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� e Alpine Club

Nov 2014

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AC NewsletterNo: 3 Nov 2014

AC Offi cers

President Lindsay Griffi nVice-Presidents John Porter Victor Saunders Acting Hon Sec Roger JamesHon Treasurer John DempsterHon Ed of AJ B NewmanHon Librarian DJ LovattAC Library Chairman HR LloydBook sales DJ LovattLibrarian T Hudowski

Administrator Iwonna Hudowska

Area Notes

Contact AC Journal Editor It is important that members con-tact Bernard Newman, the Editor of the AC Journal, to report their mountaineering activities both in the Alps and in the Greater Ranges. It is also important that members forward comments and observa-tions about their mountaineering experiences to the Expedition Infor-mation Centre (EIC) so that the Club can record and build an extensive database that will help all mountain-

eers to fulfi ll their ambitions.

AC Photo Library

Hon Keeper of the Club's Photographs Peter Rowland

Photo Sales S J Hare

The Alpine Club55/56 Charlotte Road,

London EC2A 3QF

Tel: 020-7613-0755

Ursula Haeberli General Manager

www.alpine-club.org.uk admin@alpine-club.org.uk

Sponsors of the AC Climbing Fund

Cover photo: Liz Bedford on the Domes de Miage traverse after completing the Mettrier ridge this summer: photo Chris Bedford

I’m happy to report great activity from AC members over the summer. Despite poor weather at many venues, the selection that follows very much confi rms a dynamic club, pursuing our passions in the mountains at all levels. There have been a number of AC supported expeditions to the Greater Ranges with rather mixed success. In Pakistan Jon Griffi th (on his third attempt in successive years) and Kevin Mahoney pushed hard through bad weather on the unclimbed 7,000er of Link Sar. While they topped out on the north face, quite close to the west summit, continuing the one kilometre, steep-sided ridge to the main top simply wasn’t feasible. Elsewhere in the Karakoram, Peter Thompson’s team attempting Muchu Chhish (7,453m and one of the highest unclimbed peaks in the world) was thwarted by poor conditions on this and other summits. Malcolm Bass and Simon Yearsley made the best attempt to date on unclimbed Janahut (6,805m) in the Gangotri region of India, turning back late in the day only 140m below the summit. Becky Coles’s team was equally unsuccessful on the last remaining unclimbed 6,000m peak in Tajikistan’s Muzkol Range, stopped on the dry summit ridge by a rotten rock tower. But two of the team did make the fi rst ascent of a nearby 5,500m peak. However, in Kyrgyzstan Jamie Goodhart’s nine-member team to the Djangart region successfully climbed 10 previously virgin peaks of around 5,000m before heavy snowfall stopped play, while in the Western Kokshaal-too Adrian Dye’s expedition climbed six new peaks up to D in standard, and four long rock routes. Crossing the Atlantic, in the Cordillera Huayhuash of Peru, two young Italian members, Tito Arosio and Saro Costa, formed most of a team responsible for the fi rst ascent of the west face of rarely climbed Quesillo (5,600m), a demanding 800m ED2. A little further north, our main AC expedition of 2014, organized by Derek Buckle and comprising 10 members, visited the Cordillera Blanca, climbing fi ve peaks and attempting several others. You will be able to read about this in the current AJ, which thanks to incoming editor Bernard Newman should now be safely in your hands. Plenty other AC members were active elsewhere, climbing new routes in southeast Alaska’s Fairweather Range (a misnomer if ever there was one) and the Fox Jaw Cirque of East Greenland, to name but two. The main summer season in the Alps was largely dismal, with one campsite manager reporting 26 consecutive days on which it rained. Our high season joint meets in Pontresina and the Gran Paradiso suffered accordingly but come the end of August the sun emerged and clear skies were the order for much of September, with the Aspirants meet taking place in Saas Grund during the fi rst two weeks. Organizer Barry Speed had to turn down many applicants in order to limit the number to a comfortable 18. This was a new venture for the AC, in that two professional guides were employed to give initial training and subsequently advice. It proved highly successful, with 13 separate routes completed on eight different peaks: a recipe to

develop in coming years. The AC has been well represented at a number of events. Adele Long organized a small group of female mountaineers who, hosted by the Italian Alpine Club, took part in the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the fi rst female ascent of Mon Viso. Apart from reaching the summit via the Normal Route, they were also presented with a bottle of fi ne wine by the local mayor to give to our Queen. We’re still working on this. Shortly after, Clare Roche and her team were in Kleine Scheidegg celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lucy Walker’s fi rst female ascent of the Eiger. Unfortunately, too much snow at altitude prevented an ascent, in fact at that stage in the summer there had been no ascents at all, but they were able to climb the Monch and Gross Fiescherhorn as compensation.Adele and her team also joined Charlie Burbridge and Alan Lyall in Meiringen to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the death of the great Swiss guide Melchior Anderegg, who was employed by a number of eminent AC presidents of the era. After a veritable marathon of speeches, the event was hugely enjoyable and convinced those present on the great value of maintaining close links with Swiss associations. Over in the Ecrins, we were well represented at the 150th celebrations of Whymper’s fi rst ascent of the Barre, as you will read from Hywel Lloyd later in this newsletter. Former Hon Sec Françoise Call organized an excellent international Chamonix Mountain Festival, based at the equally excellent and hospitable UCPA. A number of AC members were there, as you will read later. Further south, three of us (two as Italian hosts) took part in the Third Valle dell’Orco Trad Climbing Meet and enjoyed wide - or perhaps that should that be wild - international company, the usual wonderful Italian hospitality, and a mix of brutal cracks and thin friction slabs in northern Italy’s “little Yosemite”. On the domestic front I am very pleased, fi nally, to be able to announce two signifi cant appointments. John Dempster has bravely stepped into the role of Treasurer and Ursula Haeberli is our new General Manager, working three and a half days a week from the club house. This results in us now having two good administrative staff able to keep the offi ce open fi ve days a week. As I write we are fi nalizing arrangements for this year’s symposium, AGM and dinner, taking place at the Palace Hotel, Buxton. We’re hoping to present you with a general “how-to” event on the organization of small trips and expeditions, spanning different disciplines of our activity, to various corners of the world. With panel discussions that will include our chief dinner guest, noted American alpinist Michael Kennedy, and hopefully plenty of (constructive) audience participation, it will take a different line to recent gatherings, which concentrated on a single country or area. I look forward to seeing you there. Lindsay Griffi n, AC President

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AC LecturesLondon Venue

55/56 Charlotte Street,LondonGeneral and Informal Meetings

Lectures start at 7.30pm

AC/SMC Edinburgh Lectures

The venue is the Royal Overseas League, 100 Princes Street, Edinburgh

Lectures start at 7.30 pm prompt.

Tuesday 11th November 2014. Derek Buckle - Peruvian Classics - an

Account of the 2014 AC Expedition to the Cordillera Blanca

Over four weeks in June ten members of the AC successfully climbed fi ve peaks above 5000m in four separate valleys read-ily accessible from Huaraz, the Peruvian Chamonix. In this talk Derek will illustrate the opportunities available in this attractive region of the Andes and give an account of the team's achievements.

Tuesday 25th November 2014. Colin Beechey - Alpine Classics for Mere Mortals

Colin has given 2 previous talks on Alpine ‘Grandes Courses’, climbed over many Alpine holidays while completing his round of the Alpine 4000ers in 2000. In his lecture Colin will describe a selection of medium grade routes, mainly in the AD grade, achievable by most alpinists of average ability. These will include The traverse of Les Courtes, The Morgenhorn/ Bluemlis-alphorn traverse, Fletschorn/Lagginhorn traverse, Badile North Ridge and others, some well known and some less so.

Tuesday 11th November 2014Susan Jensen - Adventures on an Un-climbed Peak in the Indo-Karakoram Our own indefatigable Susan Jensen relates a historic ascent: The existence of an unclimbed 7000m peak in the Indian Karakoram was due, at least in part, to an historical error in surveying, leav-ing the peak, Chamsen, largely neglected and hiding behind another Peak called Plateau Peak, itself over 7000 metres. The correction was discovered and an Indo-British expedition to climb it was organised. They then found another reason it hadn't been climbed: it was awfully hard to get to. The tale of the area, the unclimbed col, the Valley of Death, the rescue and the climb will be told.

Tuesday 9th December 2014 Dave Broadhead - Caucasus 1984Dave Broadhead has numerous talents other than the updating of the Munro Archives, as will be seen to full advantage here.Despite the ominous date, in the summer of 1984 Dave Broadhead and Des Rubens accepted an invitation to attend an Interna-tional Mountaineering Camp in the Russian Caucasus. As well as fi rsthand experience of the ill-fated Soviet Union they enjoyed some fantastic climbing and achieved some historic and rare ascents by capitalist lackeys of mountains such as Ushba, considered

Wednesday 12th November 2014Malcolm Bass and Simon YearsleyMalcolm and Simon will be talking about their attempt on Rimo and fi rst ascent of Dunglung in 2012 and their attempt on Janahut in 2014.

Wednesday 10th December 2104Jim Gregson - The Really Northern Playground - expeditions to North Liverpool Land, East Greenland. Jim Gregson will be talking about two expeditions to the icecap and striking mountains, a perfect area for ski mountaineering and fi rst ascents, with an eye out for Polar bears”.

Peak Venue The Outside Cafe,

HathersageLectures start at 7.30pm

The venue is the upstairs bar at the Hawkshead Brewery in Staveley, near Kendal.

Lectures will start at 7.30pm

Lakes VenueHawkshead Breweryin Staveley

near KendalLectures start at 7.30pm

Tuesday November 11th 2014Jim Gregson - The Really Northern Play-ground - expeditions to North Liverpool Land, East Greenland. Following on from the Lakes 2013 lecture Jim continues sharing details of his expeditions to Greenland with this one about North Liverpool Land, East Greenland.

Tuesday December 9th 2014 Harriet Tuckey - The First Ascent This book is about Harriet’s dad, Everest the First Ascent, the Untold Story of Griffi th Pugh, the man who made it possible won the British Sports Book Award for Outstanding General Sports Writing.

