The conditions in the Aiguille Rouge have been great with the Berard valley holding quality pow throughout. We've been over the Col des Crochues, the Col du Beaugeant, and the Col de Belvedere. I also had a good day out trainging for ski-alpinism on last Saturday doing the Crochues-Berard traverse from carpark in les Praz to le Buet in 2.15 hours- not bad for a part-timer!

Yesterday Matt and I took a regular clients on a brilliant trip starting from Finhaut just over the boarder in Switzerland. We started by skinning up over the Col de Fenestral and had an amazing ski down to Les Marecottes via Emaney and a completely untracked descent! Amazing considering its not snowed in a week...

Then we went up Les Marecottes lift system and made the short climb up to La Golette. More endless champagne powder all the way down the far side to the lake, before the fun ski down the Vallon de Van back to Les Marecottes. 

Today Matt and I had planned to climb a route on the north face of les Droites but Matt has the manflu! So Jess (the Jack Russel) and I went over to the Col des Forclaz and ski toured up to Pointe Ronde. This is an amazing view point and the descent directly down from the summit via the north face is magic. Jess definately prefers hard pack to powder though!

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=4449

I've been out ice climbing most days this week and with the baltic temperatures we've had over the last three weeks conditions are top-draw. Across from Les Houches I climbed the classic 'Cascade Sainte-Maire' with Adam Parrot and then finished off the day climbing seldom formed 'Cascade de la Faune' at Servoz.

With Tony Lowe we headed over to Montriond (near Morzine/Avoriaz) to climb the Nant du Lapiaz which is located next to 'La Dame Blanche' but with heavy snowfall and rather large spindrift avalanches went for plan B and headed up to Ardent. We climbed a couple of interesting technical lines and hopefully got Tony's confidence going so he can get on the sharp end over the rest of the winter.

And finally today I had a fun trip down the Valle Blanche via the Envers glacier with David Backsby and team. Look forward to skiing with you guys again in the future.

After the race I drove straight to Cogne and had five action packed and fun days ice climbing with Dmitry. We stayed at the beautiful hotel 'La Balme' where we had first class food and hospitality all week as always. Dmitry hadn't done any climbing since he was 17 years old and despite having an office job got stuck in and we got some brilliant climbs done. Over the week we did: Cascade de Lillaz 3, Acheronte 3, E Tutto Relativo 4, Chandelle Levure 4+, and Tuborg 4+/5. Awesome effort Dmitry and hope you can make it back next year!

I could probably have done with a rest day of Thursday, but I went climbing with a regular client, Lawrence. We skied down from the Aiguille du Midi and climbed the classic Albinoni/Gabarrou on the east face of Mont Blanc du Tacul. It was -15 degrees all day and the ice is a bit grey at the moment making for tough conditions. But perfect training for bigger fish we hope to fry later in the season hopefully! Watch out if you head up there-some of the abseil anchors have taken a battering this summer so we drilled abalokov's in the upper goulotte. 

I ended the week off-piste ski guiding over in Villars, Switzerland with the annual Hiscox trip. We had great powder snow and some wicked tree skiing on Saturday.

Next off I was working on part two of a TV advert for 'SportLife' chewing gum with Tim Emmet which was a laugh. We climbed on some large crevasse walls/seracs part way down the Envers du plan glacier. Super photogenic and some cool ice features.

Then last week I was back in Cogne with Ashwin and we stayed at the Hotel Balme which is a top place. Many thanks to Natalie and Alexandro for the hospitality! Ashwin had done a couple fo weeks ice climbing before and was keen to break into the grade 5's. He'd been training hard down the climbing walls in London which helped massively. For a warm up on day 1 we climbed the full 600metres of Cold Couloir which was ace and perfect to get the tools swinging loads after a while away from ice climbing. Next up we chose Erfaulet, a mega grade 5 in the Valnontey valley. The crux pitch had Ashwin's arms pumping hard, but thats what he'd come for! Luckily afternoon pizzas and hot chocolates in Bar Licone in Cogne offer a perfect recovery formula for the next day!

