Chamonix side, there is no cable car access. Its feels quite remote, and in a wild setting. The route is a huge pillar on the south side of mt blanc, and the pillar itself is a sanctuary of safety, compared to all the crap falling down the mountain either side of the pillar.

 

It was a fantastic climb with the crux at the top. The Chandelle feature goes free at 7a plus. after 700m of climbing i was quite happy to swing on the in situ mystery gear and haul myself up with whatever means possible. After a shivver bivvi we summited mt blanc the next morning. It was strange after 3 days on the south side of mt blanc and only seeing 8 or so other people, to see hundreds and hundreds on the summit and the gouter route.

Burren trip on 12th of July

Being in Northern Ireland on the 12th of July is against my moral principals. If some idiots want to march down some roads to piss off the Catholics then get me as far away as possible. This year as far away as I could get was the Burren. Thats pretty good. I went down with some of the queens mountaineering club. It was pretty good banter, we all got some good routes climbed. 

Climbing at the Burren is quite different to fairhead and for first timers it all feels a bit hard. This was my third time there. It was most of the other guys first, and i might have done a bit of sand bagging. I recommended “lucy” one of my favourite e2s to benoit and he got fairly spanked.

I enjoyed climbing some classics with the guys and watching them get the nack of the climbing over the weekend. I managed to tick a few E5s that I had been keen for. The other main objective of mine was to climb something on the mirror wall. I climbed Virtual Image the year before and I was super psyched to try the cutter. The Mirror wall is the most impressive bit of the burren, but it is tidal and can suffer from seaspray. Climbing on it is adventurous, and not always possible. I tried the cutter a bit too early in the trip and got spanked. After climbing a few e5s and other e4s I cruised up it at the end of the trip. 

 Memorable routes were Blockhead e5, Ice queen e5, Fall of wossils e5, Key largo e3, the cutter e4, stardust e3, midsummer nights dream e3, Through the looking glass e3. 

It was an excellent few days of wild camping, beering, fires, climbing, marshmallows, weight loss turds in those massive rock crevasses, and altogether good craic.

Inishowen and Donegal

I got some work with vertical world. A small rope access company in Belfast. We had a big contract on huge oil ship based in the docks in Belfast. It was quite hard dirty work, but interesting and good to be working again. I was able to do the odd bit of instructing with Tollymore as well at weekends. 

Katies family have a house in Inishowen which we went up and stayed at a few times over the course of the summer. Inishowen is a beautiful part of Donegal which I had never really been to. I was keen to explore some of the climbing areas of which there are a few. We did some climbs at Brazil rock. The central overhang “start of something new” gets e4 and is brilliant. katie climbed a nice HVS called “Bunratti pillar”. Then we got chased and sworn at by an angry farmer and some horses. We didnt go back there. The next day we went to Kinnegoe Bay. There are lots of cliffs in this area but a lot of it is choss. Dungloon is mostly Climbable choss. It is quite a cool crag with some wee stacks and nice walls. Wee climbed a route on the stack, Frigate, e1 5b. It was fairly atmospheric. Then it started to rain, but I spotted a few new lines that would climb well. 

Another weekend at muckross for dav farquahars stag do yielded some suprise climbing. Despite driving through torrential rain all the way the next day the sun came out and we had a great day bouldering at St Johns head. Danny had developed some cool problems, and I even think i grabbed the first ascent of a cool high ball. There was some heavy drinking that night, and after a slow start on Sunday morning some climbing was done. Danny and me climbed Stormy Petrel e4 which takes a line through the big roof. Danny then climbed rizzla which is a silly but impressive traverse out along the break in the roof. 

Me and katie went back to dungloon a few times and climbed some existing routes and did a few new ones. Katie climbed forked lightning which is a great VS, but didnt enjoy the rock quality anywhere else and left the leading to me. I climbed atlantic ocean wall, which could well be its second ascent. Its a good value e4. Katie got destroyed by midges belaying me and I dont think she has forgiven me since. It was a, “please, just one more route katie, it wont take long” moments. To the left of this route is a sharp arete with an awkward grove and overhang at the base. This was to become “rugged extreme exposure” e4 6a. It was named after the lable on my water proof trousers that came from lost property at work. Ricky thought this was very funny and should be a route name. Climbing the arete is lovely, but there is a thuggish start and a tricky overhang before you get there. 