Tuesday February 10th 2015Malcolm Bass - Janahut Malcom and Simon report on their trips to the Indian East Karakoram (Rimo III attempt and Dunglung Kangri fi rst ascent) and the

Garwhal Himalaya (Janahut near miss).

SW Venue Upper Room at the Nova Scotia Hotel

Hotwells, Bristol BS1 6XJLectures start at 7.30pm

Tuesday 19 Nov 2014 Edith Kreutner – Mountaineering expedi-tion to the Djetim Bel in KyrgyzstanIn August 2014, four members of the Austrian Alpine Club left the Alps for some mountain-eering adventures. The aim of their expedi-tion was to set up base camp near the Arabel Pass and explore the nearby valleys with their mostly glacier covered summits (4200-4700m).

Tuesday 9 Dec 2014John Kentish – An Alpine Ski Traverse – The Mediterranean to ChamonixJohn will be talking about a traverse, mostly on skis, from Menton on the Mediterranean to Chamonix, a distance of 530km with 35,000 metres of ascent. It was undertaken in early 2014, by a party of three, without using any mechanical uplift.

Tuesday 20th January 2015 Details to follow.

Tuesday 17th February 2015 Clare Roche - The Other Golden Age- the Nineteenth-century Development of Womens’ climbing. Most people are familiar with the idea of the ‘golden age’ of mountaineering but this is implicitly male and many are unaware of women’s achievements. This talk considers both the quantitative and qualitative nature of women’s alpine climbing and their place within the mountaineering community as well as wider society in the nineteenth cen-

London Bunkroom Bookings

Bookings should be made with the

Club Administrator by e-mail or phone

0207 613 0755.Bookings need to be made in

advance so that arrangements

may be made to obtain keys and

receive instructions.

tury. Women alpinists had their own defi ning decades.

Tuesday 17th March 2015George Cave - Bristol Djangart Expedition 2013: Bread, Chess & Mountains -Tales from the Bristol Djangart expedition to fi nd unclimbed peaks on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border.Along the way they also climbed alpine style to summit seven previously un-climbed mountains up to 5200m in height.

by some the most beautiful mountain in the world, and of course Elbrus, highest summit in Europe.(As if this were not excitement enough, mince pies and mulled wine may be served at this event.)

Tuesday 13th January 2015 Members’ slides/images.The traditional January ‘death slot’ is an opportunity to catch up on the adventures of 2014 as well as showing off achievements of the Xmas/New Year break. A ration of about 20 images per member, please.

Tuesday 10th February 2015Mick FowlerThough not a member of the SMC, Mick is well known for his exploits in this country! at-tempting the unclimbed North Face of Hagshu in Kishtwar this autumn, some material from this adventure may end up on the screen here.

Tuesday 10th March 2015Peter Berg - Whymper’s Scrambles with a Camera Peter is an AC member who will be showing this lecture in Scotland for the fi rst time. The lecture is an introduction to and a re-creation of the magic lantern show that Whymper took all over the UK, Europe and the USA, using his own text and photographs 1870-1895. Much of the lecture is devoted to the Matterhorn area so a viewing this year, the 150th anniversary of the fi rst ascent, is most appropriate.

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This year the Alpine Club new and aspirant members meet took place over the weekend of 27 to 29 June 2014 and was, once again, held at the George Starkey Hut (ABMSAC) in Patterdale. The weather was per-fect, which allowed us all to make the most of the weekend. In line with the tradition set in previous years, on Saturday the majority of attendees combined forces to undertake a group outing up Pinnacle Ridge and then on to the summit of Fairfi eld. In the meantime, the benefi t of having a meet co-ordinator who was six months pregnant is that she was happy to stay in the hut and un-dertake a peeling, chopping and baking marathon. The result was a communal meal on the Saturday night of veggie spaghetti bolognese and chocolate cakes with strawberries and lashings of cream. We were joined by Mike and Marian Parsons, who, as ever, were a great source of information about the club. They, in turn, brought along their guest, Alan Hinkes of 8000m peak fame. Having the op-portunity to meet and speak to experienced members and climbing

legends such as each of these people is surely one of the great benefi ts of joining the Alpine Club, and was certainly appreciated by the new and aspirant members in attendance. Sunday saw the majority of attendees heading to Eagle Crag in Grisedale for some vertical action. With fi ve or maybe even six AC climbing teams, we managed to collectively tick off the majority of climbs at the crag. Another two teams decided to avoid the crowds and headed to Gill Crag, and the remaining attendees decided to leave their ropes behind and went instead for a more leisurely walk.With an estimated average attendee age of under 30, the meet was particularly encouraging for the future of the club. There was lots of enthusiasm from attendees who were predominantly at the start of their alpine careers, with perhaps half of those present looking forward to joining AC meets this summer. Thanks to everyone who came along and helped to make the meet a success. Jenna Robinson

Attendees: Allen Abramson (aspirant - pending), Darren Axe (aspir-

ant), Imogen Fisher (aspirant), Lorna Fisher (aspirant), Matthew Guy

(aspirant), Sam Harrison (aspirant), Alan Hinkes (guest),

Kai Holdgate (guest), George Margesson (full), Tom Ogg

(aspirant), Ryan Osborne (guest), Marian Parsons (full),

Mike Parsons (full), Ewan Paterson (aspirant), Dave Payne

(aspirant), John Proctor (aspirant), Bryce Rigler (aspirant),

Jenna Robinson (full/meet co-ordinator), Hugh Robinson

(full), Adam Ryan (guest), Jonathan White (full) and Made-

leine White (guest).

MEET REPORT - 2014 NEW AND ASPIRANT MEMBERS MEET

Raring to go - outside the George Starkey Hut!

Ryan and Tom on Pinnacle Ridge

Some new & some familiar faces enjoying a well-earned veggie spag bol on Saturday night.

ImportantMembership

Details

The Club is ready to update

and re-print the Member’s

Handbook. Please will all

members check their entry

and inform Iwonna at HQ of

any changes.

MEET REP

AC Meet

Report

MEET REPORT 2014

‘If you go down to the woods today.........’

Iwonna worried about what’s happened to

Tadeusz! I am delighted to announce that we have now recruited a new General Manager to help in the running of the Club. She is Ursula Haeberli, a Swiss national who has jointly run her own very successful events based company for 12 years.Ursula, who is a member of the SAC, has now moved to the UK with her family and is living in London. She will spend the next few weeks getting to know us and understanding how she can best assist Club Offi cers in delivering their various projects and ensuring the smooth running of the Club. The Club Offi ce will now be open 5 days a week (except Mon-day afternoons) Why not come to the AGM and Dinner on 29 November to meet her!Roger James

“What counts is the individual challenge, no matter how fast how steep or how high” (Ueli Steck). I look forward to

meeting many AC members.

Ursula Haeberli

Ursula Haeberli General Manager

li er

New Appointment

Please check your

entry

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As a partner in the second (international) Chamonix Mountain Festival, which took place during the fi rst week of July, the AC was well represented amongst participants. The weather threw some surprises but didn't stop climbs being ac-complished on every day. Superbly organized by a hard-working team led by festival founder, former AC secretary Françoise Call, these gatherings promote a spirit of non-elitism, actively encouraging climbers of more modest abilities - no age limit, no grade limit! Alpinists arrived from Africa, America, the Middle East, and all over Europe, many without partners. A mix-and-match approach ensured the meet quickly became extremely sociable. Gear manufacturers allow equipment to be borrowed and "tested" throughout the event, and the accommodation package at the relaxed and hospitable UCPA included a week's free pass on any téléphérique and valley transport. Also instrumental in the success was that the participants came simply to climb as much as pos-sible and have a jolly good time, with no particular list that really needed to be ticked. At the start Brand Experiences allowed participants to sign up for a day's climbing with a professional, whilst during the week there were several entertaining and informative lectures. Conditions didn't encourage too much in the way of high altitude ascents, but the full spectrum of climbs was achieved, with one team even taking the underground ice climbing option in the Glacière de Parmelan. There were a couple of important charity initiatives. Jerry Gore's Insulin Challenge team battled diffi cult weather, high winds, and the loss of two tents before placing several members on the summit of Mont Blanc. In the process they raised £5,000

for Insulin for Life, which funds lifesaving treatment for young dia-betics in the third world. Veteran mountaineer Norman Croucher was also at the festival, returning to the Alps 21 months after cancer diagnosis. Norm's Survivors Climb was a little more mod-est in its ambitions, with a couple of 2,500m ascents complete with fi lm crew, but raising awareness, and money, for the charity Hospiscare. With many participants from the 2013 festival returning enthu-siastically for the second, and equally enthusiastically anticipat-ing another, there is likely to be a third in 2015, though this might spend rather more time on the Italian side of the massif. It is a highly successful formula, and continues to develop relationships between British and foreign climbers. Follow progress on www.chamonixmountainfestival.com, where it is also possible to sign up for a newsletter.

Lindsay Griffi n

What Meets would you like the Club to be running? Contact Paul McWhinney with your ideas:

meets@alpine-club.org.uk

13th/14th February. Scottish Winter Meet, Corran Bunkhouse (www.corranbunkhouse.co.uk)

This sociable (unless you spend too long on your route!) meet returns to Corran, which we have previously found to be an excellent venue. The hut is between Glen Coe and Ben Nevis, but is also within easy reach of Creag Meagaidh, Glen Shiel and Argour (and for those go-ing South on Sunday even more opportunities). The cost will be £16 a night.For details contact Roger Everett via Alpinet.

9th - 16th May. Glen Brittle - Joint Meet with Craven Pothole Club After an enjoyable meet in 2013 we will return to be one of the fi rst parties to use the refurbished Glen Brittle Memorial Hut. Al-though Skye does have some caves, there are no plans for caving at present, but there will be a strong cavers infl uence on the arrange-ments. Cost £70 (increased because the hut is now smarter). Hut details can be seen www.gbmh.co.uk Meet Co-ordinator: Paul McWhinney via Alpinet.

11-18 July. Joint ABMSAC/AC meet will be in Madonna di Campiglio in the Brenta Dolomites, from 11-18 July. Anyone interested should contact Pamela Harris-Andrews,

ps.harris@bluewin.ch.

