Meall nan Tarmachan

Club Sunday and a stunningly beautiful sunny snowy day. We decided on the Tarmachan Ridge near Ben Lawers and headed off. After parking we, in true Cairn ban style, completely ignored the easy path to the summit and went up cross country which, to be fair, was a bit hard on the new fella joining us for his first Scottish winter walk. The group soon strung out a bit and I admit to wondering if he'd make it but with Bob keeping him motivated and slowing the pace he made it to the summit to stunning snowy views for hundreds of miles in all directions.

We headed off the complete the ridge but found the steep section just edging on the dangerous side of exciting for most. A few moments previously JP had slipped on ona relatively easy bit of the ridge and slid down no more than a few feet. (I managed to capture the moment in the 2nd shot below) As the ground got steeper a decision had to be made for the safety of the whole group and we sensibly turned back. With crampons and axes it was probably fine but since I was one of the only ones without crampons...stooopid.....I fully supported the decision for JP's safety ....Ahem).

We doubled back and headed down off the ridge and back along the track to the cars for a short but hugely enjoyable day.

Creise & Meall a' Bhuiridh

Phoned up my old mate David Smout at the last minute desperate to get out on the hills after my weekend in Braemar with the club was scuppered by the delivery of a carpet....(long story...very boring)

Anyway, we set off on a beautiful crisp Autumn morning, not too early, and a mere hour and a half later we were parked at the Glen Coe Ski Center car park.

We headed up below the empty but working chair lift and took our time up the easy slopes to the rocky summit. After a bit of lunch we followed the excellent ridge between the two mountains and after a bit of light scrambling emerged on the far ridge and the beginnings of the first signs of an early cornice forming. Hopefully this is an indication of a good winter season. Part of the reason i wanted to do these hills was to suss out Sron na Creise and Inglis Clark Ridge for a return in winter conditions, both look really interesting.

We summitted the blip that is Creise and after Smoutie taking some IT helpdesk calls we turned and reversed our route back down. The route back means climbing over Meall a' Bhuiridh again so really we climbed 3 Munros. The Smoutster struggled a bit with his 3 years of sitting at a desk between his last outing and this but in reality it was a bit of a push back over the first summit again so hats off o him for a good return to the hills.

till next time...adieu

Day 1 Mer de Glace

Our first day and we were all giddy with excitement as we headed off to the glacier for some fun on ice. I've never seen a glacier let alone walk and climb on one so I was beaming from ear to ear as the little train, busy with climbers and tourists, clicked and rattled it's way up the track to the top station.

The viewing platform offers stunning views up the Mer de Glace but we didn't hang around with the tourists long and headed off on the track to meet the glacier. Fixed metal ladders lead down the vertical walls for a couple of hundred meters where the glacier once scraped and one by one we carefully climbed down. It's impossible to gauge the scale of the glacier from up top but standing on it's surface it is spectacular and much more complex than it appears from afar. We crossed crevacce after crevasse as Jacque, our guide, led us through the maze of deep blue ice and we eventually stopped at a small area where we would practice some ice climbing.

We hadn't been paired for our summit attempt at this point so much tactical jostling and maneuvering was going on (even if no one will admit it) to ensure the best possible chance of a good pairing tomorrow. John also took a major huff at one point due to holding axes and therefore "booking" the next climb, although this rule seemed to be unknown to everyone else. In the stunning surroundings it was impossible for John to sulk too long and soon we were all climbing again and enjoying every minute. I tried making an abalakov which is an ice anchor made by threading rope through a v-shaped channel cut by two ice screws. I followed Jacque's demonstration as best I could but my version took ages and I'd dug a pit in the ground the size of a small basin by the time I'd finished by the sheer number of re-drilling I'd been doing with the ice screws. More practice I think but I doubt Scottish conditions will allow much opportunity to use this type of seriously strong anchor.

We trekked back across the glacier and up the vertical ladders again and back to Chamonix at the end of the afternoon.

Day 2 Aiguille du Midi

The cable car to the Aiguille du Midi was just across the road from our apartment. In 16 minutes it took it's passengers from the sunny and warm street to 3800 meters and into a world of snow and ice. Again, Chamonix seemed to have it all, summer sunbathing on the balcony or winter climbing a short cable car ride away.

At the top we strapped on our crampons, donned some extra clothes and stepped out onto the Cosmique Arette which starts just through a little gate that has a sign warning that your about to do something dangerous. The arette is literally two boot widths wide and a real stomach in mouth traverse gradually down to the open snow fields below. Combine the dizzying drops on either side with the first taste of altitude woozyness, it's a challenging start to the route. Apparently in ski season the authorities put up handrails for the skiers but for the climbers it's just up to balance and a head for heights.

The route took us around the rock that the Aiguille sits on and follows the arette back up to finish on the viewing platform. The climb was mixed between snow and rock, a high end scramble with a bit of easy rock climbing, pretty similar to Tower Ridge in winter.