 

On the Galleon, The main big stack thing there is a huge wall mayb 40 m high with no routes. It is covered in a huge amount of bird poo. It has some very obvious cracks, but there is a layer of very soft rock at the bottom which is steep and would be hard and possibly dodgy to climb through. I didnt bother. Instead I scoped out a slightly smaller wall to the left of this again. This was a beautiful little wall with a few obvious cracks and features. Steep at the bottom and thin and slabby towards the top. I climbed 3 new routes on this. All require an abseil approach.

 

We checked out a few other areas, warm bay point and malin head. Warm bay is just OK. The line jackass at e2 is good, and there are a lot of easier routes. It looked like there might have been potential for some fine hard routes but on inspection the rock was very soft and crumbly. 

We took a trip up to Malin head which was great to see. The most Northerly point of Ireland is pretty and wild. We ( mostly me ) hoped to climb something but the weather was ming, with squalls of rain coming in off the Atlantic. So we went down to climb the Jagged edge, which is like an alpine ridge rising out of the sea. The crux is about diff, but on less than perfect rock and in great position. In the conditions it felt fairly adventurous.

 

And we did some quality fishing…

We also had a weekend in Western Donegal. We went to polldoo glen first to climb split arete which is probably one of the most beautiful boulder problems in Ireland. However in august it is one of the most midge infested holes in ireland. Even with a significant breeze we got ravaged. I battled my way up it and got the tick. Then we went to Muckross where it was soaking, so we went to glen colm kille to check out paradise in a picture house which is supposed to be a 4 star hvs. It rained and we bailed to the coffee house. It cleared up that evening and we bouldered at malin beag before camping on silver strand. One of the most beautiful beaches in Ireland.

The next day we climbed sail rock, which lived up to its reputation as the best e2 in Ireland. 

Fairhead 2012

After New Zealand I was super psyched for Fairhead season. Fairhead season is in my mind from Mid February to June. Then it kinda rains…  The prime of that season comes in April or May when It gets really warm and dry. I had a good few weeks in may where I didn’t have any work so I just spent quite a lot of time up there.

My aim for the season was to do a bit of exploring and climb some routes that I had never heard of any one else doing. Theres so much to do at fairhead, and its often easier just to climb the things you know will be clean,and know that at some point in the last 10 years someone has climbed. But for me these routes were nearly exhausted and I don’t like doing the same routes again, so I had to go off the beaten track.

First to go down was Streets of Fire. This is a stunning e3. Do it. Ry McHenry took the first pitch which has epic bridging. It could be described as filthy, or a little more exciting. the second pitch has an incredible flake and a baffling move where the flake crack stops.

I cleaned crusader an E4 beside halloween. It was the name, and the huge shields of rock on top of overhangs which attracted me. Ronan K took the first pitch, a mega e2, and i then had the 2nd pitch which is a long hard mix of laybacking and jamming. I got psyched out and it beat me, and I gave up defeated and pulled on my gear. I will be back, and it is clean.

Myself and Ry then tried Black magic, and definitely failed. I took the first pitch and ryan started up the second. It is terrifying and some huge cams would make it a little more friendly. We did not have the right rack. We lowered off, and salvaged the day with a cruise up born to run. Ryan ran the top two pitches together which is a monster pitch.

Born to run is truly magnificent, and everyone knows that, and it gets a number of ascents each year. So having read the description for Northern Exposure a few times it made sense to climb that. Like Born to run but harder and more sustained. Still awaits second ascent. Why? I dont Know. I guessed it was stinking though. So Ry and I gave it a full days cleaning. Simul cleaning, each with a broom and on seperate 100m ab line. After long enough of that we jumped on the lead. I took the first pitch, which is superb until a perplexing move out of an awkward groove. Stumped and scared that I had kicked the cam out that was below my feet, in an unreversable and painful position I leant out and grabbed the safety of the ab rope, which wasnt too far away. DAh!! I can be such a jessy ! If the rope wasnt there I wouldnt have had that option and I probably would have summoned some strength from despair and managed to do the move. But with an easier and safer (loser) option, I chose to grab for safety. I lowered myself back to the bottom of that wee section and climbed it again, this time facing the right way, It still felt hard, but less painful and scary. 45 m up this straight groove crack line theres a few ledges and pitch one ends at a semi decent belay. Ryan was up for the second pitch and got the tough stuff. The pitch starts with the groove widening and then closing at a roof. Unlike the rest of the climb, the gear here is a bit shit. You can fiddle in some very small nut, and have something way out to the side. Ryan tried and fought the mental battle for a while, then decided he wasnt psyched. Offering the lead to me, I wasnt too psyched either. He jugged up the ab rope. I think it was fair to say we were tired from hard work cleaning, and would come back to enjoy it another day. On my way up I cleaned and scrubbed the second pitch again.