18 July – 8 August - Alpine Meet Argentiere – Joint with ABMSAC, CC, FRCC, SMC, LSCC, Wayfarers and Yeovil MC.It is 12 years since the AC Alpine meet visited the Chamonix valley so a meet in the area is long overdue. Then for 2015 we will be based at Camping du Glacier D’Argentiere www.camp-ingchamonix.com. There is something for everybody in the area, hard mountain routes, easy mountain routes and everything in between, masses of recently developed sport and trad climbing in the Aiguille Rouge with superb views over the Mont Blanc range, a whole guidebook of valley cragging for when the weather is not so good, walking, mountain biking and of course plenty of retail therapy opportunities for when the weather is really inclement !The campsite is very friendly with free hot water, showers and WiFi, bread and croissants are available in the morning, there is even a pizza van on site twice a week, booking is not possible but there is usually spaces available and we will have the group tent again for use as a meeting place. The guest card gives free bus and rail travel within the Chamonix valley.Co-ordinator: Keith Lambley (alpinemeet@yahoo.co.uk)

Alpi M t Ar ntie

AC Meets 2015

Summer in Chamonix 2014! Knut Toensberg

A serious couple was sitting on the top of Aig du Plan worrying about the burning question: when would

the forcasted evening thunderstorms start? And what descent to choose: Down the crevassed glacier via the

Requin hut and Vallée Blanche - or the not too entertaining retreat the same

way back again to Aig du Midi?

Gus Morton above the remnants of the Mer de Glace on Aspirant Sunrise. Photo: Lindsay Griffi n

CMF attendees avoiding the rain!

The 2014 Chamonix Mountain Festival

Norm’s Climb: on the Brevent looking northeast along the Aigs Rouges

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Pic Gaspard - SSE Arete

This was a fantastic route. Again plagued by days of rain and poor weather we saw an oppor-tunity approaching, but with the risk of some rain on the walk in and bivvy. True to form just as we found the bivvy spot the heavens opened and we got drenched. We managed to fi nd a rock to hide under to cook though and had a good meal, and by the time we fi nished it had stopped raining and the skies cleared enough for us to see the ridge and the start of the route. I had found an old CC article about the fi rst British ascent of the route and we both read it at the bivvy before getting our heads down.

http://goo.gl/awnNtL

Dawn came and we headed up to the route, we soloed the easy ground up to the ‘black patch’ that is mentioned in all the guides and then did two pitches. The sun hit us here and started drying out those bits of clothing that were still wet from last

night. We moved together up the rest of the fi rst section, staying on the ridge line all the way. We car-ried on moving together through the fi rst ‘pitch’ of the second sec-tion and up to the grey overhang-ing wall of the second ‘step’. Here we strung two pitches together to get through the two grade 5 sec-tions and then carried on moving together through the third step and onto the fi nal ridge.

It was only on this fi nal ridge line section that the rock became a bit poor and loose and we had to tread carefully not to dislodge large boulders onto the ropes. The fi nal gully up to the summit had a good new bit of tat round a boul-der, and there were another fi ve newly threaded abseil points all the way back to the Glacier Claire, and the glissade all the way back to the bivvy site. All in all a great day out. Phillip Ingle

Pelvoux - North Face Central Ice Slope

On about the 1st of June there was a report online from someone regarding the Violettes Glacier descent from the Pelvoux, comment-ing on how it was fully covered with snow right to the bottom of the Neve Pelissier, and that they wished they had had skis for the descent. We seized on it as an opportunity to climb the N Face of the Pelvoux and have a quick descent. It rained for a few days after that, but the snow line was low enough for us to think that descent would stay in the same condition.

As we both live in Briançon we decided that rather than have a poor night’s sleep in a bivvy, we would just set off from home very early. Richard picked me up at 03:30 and we drove to Pre de Madame Carle, and set off with skis on our backs

and headtorches on our heads at around 04:30. There was not enough snow to warrant skin-ning up at all and we trudged up all the way to the start of the grade 4 ice gully, carrying skins that were not needed.

The ice gully was not present and there was a lot of running water, so we lost a bit of time working our way up the rocks to the right, and in particular having to avoid a large loose boulder right on the only obvious line of attack.

The traverse and the upper snow slopes were in excellent condition and we soloed most of the way, just roping up for the last 200m were it got a bit hard and icy.

The descent ended up being a bit of an epic. We whizzed down the fi rst section with whoops of delight, but the snow cover that had been there a week before had all but disap-peared in a week of warm rain. We had to load our skis back onto the rucksacks about 6 or 7 times to abseil or down-climb sections, which took quite a toll. We had hoped the skis would cut the descent time from 4 hours to around 2, but in the end it took us about 6 hours to get down. Still we were back home in Briançon before mid-night having managed a good 2000m of ascent and descent. Phillip Ingle

What we did on our holidays

Summit of Punta Rossa with Grand Paradiso in the background. Photo: Sam HarrisonFinal few moves onto the summit block of

Grand Serre. Photo: Sam Harrison

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On the 1 September 2014, a group of four women Adele Long, Amanda Graham, Caroline Phelan and Rya Tibawi (3 AC members and 1 CC member) went to Saluzzo, at the invitation of the CAI Saluzzo and the Piedmont tourist board, to celebrate the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the fi rst female ascent of Mon Viso. Contrary to the offi cial records, the fi rst ascent by a woman was not that of Mary Isabelle Straton’s and Emmelline Lewis Lloyd’s in 1871, but of a 26 year old Italian woman, Allessandra Boarelli and a 14 year old girl Cecilia Fillia on 16 August 1864. The team (minus Amanda who arrived 2 days later) were welcomed on arrival and, as guests of the Deputy Mayor of Verzuolo, the town where Allessandra Boarelli was born, were given a plaque to com-memorate the event, a tray of the local apples each and a bottle of wine to be given to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. Dinner was held in ‘il Morsetto’, the building in which Allessan-dra Boarelli had lived. After further meetings with dignitaries, visits to local mu-seums, and a huge lunch the following day, the team made their way, slowly, to the Rifugio Vallanta, to the west of the Mon Viso range. The plan was to climb Punte Gastaldi, 3210m (PD) and Visolotto 3351m (PD/AD) to acclimatise before embarking on Mon Viso. The weather was rather mixed, and

reports of Visolotto were not good, so we climbed Punte Gastaldi on the fi rst day and walked to the summit of Mon-te Losetta, 3054m on the second. Amanda joined us the following day, and we all made our way to the Rifugio Quintino Sella via the passo Giacoletti (Grade II). The following

day we made our ascent of Mon Viso, 3841m via the voie normale, more like PD rather than the F given in the guide book. Verglas in the early morning made scrambling over the rocks quite tricky and, higher up, cracks were fi lled with hail and snow. But as the sun came up conditions improved.At the summit we signed the special book to record the female ascents. Unfortunately the awful weather in the Alps this year rendered Mon Viso unclimbable for many weeks and we were recorded as numbers 81 to 84, a long way short from the 1000 women the Italians hoped to get to the summit in this anniversary year. To round off the trip, the CAI arranged a dinner to cel-ebrate our ascent and to say farewell, a "family affair" with three generations represented in some cases. At this we were all given another bottle of wine labelled with the an-niversary logo to mark the event.On Sunday we fi nally had a day off and time to enjoy the Antico Podere Propano hotel and the sights and cafes of Saluzzo.On Monday, fully rested, we drove to Grindlewald to join Clare Roche and her team to celebrate the 150th anniver-sary of the fi rst female ascent of the Eiger… We wish to thank the Alpine Club who supported the trip, the CAI Saluzzo, particularly Dr Livio Perotti, Paula Bona-via and Paulo Allemani, ATL and WOW, especially Alberto Anello who arranged our visit. Adele Long

What we did on our holidays .......

Liz Bedford traversing in to the correct line, Gran Paradiso N. face; it gets steeper... photo: Chris Bedford

Liz Bedford on the Domes de Miage traverse after completing the Mettrier ridge. photo: Chris Bedford

Chris and Liz Bedford have had a

good season - see below.

Breithorn W: Triftjigrat

Dômes de Miage - Sommet E:

Arête Mettrier

Perrons de Vallorcine: Traversée

E >> W

Grand Paradis: Face N - Voie

Bertolone

For more details:

http://www.camptocamp.org/outings/

list/users/549198/orderby/date/order/

desc

Celebrating the fi rst female ascent of ‘The Stone King’ - 150 years later

Liz Bedford and Ma-donna, Gran Paradiso. photo: Chris Bedford

Caroline Phelan, Amanda Graham, Adele Long, Rya Tibawi

The team on top! On the summit of Mon Viso on the 8th Sept this year.

Chris Bedford on the summit of the Gran Paradiso (the true summit, no Madonnas here...) photo: Liz Bedford

Page 8

Orco, the beautiful granite valley in the Gran Paradiso National park in Italy, looked like the area of most sunshine, so we headed there. There’s a great guide book and we headed for the ‘all crack classics’!Climbers from around the world gathered by the fi re in the evenings, cooking in the open and drinking ale and wine as we chatted and laughed. You could stay there forever it`s soooo good. But - we dreamed of fi ne alpine exposure!There was a 48hr weather window in the North. We drove the 6 hours, cooked up pasta in a car park, booked the Rifugio Falier and began the walk in. Above the hut and all around us rose the immense walls of the Valley Ombretta and the South face of the Mar-molada ‘The Queen of the Dolomites’. As the sun sank we saw the line of our route Don Quixote, 750m 6+ of south face limestone climbing. It was to be the fi rst alpine classic for our party of four. I’d printed the topo from planetmountain.com, we awoke at 04.30 for an alpine kick start of coffee and dry cake!We racked up at the bottom of the route as the sun rose. There was no tick tock of timed alpinism for us, we were holiday alpinists after adventure. We enjoyed every pitch as the exposure increased. We climbed through the crux as the cold began to chill our fi nger tips and toes and as we approached the summit the change to darkness blew all around us; holds froze and visibility dropped to a torch lit cone of light. Unsure of the rappel and the walk down the glacier in darkness we pulled on bivvi bags one between two, lit the stove for

sweet tea, ate nuts and dried meat. A bright starry sky developed above us and the blanket cold cloud of a temperature inversion hung below.Around us rose the giant faces and peaks of the Dolomites. Cold winds took the heat from our bodies so we made the move and rap-pelled to the glacier. As the wind dropped we walked into the rising day; colours of the bright night and the warmth of morning contrast-ing all around us. We returned to our motors 28 hours after leaving

the rifugio. Large dark clouds began to fi ll the val-lee, we`d made our weather window, tired; our thoughts wandered, the sun looked good in the Chamonix val-lee “lets head there”. After a few days climbing and resting around the awe-some Refuge d’ Envers des Aiguilles we headed back into Cham. Ben and I made our way up to the Brevent east face and and climbed Premier de Corvee.1st pitch 7a: pure sport pitch, small footholds and crimps.