Day 3 and we fancied a shorter walk-in so we opted for Candelabro del Coyote followed by Tuborg, both given grade 4+/5. These are both must do routes for anyone climbing at the grade. With tired arms Chandelle Levure gave us a perfect climb to enjoy on the last day. Thanks for a fun time and have a cool trip to Norway next month Ashwin.

I've been training hard for ski-alpinism racing and thankfully last night finished a really tough 3 week period of complete overload- It's been a hard journey back after missing last season but the body is slowly learning to deal with the pain and suffeirng! Oh interval training is so much fun... It was also the French National Ski Alpinism Championships last weekend in Areches, which I entered and was happy with my 21st place after going down with a gastro bug the night before and spending all night vomitting!!

The skiing conditions have been absolutely amazing with great snow down to valley level. We've had some really memorable days skiing the couloirs up at Brevent, the Pas de Chevre, and runs down the Envers glacier form the Aiguille du Midi.

Despite all the snow its been quite warm in the valleys and so ice climbing conditions have been slow to get going apart from in Cogne where things are pretty good. Up on the rive gauche side of the argentiere glacier I had an exciting day helping to film a chewing gum advert for a Dutch TV production company. I climbed Nuit Blanche with Tim Emmet and then Tim was hoping to BASE jump from the top....complete nutter! Luckily conditions were sub optimal and we went down to Tete Luis Phillipe the next day and filmed Tim Base jumping there, which is exciting enough if you ask me!

Just back tonight from a fun day in Cogne- Matt and I were climbing with John and Stuart and we had a top time climbing E Tutto Relativo, Cascade de Lillaz, and Sentiero del Troll. Rich Cross was also over guiding Olly up the grade 6 classic of Cogne, 'Repentance'. Nice one boys!

Today was my first day off for a while, so myself, Jon and Stu skied off Brevent in the morning where we skied the Allais Couloir and a line to the right off the ENSA Coulior, 40deg off pow in a narrow coulior opening up into trees and yet more steep couliors all the way to the valley floor, Iv never seen this line in condition before, a amazing ski, but get in there early, we where pleased to be out off there by 12.30 as things where warming up!! after a coffee break we switched aspects and skied off the Aig du Midi mid station, down the north facing Pre du Rocher, still in very good condition. Bring it on.

I have spent most of the last two months training hard for ski-alpinism racing with tonnes of running and more recently many 1000's of meters of acent on skis(4000m yesterday alone!!). We also had some old steeple-jack friends out from the UK for a bit of climbing in November. Fuelled by a healthy diet of lager, Guiness, and Marlboro reds we went ice climbing and ascended the Breithorn from Cervinia.

Matt and myslef went back to the UK for the Kendal Mountain Film Festival for the premiere of the 'Moonflower' film which was a blast. Brilliant social and booze fest as expected- not to be missed! If you did'nt make it to Kendal you can buy or rent the 'Moonflower' film from the 'Posing Productions Website'.

Since them Matt has been down in Spain for some sport climbing and I have been starting bits of easy climbing training again after damaging a finger pulley back in August. It's feels so good to be climbing again!!

My old team mate from Ski-Alpinism racing has also managed to twist my arm and persuade me to race the Pierra Menta again. In 2010 we came 25th so the pressure is on to do even better!! After a couple of hours of getting very excited the reality started to sink in as i remembered all the hours of training that are I will need to do over the next four months! So this week it's been a painful return back in the deep-end on the training front!! Several laps from Chamonix up to the Plan d'Aiguille, and a painful interval session at Les Planards with the Chamonix Ski-Alpinisme Club.

Check out this youtube video from the 2009 Pierra Menta: 

With the Montenvers railway shut for annual maintenance we started from the Plan d'Aiguille on Thursday morning. The walk up to the bottom of the face was longer than I remembered and we finally reached the Bergshrund at 4pm. It was Karoline's (my wife) Birthday on Saturday and the deal was I had to be back for Friday night..... Hence we started climbing straight away and we made it to the 2nd icefield by 6.30pm and decided to bivi there. After about 2 hours of exhausting hacking away at the ice we had a kinda acceptable sitting bivi and hunkered down for the night. Somehow we had foolishly sent Matt off to do the food shop for the climb and thus went to bed with rather empty stomachs!!

