Landscape – Page 13 – Ross Hewitt Guiding

Ecrins 2004

7th Jul 2014by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

The Ecrins is a magical place, big mountains with a remote feel and few people there in winter. Arguably its much better suited to ski touring than Mont Blanc range with a lot more terrain in the 30-40 degree range. In total I spent 2 months there with a road trip south to the beach at Nice through the beautiful provencal village Entrevaux.

Quiet lanes in La Grave

Ice climbing in Vallon de Diable.

A busy day at La Grave

Kiting at Col de Lauteret

La Grave

Briancon’s fort.

The Davin Couloir

Looking up the Davin.

Sunsets near Dignes les Bains

The strip at Nice

Entrevaux

La Meije

Ice in La Grave

Old La Grave

Trous de La Mouche – road trip to Les Aravis

Glacier Blanc Hut

En Route to Domes de Neige des Ecrins

Ailefroide with its winter coat

Cheeky locals

In the Davin Traversing Dome Monetier

Norway 2003

7th Jul 2014by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

It would appear that Norway has more rock than it knows what to do with so they don’t mind putting a few bolts in. We spent some time around the Stavanger area visiting sports crags like Bersagel & Norland to climb and BBQ with the locals. I was some months into recovering from some Glandular Fever type virus I’d picked up from working in West Africa so chilling out in the sunshine was very welcome.

Return to Rock

20th Jun 2014by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

After a quick warm up on Mont Oreb’s ‘l’Ete Indiane to get back into things, we spent 3 back to back days last week escaping the 35 degree valley heat on the perfect golden granite on South Face of Midi 3842 m climbing Kolmann (6a+), Contamine (7a) and Jules de Chez Smith (6b). With cooler temperatures this week we were able to hit the fingery Zone at Gietroz and sample some of its impeccable gneiss.

Sunday’s Stroll

7th Apr 2014by rosshewittguiding1 Comment

Its been a few years since I skied this line and its definitely one that has been significantly affected by glacial thinning making it much harder that the guide book rating of 4.3 Assez Diffcile 45 degrees for 50 m. I went back a month ago to try in in good powder conditions but the East wind was loading over the ridge where the sun meets the shadow in the photo. As I moved towards the ridge things started to crack around me, propagating up the slope above me and releasing some slab material down onto my companions who were about 50 m behind me. No one fancied manning up to go over the blind convexity so it was time to go home.

With no new snow in Chamonix for weeks, I went back with John Minogue. This route is so blind as you start to ski over the convexity and the only thing you see is the glacier 500 m below. The glacial recession has continued and there is much more exposed rock at the choke where instead of rapping across ice on skis, we rapped over rock on crampons. Its pretty steep too, the glacial death ice is always at the back of your mind, there’s a strip of ice at the base of the route which I had to downclimb, and the crevasses look hungry. Apart from all that the views are amazing and the snow was good.

Camping Time

1st Apr 2014by rosshewittguiding3 Comments

This week we Dave Searle and myself went back to the Miage Glacier under Mont Blanc’s Himalayan sized West Face with the idea to have a semi-rest day and camp on day 1 and then get and early start and ski a line mid-morning before it got too hot. I had some expedition kit to test out so this provided the perfect opportunity.