2nd pitch 6c: a mix with trad and bolt. Amazing smears and laybacks.

3rd pitch 6c: wide hanging

crack. Perfect for hands, forearms, knees and twisted feet. Bang your

own pro in, cams.

4th pitch 6c: the real deal. A steep face crack on pro, moves into

a rest (Ben enjoying the atmosphere above). Then sport it up for a

fantastic fi nish (clip bolts above the roof to the fi nish) hanging high

above the valley.

It was our last route before the home bound road and what a belter

to fi nish on. We took the cable car back into to Chamonix as the wing

suit jumpers fl ew past. A true taste of the Chamonix dream.

John Proctor

I went for a walk up to the Balmes François Blanc with Sarah and the kids on Wednesday for a recce of the south pillar, and decided that as the walk was relatively easy and short there was no need to carry all our bivvy gear, we could simply start early from the car park at Pre de Madame Carle. Richard and I set off from Briançon the following day at 3am, left the car park at 4am and were negotiating the rimaye two and a half hours later. We struggled to fi nd an easy way up the wall just beyond the ri-maye and ended up going up a steep juggy chimney with far too much loose fi ne gravel on every hold. After that the going was easy for a while; we were moving together because we had started off that way, but the ground could easily be covered without a rope. We kept moving together up past the red tower and the grey tower through the odd move of III and IV, covering the distance fairly quickly. On the whole the ground was rea-sonably solid, but there were enough loose holds and rocks that you had to double check most things before putting your full weight on them, or try and keep the load well spread between the points of contact.At the bottom of the Bastion we were moving together still; but the V- traverse looked horribly loose so I dropped my coils and Richard put me on a belay. I really did not enjoy that pitch, the central section involved standing on loose blocks then doing a pow-erful move up putting all my weight on three loose blocks that were detached from the face and wedged against each other - scary. I was happy to get to the triple piton hanging belay. After that the rest of the grade IV section of the Bastion was very enjoyable climbing in an excellent situation. At the top of the bastion

we mistakenly went up from the ledge too soon taking the 6a varia-tion, which was tough in big boots and with a pack, but there were about seven pegs in the four meter long diffi cult section, so there wasn't really any exposure. A couple more moves saw us up the mir-ror slab and onto the top of the Bastion for 2.30pm in the afternoon. The last 300m of broken ridgeline had a fair amount of snow cover, and after trying to stick to it for about 100m we opted for a snow

and ice gully that went at about grade 3 that took us to about 30m below the summit. Arriving there at 5.30pm the sun was still fairly high in the sky and we felt pretty good with our day so far. The summit ridge in descent seemed to go on forever. It took us an hour and a half to get to the abseil at the end by the Dôme des Ecrins, where we packed most of our gear away except for a few pieces in case of crevasse issues. It was nice to have a good track down the North side of the Barre, which wound its way through all the crevasses, and avoided most serac danger. We packed away the rope and harnesses as well at the bottom of the face, knowing that on the long fl at trudge along the Glacier Blanc all the crevasses are only about 2cm wide and not a real threat.Just as it was getting dark we got to the part where the glacier steepens up a bit and the path heads off onto the scree on the left. Richard had been up there a few weeks previously when the lower path had been good, so we went for that one, which by now had lost any snow cover and was a bit of a maze through the widening slots with some precarious balancing along knife edges and a few jumps over wider slots. By not stopping to rope up again we made it to the moraine just before we needed head torches to see, and by the time we had taken our crampons off it was dark.

The rest of the descent past the Glacier Blanc hut was an exciting speed walk down the path which seems quite technical in the dark. We made it back to the car park for 11.30pm and were home before midnight. So the South pillar within the day, from home back to home - pretty pleased with that one. Phillip Ingle

Ben Hirst on pitch 4 6c John with wife Anna on Don Quixote

Phil in the ice gulley near the summit.

The S Pillar (TD V) on the

Barre des Ecrins

Orco the beautiful granite valley in the Gran Paradiso National

The Queen of the Dolomites

Page 9

It doesn’t always have to be high! The Alps were gripped by a series of low pressure systems bringing storm after storm to the high mountains. Having used most of our annual leave allowance on a most excellent trip to the High Atlas in February we had only 6 days to feed the rat with Alpine pleasures. The agenda was a series of classic 4000m peaks but the weather had other ideas and for once we took the hint and chose to duck and dive throughout central Switzerland. Day 1. Meteo Suisse… ‘Orages dans l’apres midi’. Arriving in Ge-neva courtesy of Easyjet, on time and around midday, we picked up a hire car and travelled east to Saas. Pleasant weather tempted us to stop off en-route to fl ash the fun, Via Fer-rata De Belvedere, above Nax just south of Sion. Day 1 out of Scotland and within 5 hours of leaving Edin-burgh we are limbering up on lovely limestone, albeit with rather an excess of stemples and cabling (the Swiss have really overcooked the ferrata concept) but who was complain-ing…such fun. A short descent to the car saw us motoring east again and arriving at Saas around 8pm ….too late for food at our lodg-ings but in plenty of time to read the meteo for the next day…not good…. Beaucuop d’orages dans l’apres midi. Day 2. Sometimes you just have to go with the weather and so with a forecast of good (ish) weather for the morning with storms in the afternoon we decided on the ‘voie normale’ on the Allalin-horn, as an acclimatisa-tion, you understand. First cable-car up with the international ski teams (ooh, attitude at alti-tude!) saw us heading up a bad weather trail on this so frequented mountain, the route this year is way over to the east to avoid the loaded slopes below the col. The meteo played fair with us and fi rm squeaky névé saw us summit in 1hour 40 minutes to enjoy this brilliant belvedere. Once back in Saas Fee we headed to the pleasant Kappelenweg crag for some sports routes just as the storm hit and the rain started in earnest.Day 3. The original plan was scheduled to be a relocation to Klein Matter-horn to put us in position for Castor and Pollux, but alas the forecast was for ‘Nuages et orages dans l’après midi’ so it was another day for fl exible in-dulgence. Off we went to Naters above Brig for cragging on one of the area’s many sport crags. Once again it proved a good choice as we had the hot rock all to ourselves and the instant weather readout from Klein Matterhorn website was showing 70 Km per hour winds and heavy snow.‘Day 4. At last a change in the weather, this time the forecast was for ‘Orages’ but the reference to ‘l’apres midi’ had dropped implying all day mank (as we say in Scotland!). A decision was made to relocate to a hut and an area which I had never visited, the Burg Hutte. Situated on an idyllic spot above Fiescheralp an hour or so of uphill walking in light rain saw us arrive to

a friendly reception and a most comfortable hut. The hut sits at about 1700m, high enough for some stunning views and low enough to be below the worst

of the weather, it also had a resident pine marten. The hut is sur-rounded by crags, which in turn are festooned with multipitch sport routes. As the rain went off the crags dried and we headed out to try linking 5 pitches of 4c to three pitches of 5a and 5b. The climbing was on beautiful slabby rock with moves very reminiscent of the Etive slabs but with bolts to ease the pain of balancey runouts. Just below the third pitch of 5a it started raining, well it was always on the cards (and more importantly in the forecast) so we abbed off and returned to the hut for tea and medals. Day 5. Forecast…’Orages dans l’apres midi’…quelle surprise! After breakfast we wandered out to climb Burgwand, an 8-pitch 4c, wandering route which climbs the north face of the little mountain “Burg” opposite the hut. This proved an excellent varied excursion with a big easy 3-pitch traverse in the middle that reminded us of the middle of Agag’s groove. Once back in the hut we had some tea

before heading down the hill and relocating west to try and salvage a big mountain for the trip. Les Diabelerets.Day 6. Forecast…no need, one look out of the window revealed that the mountain which had been there the previous evening was now missing! Not wanting to be accused of ‘lack of effort’ we set off to have a look at Les Diabelerets from the upper station of the Col du Pillon lift system. We were viewed with a look of pity, disbelief and disgust from the only other person in the télé-phérique, the driver. As rain hammered against the win-

dows the cables disappeared into swirling cloud and the big empty ‘frique swung alarmingly as it delivered its indefatigable cargo. Once at the top station (Scex Rouge) we decided to go for a Scottish type exploratory look, compass bear-ings, full Goretex, 5 meters visibility, just like home. It was probably just as well that the vis-ibility was so poor as this part of the mountain leading to The Dome is littered with ski lifts etc. However we couldn’t see much of them and we enjoyed a Cairngorm style walk around the top of the cliffs to the start of the glacier approach for the summit of Les Diabelerets. Once at the Dome we hunkered down for a while and were rewarded with some excellent views caused by

cloudscapes shredding themselves open on the crags. There was no way we were going onto the glacier in these conditions so we settled for the walk and headed back to pack for the return journey. So, 6 days, one ferrata, one 4000m peak, one 3000m top, 2 single pitch crags, an excellent new hut visited, 2 days doing mountain multi-pitch sport climbs and a recce of Les Diablerets for a future acclimatisation day ( you understand..). Not bad considering the meteo had been consistently foul for the whole trip. What did we learn? Well, excellent internet based weather forecasts now allow identifi cation of the areas most likely to be out of the storms, it pays to be fl exible and open with plans (we climbed every day of this short trip) and it is good to visit less frequented areas and huts. We didn’t see any other British climbers on our trip and I wonder if perhaps they were sitting in the pub in Chamonix moaning about the weather? On the day we fl ew home we heard sad news of a guide and 5 clients who lost their lives on the Aiguille D’Argentiere. For once we didn’t feel too disappointed about our decision to stay off the high hills. Gerry McGarry

sn’t

6 days - stuff done!Rimpfi schorn refl ected

Gerry ‘ferrating’!

