This was my first visit to the fabled Calanques of Marseilles. The Calanques are the fiord region next to Marseille and host to a plethora of marvelous rockclimbs on walls of impeccable white limestone up to 300 m high. On this trip we had the luxury of a boat and could sail round and chose what took our fancy! I will definitely be back.
Mont Blanc summit and ski guiding trip. This was Mont Blanc the historic way, the pure way, human powered from the valley floor from my house (ancienne Maison Balmat) -which is where Jacques Balmat lived at the time when he made the first ascent of Mont Blanc in 1786! On the first day we made the approach to the Grands Mulets refuge by the Gare des Glaciers and enjoyed a massive feed and relaxing stay with the friendly atmosphere. We left at 5 am the next morning after a hearty breakfast of fresh bread, jam, and coffee and enjoyed skinning under an incredible blood super moon. Soon the dawn light revealed the magnificent high alpine scenery of tumbling glacier ice and painted the iconic peaks red, distracting our minds from skinning.
It was a gorgeous warm day for being on the top of Western Europe, around -10/15C up there and 15 k winds.
We skied down a little wind hardened snow on the shoulder before finding powder down the North Face for 2000 m to the jonction of the Taconnaz and Bossons Glaciers. There we roped up to cross the slots on the Bossons and went back to Gare des Glaciers where the final prize was a long corn run down the para face. A short walk back to the car at the tunnel and it was beer time 🍻..
I am psyched to have another ski trip there at the start of June and the way this spring (May and June are spring in Chamonix) is shaping up with snow almost every day for the last 3 weeks, a mid-summer Mont Blanc might be on the cards!
April was a fine month with good weather and stable snow conditions allowing many long days to the mountain tops from the valley floor – mainly with the Finnish crew of Mikko and Lauri. We went to the Chardonnet West – Trident linkup, Moine Banane (with talented photographer Aaron Rolph), Central peak of Tricot, Aiguille de Mesure North Face, Mt Oreb North Face.
Ski touring in a Christmas card landscape. The winter season is underway and despite the government keeping the ski lifts closed for the next few weeks, clients can go ski touring with qualified mountain guides.
Thats the lifts open in Chamonix and the ski season well under way. Yesterday I had a fantastic 50 cm bluebird powder day guiding Peter around the good spots in Chamonix and we have another 50 cm coming this week. Through the magic tunnel in Italy they are off to a great start with even more snow. Get it while you can!
Ross Hewitt Guiding 