We got going in the morning by 7.30am and made good progress up the narrows and across the 3rd iceband. With good conditions on the whole we were making good time and I was already starting to image the sunshine on the south side and beautiful Italian capuccinos! After rock climbing up the spur we reached the final tower and followed track out right only to find the right hand exit rather dry. Matt did a great job climbing this delicate and unprotected pitch, and as always it was a great feeling hitting the summit ridge and the sun!!

Six quick abseils later and we hit the glacier. After an exciting jump across the bergshrund it was looking like we should make the valley in ok time. However we suddenly found ourselves in the most horrendous 3 ft deep breakable crusted snow! Oh dear!! The descent took for ever and the Boccalate Hut was going to have to be our home for the night, sans repas!!

Here a quick vid that Johnny Baker has put together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8sRYZ4nuo8&feature=channel_video_title??

The premiere will be at Kendal Mountain Film Festival on Friday 18th November at 7pm, so hopefully see some of you there! Matt and I will also be doing a short lecture about the climb on Saturday too.

Check out this link below with some more info and pics:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=4119??

www.planetfear.com/news/Bracey_and_Helliker__The_Cartwright_Connection_2720.html??

Last Thursday it was raining in Chamonix so we nipped through the Mont Blanc tunnel and headed up Valgrisenche to a crag called Gare Est. A brilliant overhanging wall of good schist with plenty to go at from F5c to F7c. We had a good mileage session with a bunch of F6c's and F7a's.

Next up we went down to the limestone mountains of Les Aravis and to a brilliant overhanging south facing crag called 'Les Rochers de la Forclaz'. There was a bit of seepage after the last two weeks of non-stop rain, but we found plenty of dry stuff to get a workout. After a good few warm ups, Matt and I redpointed an amazing route 'Enleves tes Tongues' which the guidebook describes well: "8 metres en 7c exeptionellement aleatoire, technique, complexe et tout ca en dalle". It well worth the 4 stars it gets!

And to finish us off on Saturday we went to the steep limestone crag 'Foron' over in the Chablais. The top section was wet so no projects got done, but we got a good burn on all the F7a's on the lower section of the cliff, and John was loving the sporting run outs!!!

For any normal folk this would be plenty of exercise, but Matt's been beasting John and me every evening too with massive weights and finger board sessions, plus long runs!!!!!!!

A light finger board session for Matt lasts about 1 hour and typically involves a couple of hundred pull-ups! Enough said.....

Luckily Matt went for work for a few days which gave us a little bit of a rest....Matt in the last few days has been on the Chamonix granite doing routes on the Grand Capucin, Roi du Siam and Pointe Lachenal.

Today we were back on the limestone at Balme in the Arve valley in the full sunshine and we got baked! We climbed the mega classic 'Y'a de l'Urgo dans l'air', 180m, 6c+, 5c, 6b+, 7a+, 6c, 7a+. What a route, totally psyched for more of that!

Jon, Matt, and a very tired John Baker

ps It's alright John, we'll let you go back home soon!

Matt

http://4-seasons.tv/de/film/interview-matt-helliker

Matt and Jon

Matt

With a return to sunshine we then headed across to Zermatt and climbed the Breithorn before wandering down to the Ayas Guides Hut on the Italian side. There is always a warm welcome at this great hut, along with superb food, and even WIFI!!!!! Perfect for me to catch up with the latest from the Tour de France... On our last day we made an early start to beat any crowds and had a fine finale to the week by climbing the short but technical Pollux, a good one for your first AD route. 

After a couple of days off, I had three fun days climbing with Matt's clients Marius and Christina. We dodged the rain in Chamonix with a day hit down to the 9 pitch granite slabs at Machaby and climb 'Diedre Jaccob'. We followed this with a traverse of the Aiguilles Entreves and the Pointes du Lachenal. The week had a very exciting end as Marius proposed to Christina on the Midi-Plan traverse on the last days. Congratulations guys! and lets hope for good weather next year for a pop on the Hornli ridge on the Matterhorn.....

Watch this space.