Murray and the Strahlorn

Resting on Feejoch

Page 10

Everywhere we went they all said the same, ‘worst summer for years’. Didn’t say much, but we had a cracker. Perhaps not the routes we intended, or the areas we wanted but sometimes, drifting with the weather, snatching opportunities, makes for a refreshing change. First trip July. Weather atro-cious through-out the Alps, but a possible window in the Dauphine.A fast drive down in the Campa’ and the Aiguille Du Goleon seemed a good fi rst choice. Nothing technical, small glacier and a good height. A long mooch up to the hut then a really attractive walk up the val-ley and onto the short but, to me, too long glacier. Snow was low but spotting someone on the summit rise showed the way as clouds began to swirl. A snowy, rocky scrambling arête led up into the whiteness. The top arrived not before time, head a bit puffy but fabulous to be up here, alone, in the mountains. Summer had started, account opened, that comfortable belonging in the mountains. More claggy weather, then another window, so we arranged to meet back in La Grave. I arrived late Thurs-day and woke to a beautiful Friday morning, up on the fi rst ‘frique’ and squeaked up to Le Rateau. Weather closed in as snow began to fall. Ahead continentals ground to a halt on the snowy mixed ridge with a howling wind screaming at their confi dence. Felt like a good day in Scotland to me and a chance to nip by, which I did. Back down the team had fi nally arrived raring to go. Rog keen as mustard after 50 years in the hills, Noel keen after a full blown knee operation, Pic La Grave a good fi rst thrash. The Saturday morning even better but lots of new snow after the previous week. After a ginger step onto the avalanche debris that familiar spooky feeling told us to try again, which we did further left. This time it wasn’t a feeling but a stark reality, the hole was something more, a slot deep-er than could be seen and edge crumbling even as being inspected. Third time lucky, we crossed the bergschrund and thumped up a pleasantly steepening slope which didn’t avalanche as we crossed into the sun and up a lovely summit ridge. Finally some views and a deep blue sky, forecast correct and for once in our favour. A Via Ferrata rest day and a forecast you couldn’t have bought saw us in La Bérarde. A superb hot sunny walk up to the Chatelleret hut and warmth of welcome that would cement our place in Europe if it could be bottled, got us in pole position for a wonderful day on the SE Ridge of the Tête Nord Du Replat. The pre-dawn jump across a bubbling glacier stream launched

us up a steep zigzag path leading to the best of best quality névé. It lasted to the base of our chosen ridge, hot as the sun arrived but perfect timing for the grade IV above. Just a couple of Grenobleans in front, we moved through and in the words of our new friends, ran up the rock, revelling in the Bosigranian quality of the granite. We waited on top and enjoyed their company, which was repaid with some local knowledge about the abseil to a shadowy north snow slope. Replacing crampons whilst dancing at the end of an ab rope reminded me that 50% of Alpine climbing is planning! Down-climbing to the sun bought us round to a Col and a slushy, hot, long descent. Tea and home-made blueberry pie fuelled the valley return.What now?

Weather good for a day but not two in a row so back to Le Rateau East to complete the proper route. Glori-ous weather, a sneaky traverse to an icy couloir and a little suspect rock took us to a summit I missed before. We were still a team of three, and we planned for a week in August (Noel replaced by Pete) but with an op-tion to extend if weather encouraged - it did! A return up Pic La Grave may seem repetitive but fi rst time for Pete, good air training for us.The next day saw us on a cragging day. Two fun routes, no stress, a classic ridge and a direct 5 kept the rock motors ticking. Another good single day, consensus was for a moun-tain route, big boots but do-able in a day. The Arête des Bruyères fi tted the bill. A beautiful walk up and turning the valley corner the sky-line ridge of teeth, pinnacles and gendarmes came into view. We moved together - good rope practice (much needed) - and with the gen-eral fl uidity that comes with being acclimatised and back in the groove. Climbing was never hard, maybe HS in places, rock was fantastic and sticking to the crest gave some classic ‘a-cheval’ moments. We passed a group and soon we were on the descent.

Finally, two good days in a row! Up to the Selle hut and the South Ridge of the Rateau West. We followed a guide out early but took a lower, safer line across the slabs. Once at the Brech a cunning ‘zig’ crossed the ‘schrund, some mixed, then an ice head-wall, L crampon fi nding nooks in the rock, R crampon nicks in the ice, and the brèche was reached. Old, barely seen, footsteps showed ‘a’ way but not ‘the’ way up the ridge until clouds descended almost hiding the snarling cornice. A quick ice axe prod revealed the break-line so we took a lower way. Tiring now up the steeping ridge but at the end we had a treat. Three times the clouds played with us, swirling then revealing a fang, white streamers roared from its crest, boiling and thrashing. A step up to the summit and the fang became La Mejie, dramatic, inspiring and a suitable crescendo to send us on our way down. Back in La Bérarde our selective guide-

book showed one route on the Tête de la Meye. Du 5. After 20 pitches of 5/5+ we were met with a view down three valleys crowned by the backside of La Mejie. This really meant La Meije had to be next. Now fi t and acclimatised the Promontoire walk passed by with metronomic progress. The usual friendly chat in broken French with the most tradition-alist of guardians began to take a sinister turn. We caught a few words, cloud descending, wind rising, snow, 17 or was that 70 kph? It was confi rmed, Armaged-don was due and it would start mid-morning. We and he talked ourselves out of it, woke late and descended early. Were we guilty of criminal compliance as

it turned out to be a ‘do-able’ day, a perfect day – the old man (and us?) misled by satellites and algorithms. No problems, the recce is done, next year another to add to the list. Time for a fi nal grasp of the granite, a 250m 6a ‘Hands Up’ seemed a fi tting fi nale and our summer came to a closeNot what we expected but maybe all the better for that. A summer of grabbed opportunities and unplanned courses. High huts, valley rock, summer streams. Just being there is sometimes enough. Simon Laker

La Meije appearing through the clouds

Arete de Bruyeres

An opportunistic 20 days in the Alps across July and August. Routes ranging from PD classic mountaineering to TD Alpine rock, plus a bit of cragging and a sprinkle of Via Ferrata’s. Roger Phillips, Noel Withers,

Pete Finklaire, Simon Laker.

Descending off the tete Nord Du Replat ( after dancing at the end of the ab rope!)

pportunistic 20 days in the Alps across July and August. Rou

Alpine ‘fi nagling’

Page 11

Dr Peter Foster on the Coolidge Couloir on Mont Pelvoux. Photo: James Thacker

Horrendous weather in Chamonix so I escaped to the Valle dell’Orco with Jaimella Espley. Photo: James Thacker

Just before sunrise from the Gratton bivouac hut before our ascent of Punta Rossa. photo :Sam Harrison

With the sun comes the clouds! photo: Sam Harrison

Whymper is clearly a great hero in the Ecrins Massif. With AC members, H Walker and A W Moore, and two guides, Michel Croz and Christian Almer, Whymper made the fi rst ascent of the Barre des Ecrins on 25th June 1864. Exactly 150 years later, fi ve AC members - Sue & John Hare, Ingram & Hywel LIoyd, and Jerry Gore - joined the celebrations at the Refuge des Ecrins. Around 100 people, mainly French, crammed into the hut for an excellent supper. Hywel made a very short address of congratulations and good wishes on behalf of the AC. In the dawn, all in the hut set out to climb the Barre des Ecrins and were joined by 50 French Alpin soldiers in white camoufl age smocks. We all made the lower summit of the Dôme de Niege des Ecrins,4011m; weather on top was oscillating between clear then very thick cloud and most turned back from

the fi nal ridge of the Barre – said to be the scene of ‘Almer’s Great Leap’ across a chasm on the fi rst ascent. Two guides, as Whymper and Croz, made the ascent in period costume and an-other local guide – who was also a sculptor – made a stainless steel skeletal statue a little larger than life. He brought this up from the Vallouise side while friends brought up a set of 4 wings from the other side of the mountain. The sections were assembled together and the stature erected on the summit, to celebrate the united valleys of the Ecrins. It will remain there for this summer and then be placed in the museum in Valouise. A fast descent was made to the village library of Ailefroide, in time for the offi cial opening of a small mountaineering exhibition, which included some historic photo-graphs from the AC Photo in the displays. Then we rushed to Valloiuse where there were celebrations in the village square. There were many speeches from the Mayor and other dignatories; these included ones by Sue Hare (who has splendid French) and John Brailsford. Hywel made a presentation of a framed photo of Frank Fox Tuckett for their exhibition; Tuckett tried but failed on his ascent attempted a few days before Whymper’s foray; there is a Ancien Refuge Tuckett above the Glacier Blanc. It was hectic couple of days

but excellent fun for everyone. Hywel LLoyd, Hon Library Chairman

Whymper is clearly a great hero in the Ecrins Massif. With AC members, H Walker and A W Moore, and

Celebration of Whymper’s 1st ascent of Barre des Ecrins

Rear from left: Sculptor assistant; John Hare; Sculptor assistant; Sculptor, Christian Burger; Jerry Gore, Christian's father; Centre:

Sue Hare; Front from left: Hywel Lloyd, Ingram Lloyd.

Page 12

Time of my life feature

Lino Lacedelli (1925-2009) is best known through his fi rst

ascent of K2 along with Achille Compagnoni. The fi nal settlement

of the controversy surrounding their ascent resulted in Lacedelli’s (and

particularly Compagnoni’s) reputation being somewhat diminished.

However, there is no doubt that he was a formidable mountaineer

and a great rock-climber. Testimony to this is the route he (with Luigi

Ghedina and Guido Lorenzi) established on the SW face of the Cima

Scotoni in the Fanes region of the Dolomites in 1952. Little was

known about it for more than a decade but eventually it became recog-

nised as a great route and,

until the modern era, one of

the most diffi cult in the area.

In 1982 whilst Marjorie and I

were taking the wild and beau-

tiful ski run from the Lagazuoi

cable car to Armenterola I

became aware of a series of

steep and very attractive walls

on the right. The highest and

fi nest of these turned out to be

the home of Lacedelli’s great-

est rock climb. Other routes

that we got to know were

Claudio Barbier’s “Via del

Drago” on Lagazuoi Nord and

the equally fi ne but consider-

ably easier SW corner of Cima

del Lago.

