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 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.
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...
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").
Long rock climbs, sport rock, and alpine adventures with a better chance of good weather than the Mont-Blanc area. Fave route – Orage d Etoiles. Ailefroide Rock.
Ice-fall climbing from l’Argentiere-la-Bessee in the Massif Ecrin. Ace, but not (in our experience) a very reliable winter venue. Fave route – Ancrage de Dent (WI5), CC Winter Ice Meet 2002. We didn’t find very good conditions. Although I know others have in other years, and it may also be the case that we went …
Alpine adventures – climbing, skiing, mountaineering, etc. near Chamonix Mont-Blanc. The rightly-so self declared world capital of Alpinism! All year, but it rains a fair bit during the summer. We loved the classic rock route Chappele de Glier. We’ve tried flying (plus hire car) and the car all the way from home to get there. …
