Wet Alps
Ailefroide Slabs
A Wet Alpine BBQ?
Wrong Route… Wrong Grade!!!
Alpine Fruits (Pick-Your-Own)
Pete (finally, and only just) Passes his AFF
An Evening on Castle Rock
Ghost Rock
We take it easy on the Llangollen Canal
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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...
Ian, Anna, Andy and Sabiene snatched a gap in the weather to dash to Shepherds for tea at the caff and a quick route.
After leaving Spain (see AFF here) we headed to the Alps for our summer holiday proper (I consider myself a climber first and foremost, even to the extent that when someone - anyone - asks me what I do, I answer "climb", not "work in IT").
I've decided that I'm not very good at skydiving! Watching the DVD of my AFF jumps again after getting back from my second session trying to pass the AFF course (check here for the first), it is clear that when my instructor (Andy) passed me and wrote the following in my log book...
Ian, Anna, Andy and Sabiene braved overcast skies and headed for the South crag on Castle Rock for a pootle about on some easy routes.
Hey Kats, Trevor has sent me some ghost pictures. Here we are on 'Sounds Like a Rodent' his 1996 route in Wully valley.
Kath & Dave took a well earned break and took it easy, travelling at 3 mph along the Llangollen Canal.