Alpine Climbing – Ross Hewitt Guiding

Fil a Plomb

31st Jan 2016by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

While we anxiously waited for snow to arrive I took the opportunity to snatch a day alpine climbing with my good friend Andy Houseman. Its great to cross train to avoid imbalances and injury and besides I still love Alpine climbing despite not having too much time away from skiing to do it. My friend Nico Magnin had been to Fil a Plomb so we took advantage of his trail breaking to have a fun day climbing this Chamonix classic. I was also testing those Lenz heat socks in my lighter Scarpa Phantom boots. Usually I suffer from really cold feet but the socks worked brilliantly and enabled me to leave my heavier Scarpa 6000s at home. Check them out at https://www.lenzproducts.com/. I chose the 1800 rcb battery for long days alpine climbing.

Bonne Etique – Trident

2nd Oct 2015by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

A fine day out with my buddy Davide de Masi on impeccable granite cracks last month. Definitely some of the best rock I’ve been on in the massif and I’m inspired to go back and climb the ‘Untouchables’ pitch next year when I am rock fit.

Grandes Jorasses North Face – Polish Michto Variation

5th Oct 2014by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

Last weekend I got a chance to go back to the Jorasses for the first time in 7 years. I teamed up with Ben Tibbetts and we were joined by Misha Gopaul and Jeff Banks for a social day out. I had managed a day acclimatising up the Midi skiing earlier in the week so it wasn’t a straight from the office hit which Andy Houseman and myself had done the last time on Colton Macintyre. After the warmest bivi ever in the mountains at montenevers, we walked in during the early hours, therefore avoiding a bun fight at the overcrowded Leschaux hut. It was a beautiful starry night and Ben caught a fantastic shot of the face under the stars with several teams well established on the Colton Macintyre, Croz and Polish routes. As we arrived for first light the face was relatively quiet and we quickly got to work climbing neve for several hundred metres. A few goulottes of ice and neve followed with fun climbing that was never hard up to the summit ridge where we were treated with gorgeous autumnal milky light over the Peuterey Ridge and the Aosta Valley.

Big thanks to Ben (Misha and Jeff) for a memorable day and the photos!

The Polish Michto Variation on Grandes Jorasses North Face (2011 photo Ben Tibbetts)

Our comfy bivi at Montevers
Climbers on the Desmaison, Colton Macintyre and Croz/Polish Routes Gearing up to go Steep Sugar Through the BergshrundA Happy Team

The First Goulotte Section

Ben TibbettsBen Climbing a Thinner Seam as We Catch a Spanish Team

Me Pulling Through a Steep Section

Typical North Face Icy Mixed Terrain

Ben Pulling Through onto the Summit Snowfields

Gorgeous Warm Day

Climbing into the Sun on the Summit Ridge Snowfields

Ben Savouring the Summit Ridge Views

Pointe Marguerite – Named After the Queen of Savoie

Mont Blanc and the Peuterey Ridge

Martin Elias descending after an ascent of Directe de l’Amite with Korra PesceBen Approaching the Reposoir at Sundown

New Zealand 2006

7th Jul 2014by rosshewittguidingLeave a comment

For this trip I hooked up with my friend and fellow Scot, Evan Cameron, who was living in Dunedin at the time. We travelled all round the South Island climbing in the mountains, sailing the fiords, swimming in rivers, sleeping on beaches, surfing, bouldering, walking. He had dislocated his shoulder a week before I arrived and carried a vial of morphine everywhere and gave me strict instructions on how to put his shoulder back in should it pop again.

The most vivd memory is getting caught in a storm sailing in the Marlborough Sounds and the boat getting knocked flat every five minutes with the mast in the water. I don’t think the boat owners ever sailed in bad weather because there was nothing to secure the drawers and pans were soon flying as the hull rolled 90 degrees. In the middle of the night one of the sail’s securing ropes wore through and the roller jenny sail got ripped open and immediately shredded. The next day dawned beautiful and calm and another yacht sailed past looking at our battered and tattered boat. Terrifying.

Bivi Site Below Malte Brune after Morraine Bashing up the Tasman Glacier

The Remarkables

The Lake at Queenstown from the Remarks

Traversing the Remarkables After a Multipitch Route

Bouldering Near Queenstown

A moments respite from the rain in our 1 man tent, Bevan Col, Aspiring

Camping Below Aspiring

On the summit of Aspiring

Descending Bevan Col in Heavy Rain

West Coast Fury, Charleston Crags Payne’s Ford – Sports Climbing and Swimming Pools

The calm before the storm, we spent the next night with the mast in the water every 5 minutes

Stunning Organ Pipes at Lover’s Leap

The Darrens

Waiting for the rock to dry, Darrens

Trying to avoid the seepage

View West from Hommer Tunnel

Darrens Rock Raining Again!

The Chasm

When it rains, it pours No Need to Wash Dishes, Just Put Them in the Rain Outside

Looking for Rock to Climb in the Jungle?

Mitre Peak

Wye Creek

The Weekly Wash Old Faithful, 1.0 Litre Ford Laser Estate Car

Siberia Flats, en Route to Mount Awful

Long walk on to find wet rock followed by a longer walk out

Frisby at Flock Hill Christchurch Peninsula

Mixed Climbing – Rebuffat Terray V5 550 m Col des Pelerins

4th Dec 201325th Jan 2020by rosshewittguiding1 Comment

The Rebuffat Thierry route was first climbed in winter by Rab Carrington and Alan Rouse who followed a series of ice runnels that drooled down from the Col des Pelerins. For some reason or another I had never got onto this route. A couple of years ago I had the pleasure of spending a day climbing at Gogarth with living legend Rab Carrington and knew I had to amend this obvious omission to my Chamonix winter climbing resume. Aged 60 odd Rab is inspiring to watch on the rock, still climbing big E5s and 8a with impressive flexibility, a testimony to the benefits of a stretching regime. After a year off climbing myself with being busy skiing, this was going to be a challenge to my residual climbing fitness and break me back into shape. I headed up with Sandy Simpson who was keen for a mid length day route and is fit from time well spent dry tooling at the Zoo.

The route itself was in good to lean conditions with a couple of breaks in the ice at the steeper cruxy locations due to traffic. It was great fun being back Alpine climbing and moving quickly in the mountains and not spending much time searching for protection (unlike Scotalnd) – even if slowed slightly in freeride touring boots!

On the way down we descended Pre de Rocher which contained a mixture of awful crust, disgusting wind buff and treacherous frost coated boulder fields. Hopping from sugar coated boulder to boulder was the order of the day (or night by now) and after 600 m I gave in on the skiing and decided to walk.