Ski touring holiday

After a few hectic weeks of work, Tanya and I were en-route to Chamonix in the French Alps for a 2 week break. We were to meet Rob out there and the plan was for some ski touring action.

The first few days were spent on great powder conditions on the Grand Montets and then Rob and I skinned up to the Col des Dards on the Aiguille Rouge and had excellent powder for the descent back to Lac Blanc.

The following day we drove around to Italy and skinned up to the Emanuele Hut (2732m) in the Grand Paradiso National Park.

We woke at 5.30am to fresh snow outside and clearing skies so after some coffee and bread we started the long skin uphill towards the Grand Paradiso (4026m). After over five hours of slogging uphill against altitude and freezing temperatures we arrived at the rock ridge, which led to the summit. We took skis off and made the last scramble to the summit on foot.


The fun them began with the ski down – in an hour we were back at the hut for a coke and some food, then another hour got us back to the car in the valley (1960m), very sweaty and stinky and looking forward to a shower and a beer.

Rest rest of the trip included another trip up the Aig Rouge for some touring and also some late season resort skiing and gentle touring.


Back in the office now and looking forward to some rock climbing action.

Bryn

Gadding about

Lots of activity on the moderating scene at the moment with three visits over last week. On the first visit it was good to see father and son team operating with Andy and Ian Boorman delivering an excellent SPA training course in the sunshine. Three days later it was off in the sunshine again with day 1 of the Llanrug ML training course, again a great day out before finally, and with the sun still shining it was off on the early train to visit Jack Griffiths running a CWA training course at the Castle in London. Another excellent course so well done all! Picture on the left is Ian Boorman enjoying the sunshine above Betws y Coed.
Mal

New routing at Tremadog

A great weekend in the UK - I feel sorry for the people stranded in Spain! Climbed with Jon Garside, the BMC/MLTE Technical Officer this weekend. On Saturday evening we climbed Zangorilla on Carreg Wastad, and on Sunday we had a fulfilling but tiring day, with a new route up the centre of the Castle at Craig y Gesail, weighing in at about E4 6a, followed by a successful tussle with Vulture on Bwlch y Moch (hard E4 6a). A good start to the trad climbing season, and the Tremadog guidebook is now almost finished. We want to get more action shots at the Tremadog climbing festival next weekend.

Business as usual

As indicated in my "Twitter" report, the recent UIAA meeting was very successful. The UIAA will be launching full support for the Training Standard label, which is set to take off in much the same way that the Equipment label has over the last few years. The UIAA is the only organisation with the history, representation and kudos to take on a project of this scope and ambition. The UK quality assessment team are in an excellent position to help service the anticipated demand, because we have several decade's experience of guilding and ensuring that 4 home nations work to the same standards.

This week 2 of the MLT Board members joined a group piloting a proposed RLSS water safety management course at Plas y Brenin.

It's been a great week for in-depth discussions with several organisations, including BAIML, AMI, SLUK, skillsactive, BOS and the Scout Association. But one more day in Spain and I would have missed the whole thing as I would have been stranded on the wrong side of the volcanic ash.

Apart from that it's been a pretty active week in my own time, including several towers at Montserrat, SS Special and Brant Direct yesterday evening and a solo ascent of the esoteric Canyon Rib this evening as research for the Tremadog guidebook.