Proud of our work and sure that we would climb it again in the next wee while we told some others that it was good to go, and looked incredible. And so the second ascent 20 years or so after the first went to Dave Rudkin, and John Orr. After that it got ascents by Ian small / Tony Stone, Blair Fyffe/ Murdo J. Everyone confirmed its brilliance, Even the proud scots saying it was one of the best e5s they have done. I managed to get back on with Paul Swail taking the first pitch, e4 6a and I took the second e5 6a.  By this time I knew that crack fairly well, but that doesn’t stop the pump and I had to try really hard to not fall off. It was a fight. But a good one. In the old guidebook description it is down as 3 pitches. The 2nd and 3rd link quite straightforwardly but it is pumpy stuff. It is a mega climb and should be as classic as the likes of born to run and hopefully it shall see continued ascents. Nice one Eddie Cooper and Moles team back in the 90’s.

That same day we climbed Musarat, e4 6a and I ticked Hells Kitchen arete. This is an e6 6b, which has bold and dramatic climbing up an absorbing arete just right of the big HVS. It has a huge scary booming block, which you have to teeter around and try not to pull too hard on.

Eddie hawkins and myself climbed solid Mandala, and Xmen. Both stunning e3s. Visual contact e3 went down after taking a few falls off the 6b crux. I had a go at promised land, with a rest. I reckon it deserves E5 not E4. Katie seconded it very smoothly. Even Jonny dawes  (who almost ran me over 10 mins ago) had bother with promised land saying he had climbed a lot of easier e5 s than it. I climbed XL in uber heat wave with Michelle and Katie. Its a good pitch and took a lot of chalking up. Katie took the lead on Hells kitchen cruising the top pitch proving her ability to manage trad climbing with relative ease. Earlier in the year she had climbed midnight cruiser as her first E1 and 2nd or 3rd independent trad lead.

A few more trips brought us up to the fairhead meet. The first eve paul and myself went to grey mans path to climb paralysed power e6 6b/c. We warmed up on an e3 called low profile which was a tough warm up. Seldom climbed, but very good. Paul was going for his 2nd attempt on pp and succeeded with a smooth lead . He lowered and stripped the gear, and I had a shot. I got mega pumped and rested mid crux. I should have fought on because the gear, although small is good. My head always gets in the way of my performance, and knowing other strong climbers who have also failed onsighting this, my attitude was like what chance do I have. If I had held on just a tiny bit harder Im sure I would have managed. all I had to do trust that gear and risk taking that scary fall. But self preservation got in the way. Anyway, with one rest I managed to climb it, and enjoyed the climbing.  Tecky groovy bridgy stuff.

The next day I got on with my big lead of the year an climbed above and beyond. Pat Littlejohns route described as bold and sustained wall climbing of the highest calibre is probably the e6 of the crag. Well its very good. I managed. Im not an e6 climber, but I managed, held my nerve and held on hard. Unlike a lot of climbs at fairhead, you cant look down this one from the top. It starts and moves out from the belay of wall of prey and climbs above and beyond the huge overhangs of that wall into space. It was a good feeling to stand on top, and Ali moles took some super photos. Thanks Ali, and Thanks Blair Fyffe for belaying me. After this Blair and I climbed waist deep in aligators, which is fantastic.

Adam bailes was keen for a belay, and so I seconded him on a few routes and learnt how climbing should be done. Watching him bounce up above and beyond, and the mask, was impressive and eye opening. Being able to climb hard grit, gives you skills and style to climb anything. He is a complete wad though.

So after all that it was mid June and I got some rope access work and pretty much worked the rest of the summer. Which was perfect because it didnt stop raining and I dont think there was much more routing done up there all summer.

New Zealand April 2012

After Chamonix I was home briefly for a 3 days then off to New Zealand for most of April. The event was my sisters wedding. I was Genuinely upset that I was having to cut my winter season short when I was having an absolute blast. But I was also looking forward to seeing a completely different part of the world, and getting to spend some time with my sister and some new family on the other end of the world.