Matt

Matt

With heavy rain the guys had a well earned rest with a bit of valley cragging on Wednesday. Fine weather returned for the end of the week luckily and after enjoying one of the big multi-pitch routes at Bramois they headed up to the Almagella Hutte. From there they climbed the brilliant traverse of the Dri Horlini on immaculate rock in the sunshine- what a week!!

Meanwhile last week I was running a Mont Blanc course. The first half of the week is all about acclimatization and skills training. After some big boot rock climbing, ecole de glace, and some steep ice climbing around the Cabane d'Orny we made our way to the Trient hut. An early start the next morning ensured we were the first team on the summit of the Aiguille du Tour before walking back to le Tour and enjoying a slap up lunch in Chamonix. 

With high winds and unstable weather half of the team did an amazing job on making the summit of Mt Blanc. The rest of the team enjoyed climbing Pointe Lachenal, the Cosmiques Arete, and some 'via ferrata' at Plateaux d'Assy.

On Wednesday we escaped the worst of the showers down at Macaby in the Aosta valley and enjoyed 8 pitches of perfect granite rock climbing. With more rain on Thursday we went exploring some ice caves. A wild 60 meter free-hanging abseil took us into an amazing cave system which is full of ice year round. In complete darkness the team enjoyed their first experiences of ice climbing- what a crazy adventure!

With a return to full sunshine for the end of the week we completed a traverse of the Aiguille Marbree, and the Tour Ronde. Mark also climbed the Midi-Plan traverse and Aubrey did an amazing job on an ascent of the Rebuffat route on the south face of the Aiguille du Midi! Good effort and we look forward to climbing together next summer!!!

People often stay at the Gramusset Refuge which is meant to be a superb hut with delicious food but we did'nt have that luxury. We left Chamonix shortly after 7am and finally arrived at a very damp car-park at the Col des Annes having been stuck behind lorries, buses, and tractors for much of the drive. The sun broke through the clouds and we were greeted to a glorious day with not a single other person about.

The 12 pitch route up this amazing ridge is mainly grade F4b with a pitch of F5c near the top which meant we were able to move fast with the ever present threat of heavy afternoon thunderstorms! We made the summit by 2pm and scampered down the descent path before the showers started on the walk out. Unfortunately the hut guardian was back in the valley so we missed out on tea and cakes- maybe next time I'll stay at the hut!

Thanks to Lawrence for a brilliant weeks climbing and hoping for perfect weather next trip so we can climb the Greppon Mer de Glace and the traverse of Les Drus!

We had a brilliant time on Mount Hunter and I am immensely happy having realised a long-held dream to complete a new route on this iconic buttress. Alasdair Lee from 'Posing Productions' sent out Dave 'Pap' Reeves with us to Alaska to do some filming and is now working on producing a short film. On this front they have just released a short 'teaser' which you can see here:  http://www.posingproductions.com/video.php?form_action=play&video_id=218

On returning I had a fab ten days hanging out with my wife Karoline and our little boy Joshua before the summer guiding season. Mind you I was so tired I could have done with a rest!!

My first weeks work was for Mont Blanc Guides and we had a really fun team. After acclimatisation over in Italy on a very snowy Gran Paradiso we had a perfect weather window for Mt Blanc. Conditions were very good and seven out of eight people made it to the top- good effort!

This week I've been with a regular client Lawrence and we've had a superb few days up at the Envers des Aiguilles hut. On Tuesday we climbed the 12 pitch 'Bienvenue au George V' on the 1ere Pointe des Nantillons which must be one of the best granite routes in the Mont Blanc massif. With sore toes the following day we headed across to the Tour Rouge and climbed the amazing 'Le Marchand de Sable'. This is another must do route if your ever in the area......

Today was a rest day which meant a short spin on my bike and then playing/looking after Joshua as Karoline went off on a 'hen do'!

 www.moonflower-expedition.blogspot.com

At the start of March I enjoyed a fun three days ice climbing with Ciaran and Myriam up at the Col des Montets, le Reposoir, and rive gauche of the Argentiere glacier. Le Reposoir is such a beautiful spot over in the Aravis and never disappoints. 

