CH for July

On August 21, 2015 by Tim Neill

Salbit….Granite paradise

Early July I headed over to Andermatt to work on this years Joint Services Alpine Meet…an

Adventurous Training exercise that I’ve been involved with for 6 or so years now.

Mocha…a contender for the best 6a on Granite?

It’s a busy 2 weeks….and involves everything from introducing alpinism to beginners as well as training and examine potential leaders within the JSAT scheme.

Allalinhorn summit vista…..

In 2 weeks I found my way up all sorts of great granite ridges and spurs mostly around Andermatt from the classic Salbit to all sorts of other unpronounceable places…as the weather was superb there was no need to travel too far.

Somewhere above Grimsel pass….

As well as that we climbed some great mountains like the Monch via the Nollen Spur, traversing the Trugberg, Nadelhorn (blizzard….the only one this summer so far), the Allalinhorn via the short NE ridge and some lovely peaks in and around the Uri Alps too.

Nollen Spur, Monch

A Scottish Nadelhorn….

NE Ridge, Allalinhorn….

As ever all the staff and students I got to climb with were great company….thanks all for a great time and look forward to next year already.

The second half of July, I headed over to Evolene in the Swiss Valais to work for an old friend Graham Frost and his wife Janine. They’ve recently taken over a guiding business from the famous Martin Moran and kindly offered a great sounding couple of weeks guiding.

http://www.frostguiding.co.uk

Michabel chain…

With Sam and David who’d been well apprenticed over many seasons by Martin, we set about climbing as many good objectives as our legs and 12 days would allow….

A short AD ridge on the Jegihorn, the S Ridge of the Lagginhorn, a traverse of the Obergabelhorn via the Arbengrat and descending via the Wellenkuppe and finishing with the W ridge of the Dent de Tsalion, the normal route on the Aig de la Tsa and the Pte de Tsalion concluded the first 6 days….

West ridge of the Tsalion….the best AD rock ridge I’ve done in the Alps….

Pointe de Tsalion and the mornings summits to the right….

Currently aspirant guide Mark Chadwick joined us for the next 6…. We traversed the Dents du Perrons above Emosson, scaled the mighty E Ridge of the Weisshorn, the Rotgrat of the Alphubel and after a night in the Michabeljoch bivi hut finished our trip with the les travelled Taschorn….an iconic Swis peak that defies structural integrity…..