New Zealand is cool, but it is far away. After what was definitely the longest time I have ever been on a seat we arrived in Hong Kong, and that was only half way. Travelling with my family and elderly (tough stuff) grandmother, we spend a few days in Hong Kong to break up the journey a bit. Hong Kong is not really my idea of fun. Big city, loads of people, and buildings, and loads more people. It was amazing to see, and surprising its not too hard to find a bit of space. the south side of Hong Kong island has some lovely beaches and I found a bouldering guide so Niall and I went to find some rocks. We found some great rocks. Huge granite boulders cover the coast line, and although it is a little bit developed, there is lots potential. We headed for a spot on the coast called Hum Chum Kauk or something. On Military land and with a few scary dogs it took a bit of persuasion to get Niall to come along. 

 

We climbed a few cool problems but a Boulder pad would have been useful as the landings were good, but hard. It was like a warm Binian tor.

The city is amazing, if thats your thing. Some cultural China, but lots of Business madness.  

 

 

Esther’s wedding was on North Island. It was an awesome day. Superb eating, and great banter, and very nice to see my big sister Esther and husband Tama so happy.

 

I spent most of the time with my family, but I did manage to do a bit of exploring. Niall and I had a fun day climbing Mt Doom, Mt Ngauruhoe. This is a 2291m active volcano. Basically its like walking up a huge sand dune. It is a totally surreal landscape. Unfortunately it was misty on the way up and on top, but it was quite atmospheric. It is the typical volcano, cone shaped with a big crator, that is still very active. I ran off along the edge of the rim into the mist, and before long I was back to Niall again. Kinda cool.

 

As a family we spent some time down by lake Taipo. Its a big lake in the middle and I researched the climbing scene and found there was a spot not too far from where we were staying. The crag was at a place called Kawakawa Bay. An hours cycle into the jungle along the edge of the lake. There we met a dude called Jerrard who lived in a cave and cleaned routes and did first ascents. He didnt smell so good, but he was living his own wee dream, far away from the real world, cleaning and climbing rocks. If I could get away with it at fairhead I probably would. But at fairhead you’d get cold and wet. His cave was permadry and fairly well kitted out but I was quite happy to go back to the holiday house my family was staying in. He showed Niall and I a few of his favorite routes. Traddy Sport, and sporty trad. They were nice climbs in a stunning setting. KAWAKAWA bay gets 2 thumbs up from me. 

I spent one week in south Island. I had booked flights, but didn’t really have a plan. I knew a few folk to get in contact with, and mainly wanted to get to castle hill. I had been mountaineering all winter and was keen to do some bouldering. With only a week and basically no money Bouldering was as much as i could hope for. I would love to do some mountaineering in the southern alps some day. I was super psyched to climb at castle hill. I contacted a friend from castlewellan who i know was based in Christchurch. Conor picked me up from the airport and I spent the night at his place and then made my way to castle hill hitchhiking. This is the way to travel in new zealand. My good friend Emi put me in contact with a friend in chch to climb with. I hitched back to chch and went climbing for a few days at Mt Somers with Mat Wight. There are beautiful crack climbs, again a mix of trad and sport. The best climb I did here was a Grade 19 (e1 ish), called uno, put up by Ruaris (my Kiwi Mate from Cham) Dad. Its a small world.

Mat let me use his car for a bit because he had a bit of work to do, so I was back out to castle hill for some unfinished business with a problem called the thin white line, about 7b, and really cool. I had been close on my last day there, and was very keen to climb it. It was threatening to rain, and i had to be quick, but, you cant rush things bouldering at your limit. I just about made it before its started to rain properly. But I was soo psyched to have climbed it. I found climbing at castle hill difficult, and hard to get used to, as with everywhere it has a particular style. So to climb such a line that was reasonably difficult for me and that took more than one session with a bit of stress, frustration and anger was brilliant.

Mat joined me and we had some great weather and prime bouldering. I spent a rainy day running up avalanche peak, and my last evening with conor in chch again. I did a lot of hitching. I had an awesome week, met some cool people. Its a place where you can just go and hang out and a plan will make itself.

