Haute Route

In the last week of March i spent a very interesting 5 days shadowing swiss based IFMGA guide Terry Ralphs and 4 clients on the classic Chamonix-Zermatt Haute route. Although i've now finished the initial induction year and am a little further down the long road to becoming a guide, this was the first time in my life i've been with paying clients in the mountains (albeit me observing, and Terry guiding). For me a few myths were dispelled and i got a good glympse in to the world of Ski guiding, which for nearly all IFMGA guides is a bread-winning aspect of the profession, especially in the Spring months.

For most the Haute route needs no introduction,  a 120km long ski, up and down hill from Chamonix in France to Zermatt in Switzerland, covering over 8000 metres of ascent along the way. For many avid ski tourers its the "jewel in the crown" of Alpine tours.

Not a very high quality map i know, but gives some scale.

Despite bad weather on all but one day, and very high avalanche risk on all the days, we made it to Zermatt, and i was mega impressed when Terry made the call to bang out the last - crux - day when nearly everyone else was escaping to Arolla with a nasty forecast, commitment!

Everyone looking fresh at the start line. Simon, Mike, Paul, Camilla, Terry and myself. Photo: Camilla Nilsson.

Reaching a Col on day three at sunrise.

Camilla Paul and myself.

Hut life. Photo: Camilla Nilsson.

So myths dispelled...... Perhaps the part of the week i was most looking forward to was meeting the clients. I really wanted to know what kind of people go on long guided ski tours; what motivates them to go ski touring? what do they want to learn? how good a skiers are they? how fit are they? what do they do for the other 51 weeks of the year? But also i was really looking forward to seeing them out of their comfort zones, a little scared, completely knackered, having to dig deep and question whether they're enjoying it. Basically all the stuff which as commited climbers we accept as being fundamental parts of the "pleasure", but things which relative newcomers to the mountains may find offputting and unexpected.
            I think all my questions had been answered by the time we reached Zermatt after 5 days of poor weather and hard conditions.

Experience? i worked out that all four of them had clipped in to bindings before i was born, but touring and mountain experience was lacking (although i should watch what i say as one of them had been up Everest!).

        How fit? i was very impressed by the fitness of our clients, they were consistently solid at a pace which although slow, was in my opinion impressive when you only do it one week a year. However, any time gained through fitness was rapidly cancelled out by faff, never underestimate the faff factor!

Rope out for a tricky section. Photo: Simon Pickles.

What do they want to learn? This i found fascinating. At one point a client told me that he had got annoyed when a guide in the past had tried to teach him some skills, "Why?" i replied with confused interest, "i don't want to learn how to do it, that's why i pay a guide!" he replied. In the past i always thought that this kind of attitude would annoy me, but i actually think its kinda cool. He doesn't want to give up the time to learn to be self sufficient, nor does he feel the experience would be worth anything more if he was, therefore why bother? simple, and i can respect that.

Camilla de-skinning.

Did they suffer? Yes and no. Not half as much as i thought they may have given the bad weather, but battling a strong head wind in a blizzard on the Glacier du Tour took its toll, and everyone looked very battered by the time we rolled in to the Trient hut.

Nasty weather on all but 1 of the days.

Did they get scared? Interestingly not half as much as i was expecting. I think being completely inexperienced in the mountains means you haven't yet developed your danger sensors. So at times when i would have seriously loud alarm bells ringing in my head, a client could still be plodding away in their bubble of blissful ignorance, a bubble that they have rightfully earned by employing a guide.

Paul, Camilla, Simon, Mike and myself on the summit of the Rosablanche 3336m.

All in all it was a very positive week, which ended with me feeling more psyched than ever for the future. Thanks Terry for having me along and thanks Camilla, Paul, Simon and Mike for being a chilled set of clients who put up with my endless talking about climbing...

Terry relaxing in Zermatt after a hard week.

Its been a weird winter for me, it feels like i haven't really achieved anything in the 8 months since getting back from Pakistan. All i've been doing is jumping through hoops and earning the money to allow me to do so. I just keep telling myself that if this year goes smoothly then that'll be it, i'll be an "aspirant" (meaning i can work in the alps and the end is in sight), and i can be back to being cold, scared and hungry on amazing mountains in crazy places, can't wait!