Five years later and after a

week of climbing in the Val

di Mello we found ourselves

back in the Dolomites and the

time seemed to be right for

an attempt on the Scotoni. It

seemed sensible to ease the

transition from granite to dolo-

mite by doing the “Schubert”

on the Piz Ciavazes which

was accomplished after a very

late afternoon start. Fortu-

nately we knew the descent

well and got back to the car

desperate for food just before

dark and somehow Marjorie

managed to persuade the staff

at Sporthotel Arabba to serve

us a meal at 10 o’clock. Later

that night an ill-chosen bivou-

ac spot close to the summit of

the Passo Falzarego proved to

be such a trial that Marjorie in-

sisted we fi nd something more

salubrious. However, having

failed to fi nd a suitable B&B,

Marjorie’s negotiating skills got

us a special half-price deal in

Hotel Planac which is nicely

placed just above the Alta

Badia.

The weather was rather

unsettled and given that our “deal” was half-board any route had to be

accomplished in a total time of 12 hours hotel to hotel which seemed

a bit unrealistic for the Lacedelli so we decided that Messner’s “Gran

Mur” on the Sas dal Crusc (Sasso della Croce) was worth considera-

tion. The two-stage chair lift from San Leonardo speeds the ap-

proach to the beautiful chapel and Rifugio that is the common start

for routes on the magnifi cent south-west face but there is a fair bit of

loose scrambling to reach the climbing proper. The fi rst four pitches

take a grade 5 chimney but with scant information we climbed the

direct which is quite a bit harder. On reaching the terrace that splits

the whole face it was easy to get back on route and we were nicely

warmed up for the fi rst grade VII pitch which, with good protection and

reassuring rock, proved very enjoyable. Spurred on by an impending

storm we quickly reached the top, having paused only for a photo-

graph of Marjorie on the (now) famous fl ake traverse. The descent

is very amenable and with the aid of the chair-lift we were back at the

hotel in plenty of time for our evening meal.

In retrospect although we were

pleased with our effort, the Gran

Mur is not really one of the Dolo-

mite’s great routes as there are

only four hard pitches above the

ledge and despite the impressive

situation it lacks a feeling of com-

mitment. However, we now felt

ready for the much sterner task

provided by the longer and more

daunting Lacedelli.

Having booked out of the hotel

we were back to ‘tentless’ camp-

ing in order to make an early

start. The walk up to the face past

Rifugio Scotoni, though steep,

is relatively short and pleasant

so one is nicely warmed up for

the start. However, the crux

comes as early as pitch two and

is viciously overhanging; it can

be climbed free but it is normal to

use the several pegs for hands

if not feet. Just where the angle

relents somewhat the line bends

over to the left and, tiring fast I

was appalled to fi nd that there

were several hard moves at VI+

that just had to be climbed prop-

erly. Having got this pitch behind

us we should have been feeling

full of confi dence but the fi rst part

of the route is dominated by a

large roof and from below there

appears to be no way round it.

Our Italian topo indicated “stretto

cunicolo” (whatever that meant)

at the top of pitch fi ve. Setting off

up the rather loose and unpro-

tected yellow crack I was none

the wiser; not until my head was

almost hitting the roof was I able

to see the solution. To the left

there was a horizontal slit several

metres long and just high enough

to crawl along only after removing

one’s sack. Although it was easy

enough the rubbly ledge sloped

outwards and created the feeling

that one would roll off into space;

equally terrifying was watching

Marjorie go through the same experience with just as little protection.

The stomach traverse soon becomes a comfortable ledge marking

the end of the fi rst section and a storm over on the Marmolada sug-

gested that it was time to retreat. No obvious possibility presented it-

self and Marjorie would not hear anything of it, besides wouldn’t we be

protected by the next line of overhangs! So with feelings of trepidation

I set off heading for what is now a famous and much photographed

traverse. Though not particularly hard it felt very committing, espe-

Mike on the Diedro Meyerl (7) on the Sasso della Croce

Fann(e)ying about! by Mike Mortimer

Page 13

eature

cially as the overhanging section starts to loom overhead. The

subsequent stance is quite comfortable and, amazingly, the way

through the overhangs suddenly did not look so daunting. The

climbing confi rmed this impression with good holds and reason-

able protection and, somewhat anticlimactically we were soon

on the second ledge that marks the end of the diffi culties and

provides the normal way off the face.

The descent is quick and easy, allowing us to get down before

the storm broke overhead. After some soup we spent the night in

the car; next morning the face was plastered in snow!

It was many years before I was to do another big classic in

the Fanes area. Worn-out knees had forced Marjorie to lower

her sights in the Dolomites and in 2005 she encouraged me to

engage a local guide. I was put in touch

with the extreme climber and skier Franc-

esco Tremolado and after some debate we

decided to try the Diedro Mayerl, a route from

which Derek Walker and I had retreated in

bad weather thirteen years earlier. The May-

erl was one of the hardest Dolomite routes of

the sixties being consistently steep and tech-

nical for 500m on what is sometimes less

than perfect rock. There are several hanging

stances that add to the arduous nature of the

climbing and just when the top seems to be in

reach the climber is forced out of the diedre

onto a very exposed and poorly-protected

traverse out to the right. However, the climb-

ing is magnifi cent throughout and the easy

descent with its panoramic views can be

enjoyed to the full.

Two years later we were back to do the

other Scotoni classic established by Cozzolini

in the depths of winter. It is more open and

less impressive-looking than the Lacedelli but equally demanding

and, with a long sustained traverse leading leftwards into the cen-

tral part of the face, just as committing. By chance, one of Franc-

esco’s friends appeared behind us with two aspirant guides doing

the route as an assessment, so it was quite a social occasion.

Since then I have done one or two routes each year with Franc-

esco. It has to be admitted that climbing with a guide is not nearly

so satisfying as planning and executing a big route oneself but it

certainly is more relaxing. It is possible to enjoy lots of other as-

pects of climbing in the Dolomites and Francesco has introduced

me to areas that I had not previously visited. Most important of

all, it has enabled me to continue to experience steep adventur-

ous climbing in a challenging environment safely into my eighth

decade. Mike Mortimer

Francesco on the traverse of Via Fachiri (Cozzolino) Cima Scotoni

Francesco on Via Fachiri with Lagazuoi (Nord and Sud) and

Civetta in the distance.

Climbers (circled) at the end of the Stom-ach Traverse on the Lacedelli route on the Cima Scotoni taken from the Via Fachiri.

Page 14

Top tips Keep your Ice Screws

sharp.

Modern ice screws are wonderful! Their fantastic effi ciency and ease of use have helped democratize all forms of ice climbing but particularly steep-ice cascade climbing. Modern ice climbers no doubt take them for granted but old timers like me are eternally grateful for their arrival as they have helped prolong our steep ice climbing careers as we would have given up years ago if we still had to climb with the old drive-ins, snargs or, God Forbid, Stubai cork-screws!

But – like all things they need looking after and above all need to be kept sharp. Compared to the old gear they will go in (just!) even when

blunt but the whole point of them is to bite and spin-in effortlessly and quickly which they defi nitely won’t do if the have been bot-tomed out on rock or otherwise abused.

Originally the process of sharpening modern stainless steel wide-bore ice screws was really diffi cult as the shape of the teeth is based on complex curves and precise angles which are easy to damage and distort using a fi le. Manufacturers did attempt to give some guidance for sharpening by publishing videos on YouTube but it still remained a fraught process for most. Grivel even offered a sharpening machine to retailers (Needlesports have one) but the reality is that one usually needs to sharpen ‘in-situ’ when you are on a climbing trip and realise that your screws are blunter than you want!

Having realised that ice climbers needed an easy way to sharpen their screws regardless of make, Petzl, with their usual ingenuity, introduced their ‘Limice’ hand-held sharpening device which has provided a perfect solution for climbers on the move The Limice (www.petzl.com/en/outdoor/verticality/anchors/ice-protection-accessories-0/limice) is a hand-held device with which you can fettle up your screws without needing a workshop so that they will ‘bite and spin’ nearly as good as new. At approx £55.00 it is a mod-ern ‘must have’ piece of gear for most steep ice climbers (those that bother to put gear in that is!!) Dick Turnbull

The Newsletter will be devoting space each issue high-

lighting the knowledge and experience of our members.

We hope to cover all areas of climbing from specialised

techniques, to gear, to solving any problem that alpinists

might encounter.

We would like to include at least one ‘Top Tip’ from a member each issue. If you have an idea

please contact the Newsletter Editor.

Keep your extremities warm.

Have you ever seriously considered of what would happen if your hands got so cold that you couldn’t use them when half-way up a route? Most of our experience isn’t in such extreme conditions so we tend to take a spare pair of gloves and think that will be enough.

Well, you may be fi ne – but if some unforeseen weather change or injury suddenly changes the ball game will your precautions be enough? This year we were climbing in Canada and it was cold, -30C, so I included some heat packs in my pack that my son had given me when I left home (and insisted I carried with me on routes!) Half-way up Polar Circus one of my mates happened to take his gloves off as he as a bit worried about how his fi ngers were. The shock at the sight of his white-tipped fi ngers was palpable and continuing the climb was instantly put in doubt. Luckily I had more than one pack of ‘Hothands’ with me so I gave him 2 packs, 1 for each glove which saved the day. After the climb was done his fi ngers recovered but without the Hothands he could easily have been

much more seriously affected.

‘Hothands’ or their equivalents are easily and cheaply available and can be used to provide extra heat to any part of the body (ie under your helmet, in your gloves, in your socks when bivvying, anywhere else you might want!) An extra external heat source is vital if you are tired espe-cially when standing on a stance, bivvying etc. Putting them in boots can help but in this enclosed environment there is less air fl ow so less oxygen to help the chemical reaction which generates the warmth. But it may still be worth it - Lindsay thinks so! Dick Turnbull

“I used to carry a small pair, not for my hands, but to put under

my insteps for “summit day” at high altitude.” Lindsay Griffi n.