Chamonix winter adventures 2011/12

Spending a winter season in the Alps was something I had always wanted to do. I learnt to ski when I was a child, and since then had a desire to be somewhere where there is proper snow, and actual mountains. After graduating in 2011 this was high on my to do list. I got a job with an airport transfer company in Chamonix and moved out at the start of December.

Airport transfer driving is OK. It can be stressful at times, and I had some epic adventures behind the wheel, with the solid snow for most of December and January. But with 4 days on and 3 days off, it was an ideal balance of earning enough to eat, and being able to get stuff done at the same time. Most work days it was possible to ski before, after, or between shifts, depending on energy levels.

Chamonix is a small town, and it wasn’t long before I bumped into Liam Brophy, and we along with a few others managed to find an apartment in the very centre of town. It was a squeeze, and not the tidiest of homes, but worked, just about.

Liam was just as psyched as I was to climb, and also intent on learning to ski. His third day on skis was a decent of the Vallee Blanche from the last lift up in the afternoon. We had bumbled up to climb the cosmiques arête in the morning, and noticed a lot of people in the cable car had skis. Still being December, and early in the season, we thought this was weird, but ok- the vallee blanche must be skiable. So we climbed the arête in race time, went down to town, had some lunch, grabbed our skis, a few beers, and our flat mate Andy, and headed back up on the midi, by this time 3.30pm. None of us had skied it before, or really knew where it went, apart from down the big glaciers. We were a bit disconcerted by the fact it was now 4.00pm, and we probably only had an hour or so of daylight left, no head torches, and there wasn’t anyone else around. But we had made a plan and were committed. We just followed the tracks. Fairly straightforward, and enjoyed watching Liam snow plow around the huge crevasses. The evening alpenglow on the Drus was stunning. Liam survived, and we got to the top of the cat track by the Montenvers station just as the sun was setting. We had a celebratory beer, and then zoomed through the trees into town, back for dinner.

 

I skied the Vallee Blanche via different variations many more times throughout the winter, often on my own, at the end of a shift. Nothing special, just mega happy to be in the big mountains.

 

Climbing was a bit slow to start, because of the huge amount of snow and avalanche risk at the start of the season. But I had recently bought some new climbing axes and was super psyched to get cranking. The first route we climbed was the “Gaberroux-Albinioni” on Mt Blanc du Tacul. This 500m ice gully is a classic. Climbing in the Alps in January is very COLD. We skied to the base of the route from one of the first lifts, climbed to within a few pitches of the top, got the most painful hot aches in the world, cried, and then rapped back down. After climbing the route it is all downhill back to Chamonix… For 20km. By the time we made it back to our skis, it was almost dark and we realised Liam had forgotten his head torch. That’s ok, its all down hill. It was a slow decent as Liam was still new to skiing, and he had to snowplough right behind me so as not to fall in any holes. It took us about 4 hours. We stumbled back into town around 10.30pm in climbing and ski gear, totally knackered, while most normal people were enjoying food and pubs. It was a good experience.

     

 Fil a Plombe, went down in a similar style- a tiny bit epic. The route is a 700 m line of ice falls and couloirs climbing up to the midi plan ridge on the north face of the Aiguilles du Midi. Liam and myself roped up, with some of the other mountain drop offs drivers also on route. The route was in perfect nick, the chat great, and the last lift down at 4.30. A little too much banter and not enough blazing saw us spending a night in the toilets of the Midi station. Team Ireland got there first and found some extreme work conditions overalls to sleep in and some sausages in the bin. Win! 

  

February saw it get severely cold, and Valley ice climbing got pretty good. I was keen to climb some steep ice. The ice climbs on the banks of the Argentiere glacier are fairly reliable option. I climbed here a few times with the highlight being sending the “nuit blance” a steep slender grade 5 ice pillar. Little did I know that this stunning ice fall, is formed by the run off water of the snow cannons, or something to do with the ski areas water system. I didn’t know this, my climbing partner Jon griffin did, and just as I secured myself to the belay, happy with my lead, the water seemed to turn on, and the entire route turned into a deluge of icy water. After waiting a while it turned off. Jon started to second, and it turned on again. He got soaked through, however while hiding in a cave below the steep pillar, he managed to ring his friend in the company du mont blanc and request the water to be turned off. Success. We skied back down to town; I was stoked and Jon near hypothermic.

Valentines day was spent climbing and exceptional grade 4 waterfall at les houches. Only in very cold winters does this waterfall freeze so well. It was so good we went and climbed it twice by 2 different routes.