January

The first 5 weeks of 2013 were for me a good mix of hot and cold, work and play. After arriving in Chamonix in time to spend new year dancing to the early hours in the Roue de Moulin, i started 15 days of back to back guides courses between France and Switzerland. All were well run, and required some concentration of the sort i haven't had to use since.... well i was about to say school, but i don't think i ever did much at school, so maybe EVER.

So after 3 days being beasted on the ski's by Swiss ski-wad Alex Langeutin in Leysin, 5 days digging snow profiles and studying them in the classroom with Per As and Steve Jones in La Grave, and several other days in Chamonix and Arolla covering stuff in-between, it was about time i went climbing rather than talking about how potentially dangerous it is.
     I had some plans in the Mountains, but the weather wasn't playing ball, then i had some plans on the ice with my friend Michi, but the temps weren't playing ball either, so i went for my plan C (which was actually my plan A, i'm just too weak to admit it...) and go hook up with some friends who were being sensible and spending their winter climbing steep limestone in the sport climbing mecca that is Catalunya, in northern Spain.

Here's some pictures

Before the courses started i did manage a route with Dougal and Jon. "Encore une Fois" on the Argentiere Rive Droite, still awaits an entirely free ascent?? Myself on the first pitch.

Swedish guide-trainer Per As takes some measurements.

Snow profile record.

Skiing like a Giraffe with broken legs, through breakable crust on the Grande Envers.

Masriudoms - Amazing crag where we spent nearly 10 days.

Hazel cruising an 8a+.

Pete, Hazel, Howard and my awesome van.

Lamey on an 8a.

Howard crushing.

My plan for Catalunya was to get mileage, then  hopefully come April after more time on the woody i may scrape myself up some harder sport. I didn't really try anything hard, but managed a few 7c's all 2nd go, and onsited 7b, which bodes well considering its January! Psyched for a summer of rock.

After a very long - almost single push - drive back from Spain, i immediately started working again and will do until i next have to be down in the Alps in March. This is what 2013 is going to be like for me, lots of stints of guides scheme work with time inbetween spent here in Cumbria.

Talk in Stirling Next Thursday

Next Thursday (the7th) i'll be talking for the "Ochils Mountaineering Club" in Stirling. If you're nearby get yourself along to hear about big scary experiences on mountains around the world, should be a good night!

 Stirling County Rugby Football Club in Bridgehaugh, Stirling, FK9 5AP, 8p.m. start

Time to head off

Well here i am at the end of a stint of pretty much none-stop work. I guess the most depressing thing about work stints is how you can look back and say you achieved close to nothing in that time. But they have their purposes, and after returning from Pakistan in October with a fair bit of debt hanging round my neck i can leave for Chamonix on Friday debt-free, in my new van, and with a little bit of cash to use before the credit card comes out again!

Early stages of the new woody - a lot of time has been spent hanging off this recently.

For the first 14 or so days of January i have back to back courses for the Guides scheme in France and Switzerland. A mixture of climbing and skiing with a lot of listening and learning will make a good change from milking and feeding cows all day, and i'm really looking forward to it.

Something new and tricky on Scafell, unfinished business.

Retrieving gear after a very near disastrous attempt on the summer E2 "Scansor" on Stob Coire nan Lochain, with Greg Boswell and Adam Russell in early December.

Hopefully from mid January onwards i'll get some climbing done for myself - depending on how cold and snowy this January in the Alps turns out to be - before returning to Cumbria for some more work  before February.

Talks

Here are the details of some talks I'll be doing in the next few months. If you're anywhere near at the time make sure you come along!
20th November

This talk, "The Alps and Beyond" for the Lancashire Caving and Climbing Club will be roughly an hour and a half long, probably with a small break. Famous and not-so-famous routes on the N faces of the Alps, from classics like the Eiger North face to obscure testpieces on the North face of the Grandes Jorasses will be covered. This will lead in to accounts of scary times on big mountains in places such as Alaska, Patagonia and the Karakorum.

Location- Bradshaw Conservative Club. 77 Lea Gate  Bolton BL2 3ET

1st December

As the evening entertainment on the night of the STS drytooling final at Glenmore Lodge, I'll be doing a talk entitled "High and Dry". The talk will be about mixed climbing on big cold faces of mountains all over the world, and how skills learnt in drytooling can be transferable to pitches on long hard alpine routes. Really its an excuse to show loads of gobsmacking photos of incredible routes and get everyone psyched for the large and the cold!