Acclimatisation - ‘how to’

‘Relax - look after yourself’. These days perhaps because of the popularity of commercial treks and expeditions to high altitude there is an increasing amount of sci-entifi c research that goes into understanding, preventing and curing altitude related illness. This is obviously a good thing but it does have a down side, particularly as all the fi ndings along with "real life” horror stories are available at the click of a mouse. The down side is that it is easy to become spooked about the very idea of going to altitude, convinced that if you don't at least take handfuls of drugs you will die a horrible death. My experience of altitudes from 5-8000m over the last 38 years is quite different. It is worth remembering that the reason for going to altitude is to enjoy the experience. Not only will undue worrying about altitude illness prevent that, it is also proven to increase the chances of it happening. Pace of ascent: I suggest that you go as slowly as you can, don’t race to get there, particularly when you fi rst arrive at 3000m+.Statistically the group

at most risk from altitude related illness are young fi t men (perhaps brought on by competitiveness?). Try not to ascend more than 300m on average between sleeps. Sensible stuff: Put on clothes when you are cold and take them off when you are hot! Hats for sun and cold, gloves, sun block (I recommend P20 as one coating lasts 10 hrs) and category 4 sun glasses all contribute to prevention. Being comfortable makes you

more relaxed.

Eat & drink - loads!How much fl uid to drink. My rule of thumb is drink loads so that you are frequently peeing and it is clear and copious. Use a pee bottle/Shewee in the tent at night. Also fi ll your drinking water bottle (mark it clearly to avoid confusion!) with warm water for a hot water bottle and a drink. (Sherpas never drink cold water at altitude.)

Don’t drink alcohol at altitude, it will make everything worse!

I'm no Doctor but experience tells me that most people can acclimatise using this

regime and that drugs are best for solving the problems that can't be solved by prevention, additional rest and descent. Anyway if you disapprove of performance enhancing drugs in sport, why should it be different for mountaineers? Tom Richardson

Petzl’s Limice

Move slowly but perhaps not this slowly!

Page 15

Douglas Freshfi eld, golden age mountaineer and Alpine Club president from 1893 – 1895, was just 19 years old when he won a mountaineering duel with Julius von Payer and made the fi rst recorded ascent of the Presenalla on 27th Au-gust 1864. At 3,558m the Presenalla is the highest peak in south west Trentino and this summer has seen a raft of events celebrat-ing the 150th anniversary of its fi rst ascent. John Ball, fi rst president of the AC, was an early explorer of this area and he and Fresh-fi eld are celebrated characters in local mountaineering history. So the link with the AC is strong and I was lucky enough to be invited to represent the Club and join the celebrations. Edda Nella, Deputy Mayor of Carisolo, had arranged a full agenda for my three days in the region. It was a new and inspiring area for me with the spectacular, spiky skyline of the Brenta Do-lomites on one side of the valley and the beautiful granite area of the Presanella on the other. After packing in a tour of local sights, a demonstration of traditional glass making skills, a Q & A session with local students, a public lec-ture and much sampling of local cuisine, the way was clear for an ascent of the Presanella. The weather in the Alps has been terrible this summer but luck was with us and the day of our ascent dawned clear and crisp. Eight of us met in the village of Carisolo at 4am and headed off to the Rifugio

Segantini where we were treated to breakfast. Two of our group then continued up the normal route from this side while the other six headed up towards the col at the foot of our chosen route, the north east ridge. Climbing in three ropes of two I was lucky enough to be

teamed up with local guide Marco Maganzini. Marco is not only great company but he also car-ried all the ropes and hardware, provided me with all the equip-ment I was unable to squeeze into my Ryanair weight allowance and didn’t laugh too much at my ridicu-lous appearance in huge goggles worn over my glasses as a result of my having forgotten my contact lenses. He was also most under-standing of my leisurely mountain pace and altitude induced gasp-ing. One can ask no more from a climbing partner! Summit success was savoured in traditional AC style with a fi ne bottle of wine supplied by the local alpine club, the Societa degli Alpinisti Tridentini. Thereafter, in appropriately high spirits, we weaved our way

back down the normal route to the Refugio. About half way down the sole of my boot fell off completely but that merely added more interest to an already fi ne and memorable day. On arriving at the Rifugio I learned that 20 members of the local choir had come up from Carisolo intend-ing to give us a singing welcome. Unfortunately though we spent so long enjoying the mountain that they sang a welcome without us and then descended before we arrived. That was a pity but all was not lost as I was lucky enough to hear two of them singing their song ‘Presanella’ at a private performance before leav-ing for my plane. I arrived back in the UK laden with gifts, fi ne memories and feeling the strong link between the AC and this area is very much alive and well. Mick Fowler

150th Anniversary Ascent of the Presanella

During his short life, Alex MacIntyre had a meteoric impact on the moun-taineering scene. At the age of 28 he was tragically killed by a single rock that fell high from the south face of Annapurna - in that moment the climb-ing world was robbed of one of its brightest stars. Alex had already risen

through the ranks to become one of the leading fi gures of British mountain-eering’s most successful era. Born to a Scottish Catholic family living near Hull in Yorkshire, Alex went on to trail-blaze his way up hard new routes on Himalayan giants like Dhaulagiri and Changabang, and left in his wake a glittering record of fi rsts in the Alps and Andes. How Alex climbed was as

important as what he climbed: along with partners such as Voytek Kurtyka, he pursued the vision of a purer form of Alpinism, whereby ascents were

made as quickly and as unencumbered as possible.

John Porter offers us a poignant insight into the life of his friend Alex, showing mountaineering at its extraordinary best and tragic worst, while

drawing an unforgettable picture of a dazzling, argumentative,

exuberant legend.

Price: £20more details available from www.v-publishing.co.uk

ONE DAY AS A TIGERAlex Macintyre and the birth of light and

fast alpinism.

by John Porter

Page 16

‘Roca Verde’ publicises one of the best-kept secrets in European climbing;

the fantastic sport climbing in and around the ‘Cordillera Cantabrica’ mountain

range in north-west Spain. ‘Roca Verde’ has selected the best crags in Asturias,

Cantabria and Leon, to create a guide which incorporates the complementary

areas most utilized by the regions’ climbers.

Roca Verde contains over 40 selected venues, over 190 distinct sectors and

nearly 3000 routes. Just as importantly, it includes the information the locals

know; how to choose the right venue for sun or shade, summer or winter and for

whatever grade you climb.

Roca Verde is available in all good climbing shops but can also be bought at our

website: www.rocaverdeclimbing.com

Price: £30.00‘Stop Press - Richie has just opened a rental house in Asturias for climbers

wishing to visit the Roca Verde region. See www.casaquiros.co.uk for info.’

Roca Verde Spain’s best kept climbing secret!

We would like to welcome the below into the Alpine Club.

Membership

from ONLY

£7.00 eachfor AC members

£10 for twin edition Dolomites Guide

£20 for 4000m Peaksall prices inc P&P

Contact Iwonna for details.

(please buy through HQ as the Club loses least that

way!)

£2

(pas(p

Alpine Club Guide Books

Here is a new, stunningly attractive Rockfax guide that speaks directly to the AC membership!

The new Rockfax Dolomites guide brings Rockfax’s now familiar and popular layout (great colour photos etc) to a famously complex area.

The guide includes a wide range of crag climbs, via ferrata and famous long classic climbs.

The guide uses its well-known topo layout for crags, a verbal description for via ferratas and annotated route photos alongside

proper route/pitch descriptions for the longer, more complex Dolomite classics.

This is a selected guide and most areas are included (with a couple of notable omissions!) and will become the ‘go-to’ guide for most of this

famous and fantastically rewarding climbing area.

(This is a Big Heavy Book! You will need a smartphone to take photos of the pages

you need on your route/via ferrata etc or be very strong!)

The Dolomites

Price: £29.95

hat speaks directly

New Guide

Full Membership

Kevin Mahoney

Iain Hook

Phil Children

Aspirant Membership

Alasdair Blackshaw

Tom Lehane

Simon Ball

Robert Damon

Rhianwen Thomas

Thomas MacAndrew

secretttt!!!!!!secrettttt!!!!!!!!!!

New Guide

Page 17

AC Annual Dinner and AGMThe 2014 Annual Dinner, AGM and Symposium

will again be held at the spectacular, recently refurbished

Palace Hotel, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AG

(For overnight accommodation see box below.)

Specially selected real ale will be served from

Friday evening

Dinner ticket price £30.00 per person

(excluding drink)

Tickets for the symposium and dinner can be

purchased by either of the following:

AC Symposium‘How to do it!’

It is normally pretty damp in Novem-ber. What better time to consider

planning the next trip. You may have already been on several big trips

and want to hear about regions you haven’t been to before. Or frankly, you have been climbing in the Alps and have decided that 2015 is the

year to make that trip that you have been daydreaming about since laying hands on Christmas Crack in Decem-ber 1971. This year the Symposium will peel back the layers of organisa-

tion required to do it well. The 2014 AC Symposium takes a

practical view on how to organise, fund, plan and execute a mountain-eering trip to alpine and the greater ranges around the world. The Sym-posium will feature a panel of ex-

perienced alpinists who have been there and done it and a selection of speakers who will cover most of the aspects involved in carrying out the

climbing trip of a lifetime.Tickets are £15 for AC Members and they are available via the

website.

Saturday 29th November 2014

Payment to the Alpine Club’s PayPal account by following this link:

http://www.alpine-club.org.uk/payments/Dinner-Symposium.html

(N.B. Preferred method - You do not need to have your own PayPal account)

or send a cheque payable to :

Alpine Club plus SAE to the Offi ce Manager, 55 Charlotte Road,

London EC2A 3QF

- marking the envelope : annual dinner / symposium.

Tickets will be emailed to the PayPal address.

For cheque payments the enclosed SAE will be used.

You can still book your tickets

SymmmmmmmmmmmmmmmppppppppoooooooooooooooooooossssssssssssssiiiiiuumSymmmmmmmmmmmmmpppppppppppppppppooooooooooooooooooooooossssssssssssssiiiiiiiiuum

Guest Speaker: Michael Kennedy One of America’s foremost mountain-

eers who, from 1974 to 1998, was the

editor of Climbing magazine, the most

infl uential of American climbing publica-

tions. In March 2009, he took the

position of Editor-in-Chief of Alpinist

magazine for a couple of years.

