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Alps - week 1 report

Week one of our 2013 Alpine Courses
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Our first Alpine Summer Course - Alpine North Faces - took place this past week. Andy Owen gives the lowdown:

"The first week of the Alpine season proved to be the transition from winter to summer, spring having passed on by. The Alps have huge amounts of snow covering them still laying to a fairly low altitude. Looking out into Italy a white blanket covers everything down to about 2,200m and skiers are having a ball on Mont Blanc. The weather for the week has been mixed and generally hot with Zero rising to 4,200m and the valley getting it`s first real taste of summer heat. That has made getting about a bit tricky with the only tracks being from skiers. We spent a couple of days abseiling into the Vogler Couloir and the Cascade du Pissoir, to get some great grade 4 and 5 ice and mixed whilst the weather remained poor. A nice warm day was required to thaw out frozen fingers, so we hopped over to Italy and the fine multi-pitch crag of Machaby, climbing the 9 pitch 6a 'Al Allba'. Back up to the Midi the following day and climbing fine thin ice on Temps de Assasin, with a great varient mixed crack getting us into the boot width ice at the top of the Austrian goulotte. It turned out to be the best combination I have ever done on this part of the mountain. We were up early the next day for a run up the Contamine Grissol on the Tacul, 400m of perfect ice, snow and mixed leading to the summit ridge and the top of Mont Blanc du Tacul . Today has seen us basking in the sun on the Rebuffet Route on the south face of the Midi.

We have climbed excellent ice, snow, mixed and rock every day of the week and the mountains are looking stunning. A great start to the season."

« Latest news 14/Jun/13
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