8 o clock start (ish)

7th February

For the Ochils Mountaineering Club in Stirling, this will be along the same lines as the talk in Bolton in November. "The Alps and Beyond" will hopefully inspire, or make you appreciate your warm bed at home in equal measure!

Location - Stirling County Rugby Football Club in Bridgehaugh, Stirling, FK9 5AP, 8p.m. start.

Please email me if you have a question.

Pakistan

Although i landed in London on the 23rd September, it seems like i'm only just getting myself sorted after what seemed like a mammoth trip to Pakistan. After a long trip i usually find i can unpack my bags in about three days if i'm motivated (really lazy i know), but i'm now on day 17 back in the country, and there's still some unpacked hold-alls on my bedroom floor.  Almost straight off the plane from Islamabad, i spent 5 days in N Wales on a BMG induction course, which although interesting and a good few days, has prolonged my resettlement time...
The expedition was a mixture of frustration and satisfaction, as they always are. A trip of two halfs would be an accurate summary; the first half full of good weather and climbing, the second half being full of bad weather, tension and frustration. However, as this report will illustrate, a lot of climbing was done, perhaps even more than we had expected.

It was on the 3rd August that i got on the train to head down to London. Its funny, but sometimes i think that the transition from West Cumbria to the leafy, red bricked terraces of south west London is a bigger shock to the system than that of Heathrow to Islamabad. Sitting in a pub that night,  Jon  and I talked about the last couple of months: I had been at my parent's home in St.Bees, working a lot and training and climbing when i could. Jon had had an extremely active and productive summer for both work and play, and as he told me stories of racing up Europe's largest alpine route in a single-push, and hanging out of helicopters filming base jumpers rocket past the Eiger, i was feeling a little hungry for adventure. Not for the first time sat in that pub in Fulham, i started to wonder what the next 7 weeks would bring.



A massive Mosque in Islamabad.

Our journey to base camp went more smoothly than either of us could ever have imagined. Flights took off when they were meant to, the jeeps didn't break down, the weather was kind, and our porters worked hard and without fuss.
      After a day in Islamabad - the highlight being our air conditioned hotel - we flew to Skardu and got our first sight of Baltistan. Unlike further East in the Himalaya, the Karakorum is very dry and not "jungly" like you imagine the lower valleys in India and Nepal. All settlements are perched on fertile, green, irrigated plateaus on the banks of rivers. Some of these are pretty spectacular and look Tolkienesque. Skardu, where we spent a day before travelling further in to the mountains, is a dusty small town, where the smell of two-stroke oil and soundtrack of beeping horns create an atmosphere of excitement as you try and work out what is for sale and what is just junk lying around.
    The 6 hour jeep ride to Hushe was one of those journeys that you don't want to blink on. Here's some photos-

After a hot and tiring day in Islamabad, we were excited to see Nanga Parbat from the flight to Skardu. The Mazeno ridge is on the right.



The Indus River.

Loading the jeeps with kit for the journey to Hushe.

On the banks of a tributary to the Indus.

The reason the journey went so smoothly - Haji Ghulamm Muhammad - the man to know in Skardu.



Me and our Liason Officer, Major Akhtar Hussein of the Pakistani army. Akhtar took time off from fighting the Indians in Kashmir to come and make sure we weren't there under false pretences....

A typical Balti village.



The Hushe valley.

On the first day of the walk in.

At basecamp.

At basecamp, we were pleased to meet up with Jesse, Shingo and Aaron, three Americans we'd be sharing a basecamp with for the next month. Like most Americans, they were good fun, and didn't mind having the piss taken out of them, even if they didn't understand our sense of humour.

Also at basecamp were Ali and Ali, who were mine and Jon's cooks, and Fida and Abas, who cooked for the Americans. These four were great company, and over the weeks i learnt a lot about Islamic culture, which coming from a place in the UK where there are no Muslims was all new to me.
       In many ways the Ali's made the trip, and in more ways than making us nice food.

Nayser Brakk

The immense Nayser Brakk, 5200m - an Egyptian couldn't have done better. We climbed the right hand skyline arete.