10.00 -10.45 Becky Coles Nuts and bolts (! Ed) of expedition planning

10.45 - 11.30 George Cave Technology Support for Expeditions

11.30 - 12.15 Julian Freeman-Attwood Access from a boat: Expeditions to the

Antarctic and Tierra del Fuego

12.15 - 13.00 Lunch

13.00 - 13.45 Panel Discussion Chaired by Stephen Goodwin

13.45 - 14.30 Twid Turner Big Wall Climbing

14.30 - 15.15 Victor Saunders Commercial Expeditions

AGM at 4pm

£15

Everest RevealedThe Private Diaries and Sketches of Edward Norton 1922-24

Available from the History Press

Th P i t D

New book

£20.00

Out Now

Call 01235-465500 Marston Book Services

New Guide

Places to Stay Either The Palace Hotel (call the Hotel direct on

01298 22001)

Or elsewhere in Buxton - see list of options on

the AC website.

Page 18

Expedition Information Centre

New AC web service

The AC and its members have unparalleled experience in organis-

ing successful mountaineering expeditions to all the great mountain

ranges of the world. The Club is now launching the extensive new

web-based service for all mountaineers to help them utilise our

members’ priceless and hard-won knowledge in preparing their own

expeditions. The Expedition Information Centre is the accumulation

of your experiences, continually updated to provide the latest

information on where/what to climb, local conditions, equipment,

insurance, food, available grants and many other relevent aspects

essential for a successful expedition.

This site depends on AC members contributing their experiences

on a regular basis and will refl ect the Club’s continuing vibrancy and

considerable contribution to British mountaineering.

The

How to contribute: email

newsletter@alpine-club.org.uk

with your experiences, photos

and the site will be regularly

updated.www.alpine-club.org.uk/ac_exped/

www.alpine-club.org.uk/ac_exped/

Your Club needs

yourexperience!

Past President Leslie Stephen has been immortalised in bronze with his guide Melchior Anderegg in Meiringen and the AC sent a strong delegation to join in the celebrations. The statue, which is life size, overshadows the less lifelike statue of Sherlock Holmes, which sits nearby. The pair of climbers are depicted in vision of stoic determination, faces turned against the elements. It is all very impressive and the celebrations were enormous fun. It all kicked off in the town church with some tremendous yodelling by the Swiss and a well sung response from the Chamonix Guides. The AC did not sing, although the author was raring to go. Readings and tributes followed including a speech from Switzerland’s recent ex-President. The tributes were laced with references in English to the Alpine Club and its pioneering spirit which opened the Alps. Outside the church the parade formed up led by the Swiss guides, then the Chamonix guides and then the Alpine Club. The procession led back to the statue, which was unveiled with great humour and aplomb. Then there was the party. The Chamonix and Swiss contin-gents could dance but not like the AC. Simple food and great company is often the secret of a great party and this proved to be the case and the evening ended with promises to meet again at the Chamonix event in May 2015. We would like to extend our gratitude to Patrick Anderegg and his family for their generosity and kindness over the week-

end of celebrations and we look forwards to seeing them again soon.Charlie Burbridge

The unveiling of a statue commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the death of Melchior Anderegg

Alan Lyall and Charlie Burbridge alongside Leslie

Stephen and Melchior Anderegg in Meiringen

Page 19

It seems there is a new generation of young things under 20 who live on grade 7 sports climbs in con-verted church–come climbing walls, who seldom see the light of day, let alone snow or ice. And at the other extreme a cadre of 50+ old-timers who fondly remember the days of bowline harnesses and Dachstein mitts, being laughed at by friends at the local golf club, and somewhat scared of ventur-ing back to the high mountains. With these thoughts and the inspiration of Neil Johnson at the Buxton conference last year, the idea of an ‘As-pirants’ meet was born.

But what sort of meet is this? Surely not the time-honoured tradi-tional climbing meet – rock up at the campsite, consume beer until sense and judgement is totally suppressed, and point yourself at the hardest routes going – then the inevitable epics and near disasters are recounted with licence and at some length liberally oiled by further copious beverage.

And should a climb-ing club be training its members – the dilemma is common to all sports clubs of the modern era. Much discussion ensued regarding the legal ramifi ca-tions - suffi ce to say this issue was never resolved and undoubtedly the discourse will continue in the climbing bars up and down the land for some time. The old timers fondly remember the haphazard meets of yester-year, instruction was unknown, safety never mentioned, we seemed to just make it up as we went along. How we survived is a mystery. But of course we can and should do better – and for this meet a compromise was reached – professional guides would be employed to give initial safety instruc-tion and training, and on hand to give advice throughout the meet.

An email round the Alpinet confi rmed that we indeed have a rich untapped seam of Aspirants, would-be Alpin-ists, in fact an overwhelming number that could have fi lled the meet several times over. Numbers were limited to 18, two guides employed, hotel and

campsite booked – no going back now! The venue was Saas Grund, just down the hill and half the price of Saas Fee – the time early September when the moun-tain huts are emptier, less congestion on the favourite routes, and the weather usually still settled.

The fi rst day saw the party on the Hohsaas glacier, instruction in snow and ice technique, crevasse rescue, and glacier travel – general safety training and use of technical equipment. This proved hard enough on a sunny day, 100m from the lift station and half an hour from breakfast, not to mention the several ice screw belays handily pre-placed – how would we manage at the end of a gruelling day in bad conditions, with a single axe for a makeshift belay if lucky – let’s hope the situation never arises! The second day saw the whole

party on its fi rst 4000m peak, a chance to understand roped walking on steep ground and hopefully to shake everyone out and form partnerships for the following days. The guides then ‘retired’ and we were left to our own devices.

How would people pair up – in the moun-tains, a partnership of shared responsibil-ity and trust is of pre-eminent importance. What routes should they do, how has the weather affected the grades, leave from valley or hut, start times, etc – endless questions – but the organiser must not cross the line into advisor – ‘I suggest you check that with Kevin’, became my stock phrase.

As the days passed the routes fl owed – Weissmiess, Lag-ginhorn, Nadelhorn, Alphubel, Mittag-horn, Jegihorn – the grades didn’t matter, the importance was that everyone pushed themselves within safe limits and achieved a potential very personal to themselves. High value ascents included the South ridge of the Lagginhorn and solo achievements on Al-lalinhorn North ridge and Lagginhorn W ridge. The weather smiled throughout and we suffered only a single minor casualty – bruised face and knee from a trekking slip.

A full routes record was kept, and a few statistics – 57 as-cents on 8 different peaks by 13 separate routes – I like to think the Aspirants be-came Alpinists. And only 85 beers drunk – this must be something of a record in moderation for a climbing meet.

Notes by Barry Speed, Sept 2014

- with thanks to Mira of Shoenblick

Hotel, Kevin and Julie-Ann our mountain

guides, and of course all the Aspirants

who took part.

Alpine Club 2014Aspirants Alpine Meet

Hohlaubgrat, one of the classic ridges on the Allalinhorn

Ewan Paterson on top of the Allalin-horn after soloing the north ridge.

Crevasse rescue practice

Ben, Rob, James, Tamara, Ian, Paul, Rhianwen and Charlie.

Attendees:Ben Simpkins, Rob Baldock,

James Brunning, Andy Clark,

Harriet Clark, Ian Evans, Tamara

Goldin, Paul Maries, Charlie

Pearson, Rhianwen Thomas,

Pamela Holt, Tom Ogg, Ewan

Patterson, Barry Speed, Piotr

Szawarski, Howard Telford

Ian, Paul and Rhian on top of the Nadelhorn

AAAAAAAspAAsp

AC Meet

Report

Page 20PaPaPaPaPagegegegegege 2 2 2 2 2000000

Don’t forget your own ‘Member’s Area’ in the

AC website!If you still have not done so, do register for Alpinet at

www.alpine-club.org.uk/alpinet/index.php you can look up the latest addresses of

members and change your own

details, sign on to circulation lists etc.

ALSO - send in your email address to ensure you

get kept up to date with our regular

AC Email Bulletins.

Send it to admin@alpine-club.org.uk and Iwonna will include you on the list.

AC Services

Second Hand Books Sales: From time to time the Library offers a list of surplus books that are for sale

to members. To save costs and delay, we will now do this by e-mail. If you

cannot receive e-mail, then please give the AC Library a note of your

name and current address and we will post any new lists to you.

AC Climbing Fundsponsored by First Ascent

The AC Climbing Fund supports private expeditions, provided that at least one of the participants is an AC Member.

Your future private expedition could be on this list! Details and an application form - check with the website for

current details - can be found on the AC web site at

www.alpine-club.org.uk.

Don’t forget to visit the AC website: www.alpine-club.org.uk

AC T-Shirt

The latest AC T-shirt, now in a

‘technical’ fabric i.e wicking, fast dry-

ing etc! This is proper modern clothing

that all discerning AC members should

be wearing! Available only in Charcoal.

Sizes S,M,L (unisex) and Ladies S,M.

Availble through the offi ce

admin@alpine-club.org.uk

Price £16

Availability of World Maps

The Alpine Club has access to a variety of detailed world maps that are available to Members to help plan their

expeditions to the wider ranges. Typically we have numerous Russian 1:50,000 to 1:200,000 maps available in

electronic format that can be emailed free to interested parties on request. Please provide either the map reference

number or the specifi c location and possibly name of the mountain(s) of interest. The following regions are available:

Himalaya, Karakorum; Hindu Kush; China - Tibet; China - Central; China - Xinjiang; Pamirs; Fann Mountains; Tien Shan; Altai; Sayan;

Kamchatka; Iran; Caucasus; Turkey; Morocco; Ethiopia and South America.

Available in paper format are a number of 1:50,000 maps of the Indian Himalaya. These are only available for use in the AC

Library but may be copied.

Requests for electronic maps should be made to Derek Buckle (ad-

dress in Handbook) and to our Librarian Tadeusz at

library@alpine-club.org.uk for information concerning the

collection of hard copy maps.

We are also trying to put together a collection of other electronic

maps such as those available for Chile, Alaska and possibly else-

where. If you have such maps it would be great to have them more

generally available for members. If you send them to Derek Buckle, I

will put together a supplementary list of what is available to add to

the Expedition Information Centre on the AC web site.

AC BuffYou too could look as good as

this! Get that cool mountain look with an AC Buff!

Only £13 from the offi ce

£10,000 pa grants for AC members!

New stock now in