Next up a group of Canadians came over to sample the delights of the off-piste action of the Mont Blanc massif....with Canada experiencing a winter of record snowfalls I had my work cut out, but the team went away impressed and keen for more- hopefully with more powder next time!

A regular client, Lawrence Smoker was over for some climbing action in the hills in mid March. After a great day on the brilliant Clare-Chazal, III 4+ and a fun days skiing at the Grands Montets, we went off to try Madness Tres Mince. Unfortunately we were scuppered by the foehn winds blowing a consistent spindrift over from Italy!!

Will Cecil and team were next up , and keen for more ski touring after a fun fews days in the Gran Paradiso region last winter. With 30cm of fresh snow and cat. 3 avalanche conditions we headed over to the Lammeren Hutte in the Western Oberland. On the way to the hut we headed up towards the Daubenhorn to check out the powder on a glorious sunny day. More snow overnight and the next day limited options but got lucky with our timing and had a fun ski from the Rote Totx lucke. The afternoon was spend practicing avalanche transciever searches and building a snow hole in which Will and Andrew enjoyed a chilled pre-dinner beer!!! The following day we had  perfect ski off the Wildstrubel before everyone headed home.

A good friend Ian Parnell was over in Chamonix for a few days on a mini-break last week. We teamed up together with Steve Su from the USA and had a superb day climbing the West Face Direct on the Aiguille du Plan (Gabarrou/Picard-Deyme, V 5, 6a, A1/2).

I wanted an evening with my family the day before the climb so set off from Chamonix at 2.30am and ran up to the Plan d'aiguille to meet the guys at 4am,who had spent the night in the Plan d'aiguille refuge. This proved a good warm up with 1300m of ascent in 1.40 hrs, half of which was in knee deep snow!! arg...all good fitness training I guess! The routes has tonnes of fun and memorable climbing with a couple of spicy pitches on thin ice. The long flog back along the midi-plan traverse was less fun! - probably best to just wander down to the Requin hut instead!!!!!

Then, finally it started snowing for the first time in over a month!!!

Craig and his son Lloyd from South Wales came of for three days ski touring in preparation for the Haute Route this spring. We had superb powder skiing every day plus some classic touring action up to the Col du Tour Noire above the Argentiere glacier, and on the Crochues-Berard traverse to le Buet. Good luck for the Haute Route trip guys!

Day one was spent getting technique sussed out up at Les Chazalets, and then after coffee in the glorious sunshine, an ascent of Le Pylone. Next day we decided to take on the ultra classic 300m long 'La Colere du Ciel' II 3+ which is  a fabulous and varied climb full of character.

On Wednesday we drove East over the Col de Lautaret and went to Ceillac in the pristine mountains of Les Queyras. This is a brilliant little area and often useful when there is high avalanche risk. We climbed the superb Le Y (branche de droite) 250m, 3+ and the first couple of pitches of the Les Formes du Chaos 4, which is amazing and as the guidebook states 'a faire absolument'.

Any ice climbing trip to La Grave wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Vallon du Diable above St Christophe-en-Oisans. So on Thursday we had a early start to make sure to have the pick of the routes. Conditions are still perfect of the north facing side of the valley and we headed for the stunningly beautiful grade 4, 'Les Larmes de Chaos'. 4 pitches of great climbing later we abseiled down, and enjoyed the beauty of the solitude and wilderness of this unspoiled valley as we walked out in the sunshine.

On our final day we stayed local and climbed 'La Nuit sera Fraiche' in the morning before Ester did her first ever leads on ice at a secret little location in the afternoon.

The abseils on the south side are well equipped and after strapping on the snow-shoes they were back in the Couvercle hut shortly after sunset!

Good effort Steve!!

On Monday we were joined by Peter and headed over to La Thuile is the search for some fresh snow. The south easterly winds had deposited about 20cm of light powder and more in sheltered spots. We had to pick our descents carefully to find the best snow and managed to get a few good lines.

Fingers crossed for some more more snow soon for the skiers amongst you! 

This last week we've still been finding great skiing up high from the Aiguille du Midi, particularly on the Petit Envers descent. 