Nayser Brakk is a gem among mountains, and the right skyline in the above photo has become the "classic" of the valley, with a number of ascents. Ours went well, with the odd routefinding error, more due to stupidity than there being tricky route-finding!

900m of loose scree to start.

The first of about 6 pitches to the summit ridge.

A cool crack at about 5000m. The last pitch to the arete was a great spicy hanging slab at about E3 5b, in spitting rain, baggy shoes and with a thumping altitude headache!

  

We climbed the route up and down in a longish day. It was only our second day in basecamp, so needless to say i was suffering with a migraine on the 5200m summit. But it was great to have done such a line on day 2.

Jesse and me bouldering. With such good bouldering a minutes walk from BC, i was determined to stay strong on this trip, but my current strength is proof that it's impossible!

FA on Sulu Peak

A couple of days after we climbed Nayser Brakk we decided to climb the circa 6000m (height depends on who you ask and what map you look at) Sulu Peak, which is a very proud looking mountain half a days walk from BC. Initially we were just going to climb the central couloir, which is a C1200 metre couloir similar in steepness to the Couturier on the Aguille Verte. But after thinking about it, we decided to make use of the good weather and try to climb the long spectacular arete which runs NW from the summit of the mountain, which to our knowledge would be its first ascent.

        On the first day we climbed around 500 meters of loose buttress to reach a large snow shoulder before the meat of the arete. We pitched our first-light here, and did our best to sleep, but being early in the trip, we'd still not quite mastered breathing!

The first bivi, on a snowy shoulder on the ridge.

Jon looking up at where we'd be going in the morning.

In the morning we set off simul soloing (which is how we climbed a lot of the route) up and round a very loose rock wall, to get in to a linking couloir, which we hoped would take us to the arete.

Just after first light.



After about 2-300 metres, the couloir narrowed and we climbed some steps and steepenings to the ridge.

Kapura and Drifika in the background.

Breaking trail, with a long way to go.

Looking back from half way-ish.

A mixed step not far from the top plateau.

Steep snow in the sun - a nasty combination. Chogolisa behind.

Our bivi on top of Sulu on a convenient plateau.

After taking many aspirin and trying very hard not to be sick i managed a bit of sleep, but it wasn't a good night. In the morning, feeling sleepy and very rough, we downclimbed the huge couloir on the east face of the mountain, and reached basecamp late in the morning.

Descending a laborious 1100 metre couloir early the next morning.

Our return to basecamp coincided with "Eid", which is the end of Ramadan, so we all had a big feast. Here Ali 1 and Ali 2 present a cake and some fried chicken - the Ali's could work miracles with their single kerosene stove!

The "swimming pool", about 2 minutes walk from basecamp, where we washed and swam when it was hot enough.

Sorting supplies at BC

Beatrice

With the weather still seeming ok, we wanted to squeeze in another route before we committed to our big objective up the valley. Beatrice is an attractive mountain just under 6000 metres and not too far from BC.

      With an early start we made the schrund after 3 or so hours walk. We needed to climb really fast, as the broad lower couloir looked like it would slough badly when the sun came round on to it. With this in mind, we left our ropes, rack and harnesses at the bottom and got on with it. 

Part way up the huge initial couloir.

Nearing the top of the initial couloir.

We ended up climbing the chossy cracks on the right, then rejoining the couloir higher up. Starting to really regret leaving our rope and harnesses behind now!

Jon hacking through the summit cornice.

Summit.



We climbed mostly snow and ice couloirs and chossy rock to within 20 metres of the summit, when all was replaced by bottomless snow. Knowing we had to down climb every meter of the mountain, it was with a little apprehension that we left the summit, but all went well and we made a quick descent.

Link Sar Attempt

Link Sar was one of the really big plans we had for the trip. At 7041 meters Link Sar is one of the bigger unclimbed mountains left in Pakistan and stands opposite the grand east face of K7 (6934m). Link Sar's faces are broad and complex, and not without serac dangers. However, after some scouring with binoculars and checking out other possibilities, we settled on what we believed to be a very attractive line on the face almost exactly opposite Urban, Kyle and Haydens cool new line on K7.

        

Me and Jon checking out the face a few days prior to going for it.

Jon getting a forecast via email. Much thanks to our Goal Zero solar set up.