  

I met a friend Owen Samuel and we climbed the rendo ravenell, on the north face of the petit verte. Owen is a guide, so the day went by fairly slickly. It is a fantastic route, again, ski in- ski out.

   

At the end of February liam and I climbed the north face of the Droites Via the Ginat-Jackson. An uber classic Alpine North face, and a genuine winter ascent. People were surprised at this because the face looked very thin. We didn’t reckon so and gave it a bash and found excellent neve and superb ice. The Jackson variation happened by accident really, but provided a few stunning pitched of 85/90 degree ice. On route beside us were twid turner and his client. It was inspiring to see someone at work on sight on such a route. We got to the bottom of the south face after a long day and dug out a bivouac at the top of the telefre glacier. I woke up with the best view in france on my 24^th birthday. Later that day after chilling on the roof of our apartment we went skiing in shorts.

    

A week or so later we climbed the couturier couloir on the aiguille Verte. On of the best peaks in the mt blanc range. The day started with missing our bus in the morning, and in broken French we described our days objective to the man who picked us up thumbing a lift. “We climb the verte, back for tea” that was the plan. Light and fast. We climbed in ski boots and carried our skis on our backs. To save weight I took a pair of skis Liam had found in the skip of a chalet he was cleaning. They were light but, they were the most awful skis. Long thin match sticks. We moved together all the way up the route which is 1000 meters of 55 degree hard ice. It took about 2 hours. 1000 meters on frontpoints and ski boots took its toll on liams feet and he told me his feet were going to fall off. He looked like he was in incredible pain. No time for crying, we had to get down the whimper couloir. Quick photos on the summit, and off down the couloir abseiling and down climbing. 60 m ropes would have been handy and the ab points were every 60 meters. We had 50s, and made do. We got to the bottom just at last light and strapped on our skis again. After looking forward to sliding for so long I now realized I had made a bad decision with the skip skis. I fell over on every turn with the thin straight bases sinking deep into the frozen crusty crud. I even think i managed to ski off the cat track twice, being literally bounced off the corners into the blackness. We made it back to town for a late tea time. This was not the most enjoyable ski decent, but it still made me happy inside knowing that the same journey in the summer time walking would take a whole afternoon. Skis definitely are the way to travel in winter.

 

Other highlights were mega powder days with Ruari Macfarlane, a Duracell bunny on a snowboard. One day we skied fresh lines on the helbronner lift all day. One lift, and whatever line you pointed. Waist deep fluffy powder everywhere. It was epic. We also had great days on the Cham side with incredible runs on the Brevent. I met him at the end of the day on brevent during a big storm, somewhat stoked that he had descended fresh pow all day to the height of Everest. Skiing the length of the brevent bubble down to town 8 times. I enjoyed the last run of the day with him, epicly deep snow all the way down to Chamonix.

    

I did a bit of skiing with my friend Mark McKellar, who is BASI 4 ISTD ski instructor. As good as it gets basically. He gave me some tips on my skiing, and I told him a little bit about alpine climbing. We had a great day climbing the Aiguille d’Argentiere on skis, via the milau glacier.

 

Mid march In some glorious weather we were able to climb stunning granite walls high above the glacier. Ski in ski out. I climbed the swiss route on the Grand Capucin with Ross Hewitt. We skied in from the last lift up and camped under the capucin. This gave us the opportunity to start climbing as soon as the sun was on the rock. It was a ballybaltic night in the tent and it was hard to imagine rock climb the next morning. However once we were on the route and the sun was beating down it was a perfect climbing temp. We were concerned the route would be wet, as the cracks can seep from snow melt, and this being march the plan was optimistic, but we found pitch after pitch of warm dry golden granite. The route climbs about e1/2 with a crux roof pitch which I happily aidied. Swinging around on mystery gear. High above the glacier was thrilling. There wasn’t another soul to be seen.

I also climbed the Contamine route on Point lachenal with Josh Fawcett. Its like a mini big wall, 300m of fine cracks and corners. Ski boot to rock boot.

  

Living in Chamonix was incredible and I cant wait to live there again. Having such inspiring mountains all around with some of the highest mountain lifts in the world was unreal. Having a season pass and being able to jump on any lift up whenever made it even better. I will be back. My season ended at the end of March and I went out to New Zealand for my sisters wedding.