Matt and I have also been enjoying the delights of a bit of winter alpinism with Steve Potter, Lawrence Smoker, and Nick Gee. The Gabarrou/Albinoni and Modica/Nouri on the East face of Mont Blanc du Tacul are in superb condition at present.

Lawrence, Nick and myself also headed over to Cogne last week for a memorable day on the brilliant 'Stella Artice" II 5. Conditions don't get any better than present so get yourselves over there!

Conditions don't get any better for winter alpinism than at present- very stable snow, easy galcier travel, warm temperatures, and some brilliant ice and neve on lots of faces.

The following routes look in great condition:

Ginat (Droites N face), Gabarrou/Albinoni, Modica/Noury, Pinochio, Goulotte Lafaille, Goulotte Valeria, Carrington/Rouse, Frendo/Ravanel, Fil a Plomb, SuperCouloir (direct start very dry),

and the Grand Pilier d'Angle looks amazing too.  

I started last week with a great days ski-touring from the Col du Pillon in Switzerland. We had first tracks from the summits of La Palette and Stuedelistand in 30cm of powder and despite all the warm temperatures were able to ski all the way down to Gsteig. We then had a couple of superb days skiing off the Courmayeur lift system, after the Aosta valley received a good 40cm of fresh. With hardly anyone about we scored fresh lines down the Arp and Youla all day long, plus found great conditions off the Zerrota chairlift all the way down to Val Veny. 

Later in the week I was over at Les Diablerets 3000 on an avalanche awareness training course, while Matt had an adventure dropping into a completely untracked Cosmiques Couloir.

Other info:

Despite the warmer weather the ice climbing in Cogne is still in amazing condition. The Ginat on the north face of Les Droites is in perfect nick. Great snow still on the ski tours opposite La Tuile and other north facing stuff in Aosta valley. Ok conditions on the Vallee Blanche although the 'salle a manger' is still very open and everyone is avoiding it by the exit couloir across from the Requin hut.

Happy climbing and skiing, Jon

I first set up Vertigo Mountain Guides with a very good friend and climbing partner Jules Cartwright back in 2002. Jules was without doubt Britain's most talented and driven alpinists of his generation, but he also had the most fun and certainly knew how to enjoy life. It has given me great pleasure to get Vertigo Guides off the ground again in 2010 along with Matt Helliker. Please take a moment to remember our friends lost but not forgotten. 

We hope you have an excellent 2011 full of rewarding and fun adventures! 

Thanks Jon, Karoline, Joshua, and Jess(the Jack Russell) 

Stories on the grapevine of plenty of early season action happening up in Scotland got me thinking though... I had'nt climbed in Scotland for over 5 years and the last climb I did was a brilliant new route up in Torridon. Having clearly forgotten all the miserable bits about Scottish winter climbing, I managed to negotiate with my wife to escape north of the boarder with an old climbing partner Rich Cross. Despite the wild weather and difficult driving conditions we arrived at the Bridge of Orchy not long after midnight and settled down in the boot of the car- oh the joys of Scotland return! Especially for me with a dog-eared and threadbare sleeping bag that I found in my mothers loft. Saturday gave a fine day and we climbed the southern highlands classic 'Messiah',  VII 7. This was a great warm up and short day enabling us to drive on up to Torridon in the afternoon.

The following day we headed into Bhein Bhan to try the Moran/Tattersall 2002 testpiece 'The Godfather' weighing in at a might grade of VIII 8. We left the car at 4am in arcitc temperatures for the long two and a half hour walk-in. Having finally decided on the line, all was going well until when half way up leading the secong pitch Rich snapped one of his axes. How frustrating having come so far and to have the route in condition along with good weather an able partner!! Initially we thought we would have to abseil off, but then decided to try and carry on with the second making do with one and a half ice axes.... somehow it worked. The climb gives a magnificent journey up one of the biggest and most intimidating cliffs Scotland has to offer.

A little tired we awoke on Monday morning in Glencoe with tired arms but keen to make the most of the continued good weather and fine conditions. We opted for Central Buttress in Stob corrie nan Lochan and thoroughly enjoyed this magnificent route. Probably one of the best grade VII climbs in the UK.... 

Check out there blog at: www.britishannapurnna3expedition.blogspot.com