The face is hugely forshortened and distorted in this photo, but our line went through the initial rock on a diagonal ramp to reach the snowfield at half height.

We bivvied a fair way from the schrund in distance and height, and were shocked the next day when it took many hours to reach the schrund through the dangerous valley above, this took a lot of time and energy that we, perhaps naively, hadn't anticipated correctly after our recce. 

A mouse had eaten parts of our rope, resulting in three nasty core shots which we only noticed at the bivi. This was a bit off putting as we had decided to rap the whole face after climbing it!

 

Jon's hydraulic legs punch a deep track up the lower gully.

Almost half height on the face, in nasty warm snow, which we were scared would slough in the sun.

Threatening weather above, as we work through a steepening.

A bottomless traverse, which took us almost 2 hours to gain less than 100 metres. 

What felt like a long way up the face, our pace slowed to a slow crawl as we hit bottomless snow. The weather had been threatening all day, and it was finally starting to snow. We made an effort to find somewhere safe to bivi, as we were currently sat in a network of flutings which would become deathtraps if the snow continued. Jon went for a look above, but to no avail, and i abseiled down on to a small snow fin which looked from above like it could be chopped at for a platform. When i got down there it wasn't the case. After a small discussion and assessment of our situation, we started to rap the face on the first of many, many v-threads. The weather forecast had predicted snow to turn in to a bad weather system, but not so early as this, but that was just one of many things not going right that forced us to bail. On the descent i started to feel very ill, i'm still not sure whether it was altitude or not, but i don't think i've ever felt as ill in the mountains as i did when we crossed the schrund later that night.

     We bivvied not far from the schrund, in the dumping snow, and returned to BC the next day. Although it hadn't gone to plan, we were only half way through our trip, and were confident that we'd be back up there soon to finish it off, with far better tactics and knowledge of the snowy hell that was the top half of the face. We weren't to know what the weather had in store for us.



Bad weather and Haithi Brak

As i've already mentioned the trip was one of two halves, and on the 2nd or 3rd September winter arrived. We'd talked to several friends about weather in this part of the Karakorum, and we'd decided that September seemed like a reliably stable time. However, we'd also heard from some people that there's the risk of it being bad due to wintery weather systems starting to arrive.

      After two days of this colder nasty weather, Ali and Fida were both repeating "weather very bad this month sir, not good September sir" and as much as we appreciated their worry we did our best to ignore them, until it became obvious they knew what they were talking about.

Movie night.

After many many days of consecutive rain and snow, we did manage to salvage the last part of the trip somewhat, by climbing a beautiful rock peak of about 5400m called Haithi Brakk, even if it was in a white-out.

The summit is the largest rock spire left of the snowy central peak.

The weather cleared briefly near the top. This gendarme is the summit just to the left of ours on the previous photo.

We climbed around 1000 metres of easy couloirs and gullies, until a shoulder between a large gendarme and the summit tower. The summit tower had some decent, if a little loose rock climbing, and a mixed pitch to a summit the size of a small coffee table with 1000 metres of air on either side. We had been told that this summit was unclimbed, but after finding some tat, we thought it very doubtful!



Chossy rock.



The final exposed mixed pitch to the summit.

Last climb of the trip.

Return Journey

Ali 1, Fida, Ali 2, and Abas. Some of my fondest memories of the trip are of conversations with these guys at basecamp.

We walked out from BC on the 17th  September and once back in Skardu started the torturous journey down the Karakorum Highway to Islamabad. Other than clearing part of the road in the middle of the night that had collapsed in front of us, and a slight delay due to riots on the road against the "anti Islamic film" made in America, the journey went well, and about 30 hours after starting we arrived in Islamabad. In Islamabad we dodged more riots, (on one day we weren't even allowed out of our hotel due to riots going on outside), moved our flights forward by two days, and located the secret bar (yes it does exist!).

Porters walking out.

Akhtar and the van on the Karakorum highway.

So, what next? Paying off my credit card bill with lots of work on the farm, building a woody in a barn at work, preparing for the next BMG course and finding a way to buy a van with no money. Possibly some cold stuff in the Alps and Norway in a few months time also, but lets wait and see.



There is no way i could undergo trips of this size if it wasn't for the invaluable support of my sponsors, for which i am very grateful - buy their kit, it works!