The finish was up a metal ladder lashed to the viewing platform which necessitated swinging your leg over the balcony rail trying not to boot a tourist in the face. A great finish to a great route.

John and I hung around waiting for Chris then had a beer in the restaurant with Andy, Matt and their guide Irwine. We wandered around for a while trying to maximise our time at altitude then headed back don the packed cable car to the apartment and the office for our usual evening classes then out to dinner.

Day 3 /4 ....Summit

Day 3

6:45 breakfast at icicle and we were off with our guide for the summit
attempt. We took the cable car then the highest rack and pinion
railway in France to the Nid d'Aigle, which is starting point for the
first part up to the Gouter mountain hut at 3817m above sea level.

We made good time and had our packed lunch in the hut around 1pm. There was a lot of debate among the guides as to whether we would push on to the summit that afternoon of wait till very early next morning. The decent weather window was very narrow with storms and high winds forecast. The decision was made to leave at 2am the next morning with breakfast at 1:30. We dozed in the afternoon in our bunks, got up, had our evening nosh at 7 and went back to bed to try and get some rest. Hanging around at that altitude for 12 hours helped us acclimatize for the next day. At 1am chaos broke loose with 100 or so climbers all kitting up in the dark and trying to grab tables for breakfast. We managed to get a space for our group, the guides got served our fuel for the day which consisted of bowls of really string coffee (or hot chocolate) and some bread and jam type accompaniment.

At 2am exactly, John, Pascal and I were off into the freezing blackness following the river of headtorches snaking up unseen mountainsides ahead of us. Turning to look back on a couple of occasions the sight of the following river of headtorches below was even more amazing than in front since we were relatively close to the front of the procession.

After a few hours of walking in the blackness light began to show on the horizon and the air temperature began to noticeably rise from absolutely bloody freezing to just bloody freezing.

We summited in 3 hours and 50 minutes and to out great surprise and delight Chris and Patrick arrived on the very busy summit only 10 minutes later followed by Matt and Andy. All 6 of the Icicle team stoodd on the summit of Mont Blanc together but we didn't have the presence of mind to get a team photo, which in retrospect was a bit of a missed opportunity.

We didn't wait around too long since walking in freezing wind is ok but standing around is pretty uncomfortable and with John gulping air like a stranded goldfish, obviously feeling the altitude, we needed to drop down quickish.

We descended in 2 hours, with me leading, to a bowl of hot chocolate back at the hut. Again Chris and the rest of the guys weren't far behind and we set off back down to the train station after a quick text and tweet to let everyone know we had
summited.

The climb down was an enjoyable scramble with me leading again and we were soon on the well defined path we had ascended the day before. As we approached the train station we felt relieved that the long descent was over and we could enjoy being ferried back down and back to the flat, but the White mountain wasn't finished with us just yet.

We found out that the train was broken and an extra hours walk and 700m of descent was required to get us back to the cable car. The walk wasn't too bad actually, a lovely high level alpine track in the sunshine with great views back down over the valley and it wasn't too long before we were back at the base station of the cable car.

Pascal reminded us that his car was broken so a bus journey was necessary back into Chamonix. The 3 of us, knackered and stinking boarded the local bus then walked through the sunny centre of town back to the Icicle office and the apartment. We dined out at a really nice Indian restaurant that night, had a few beers then crashed out for one of the best nights sleep in weeks.

Day 5 Rock Climbing

Since our schedule for the summit had been moved we had an "extra" day
with the guides. Climbing at a local outdoor cliff had been suggested for the day
to my delight, (John wasn't very enthusiastic at all) and we all headed
off at the leisurely start time of 10am after breakfast. On this morning Chris had decided to cook sausages in the apartment rather than eat the muesli supplied by our hosts. We took great delight in painting a mental picture of Chris cooking in his pants with fag in mouth to our climbing companions. The final picture below was faked up, printed and presented to the Icicle Office in a frame on our last day as a thank you. If you ever visit Chamonix, pop into the office and tell us if it's still hanging on the wall.

The cliff was superb, a large green park near a pond with barbecue areas and cafes, I doubt anything even close exists in the uk but Chamonix just seems ideally set up for outdoor pursuits. We warmed up with a couple of top rope climbs before instruction in belay anchors and multi pitch climbing.

I was so glad that the last day wasn't just a "filler" and was as brilliant as the rest of the week. Chris and I teamed up to practice multi pitch ascents while John, who was finding the knots and ropework difficult, benefited from one on one tuition from Jacque. The day was excellent, fun, relaxed and taught me a lot more about rock climbing than I anticipated on this trip.

We headed to the office that night for a talk on weather which was, as all other evenings, really interesting.

We were due to all go out for a celebratory drink and meal that night but John crashed out in his bed at 7pm possibly suffering from delayed effects of altitude and exhaustion which happens to a few pepple each year according to the icicle team. We stumbled back into the apartment at 3am after a great night and after bothering John with drunken ramblings we all crashed out (including John .....again)