Pete + Laetitia’s Alpine Adventure Comic
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From Dent du Geant
Year: 2006
Misty + Wet Via Ferrata Misery
Chamonix Cragging
Dent du Geant
At last, some sun – Papillons Ridge
A quick report on Greenland
Wet Alps
Ailefroide Slabs
A Wet Alpine BBQ?
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Check out this summary of alpine summer holiday.
On the last day of our holiday we teamed up with our mates again and headed out to sample some of the adventures they had planned for the long weekend. Ticking off some of the French via ferrata near Chamonix.
The end of our two week alpine adventure coincided with the UK bank holiday Monday, and as luck would have it some of our friends had booked a long weekend in Chamonix.
Awesome! Crowded! Scary! Knackering! Do I need to say more?
When we eventually got some fine weather we seized the opportunity to complete one of the routes I'd fancied the idea of for a long while, the Papillons Ridge.
We flew into a village called Narsarsuaq (population 190) and within 30 mins were in a vehicle (with only 2nd gear - they were awaiting a part) and off to the port...
We had planned to leave Ailfroide and head over to Courmayeur (to climb the North Face of Tour Ronde) and then on to Cervinia (to climb the Italian - Lion - ridge of the Matterhorn). However, these were thwarted by (yes, you guessed it) the wet weather.
Finally we did get some dry weather. Ailefroide is a bona-fide alpine destination, with stuff like the Meije traverse (next year?) and the Dauphiné classic South Pillar of the Barre des Ecrins. But it also offers some amazing rock climbing less than the 15 minutes from the camp site.
Of course the dry weather didn't stick around. It never seems to stay that dry in the Alps, in fact I've decided that the Alps are actually a lot wetter than the Lakes! True or not, this August has been particularly wet...