Loads of snow and clean air to go with it!

Great news!! There is loads of snow in the Alps, the conditions are as good as they get - and much better than usual at this time of year. Think cold light powder, natural Christmas trees decorated with snow and icicles, really cold frosty temperatures and snow crystals covering the valley slopes and growing bigger every night.

The skiing and snowshoeing have already been superb and hopefully this is just the start of an exceptional winter season.

The other really good news is that from 2008 France joins many other European countries in making all public places no-smoking zones. So our local hotel in Vallorcine has already taken this on board and smoking is only allowed outside. This is great news for those lunchtime visits for an expresso or the après snowshoeing beer or vin chaud.

See you in 2008 to make some tracks!!

More snowfall in the Alps

After a couple of weeks of calm and sunny weather the snow has returned again with a vengeance today. The snowfall we had two weeks ago had melted at lower altitudes but above 1500m there was already a reasonable base. Snowshoeing has been good, even if skiing was a bit dodgy due to the rocks lurking just below the surface of the snow.

But now it looks like we're in for 30 - 50 cms of fresh snow at 1500m altitude. Right now it is full-on winter conditions.

All this bodes well for the coming season. Snowshoeing should be excellent. Places remain available for many Trekking in the Alps holidays this winter. I also have some free days to guide privately.

Heli-skiing also promises to be spectacular from January until May.

To find out more about what's available this winter give us a call or send a mail to info@trekkinginthealps.com

Winter has arrived in the Alps!

It has been a superb autumn in the Alps with many days of sunshine, interspersed with the odd cold spell. The high glaciated mountains are in good shape after all the summer snow, but it barely precipitated during October. We were lucky to have fantastic sunny days with crisp mornings giving way to balmy afternoons. The alpine valleys were not always so fortunate - as often happens during high pressure weather here the cold air sinks down into the valleys and stays there, often for much of the day. This gives a sea of cloud that is really attractive when viewed from above.... not so great when you're in it.
Now everything has changed and it has been snowing lightly for two days, with more forecast. Temperatures are really low and there are strong winds - winter has arrived!
Time to think about those holidays in the snow.
There are still places available on many of my snowshoeing holidays and at the moment you can still get cheap flights for many dates. An alternative would be to take the train, and it seems there are some really good deals to be had from Britain to the Alps - Geneva, Turin, Chamonix. With the base it's putting down now we could well have good snowshoeing and skiing conditions before Christmas!

Latest availability for Snowshoeing plus summer programme

The winter is already starting to book and a couple of weeks are full. Here is the full list of availabilty for snowshoeing right now. Cheap flights to the Alps are now available so book early to get the best deals.Next winter I'll be doing the usual 6 and 4 day trips. 6 days is a week, whilst the 4 days trips go over a weekend so you can get a trip over here but only have to take two days off work. New this winter are the different bases for holidays: ranging from Vallorcine near Chamonix, to Aosta in Italy, Martigny in Switzerland to St Gervais in the Aravis range and finally a week in Briançon, down in the French Dauphiné Alps.The basic calendar with prices is shown below. For more info on these trips visit http://www.trekkinginthealps.com/ where PDF downloads are available along with gradings for trips.Prices include all guiding, accommodation, travel once here and rental of all gear - snowshoes, poles, and avalanche gear - transceivers, shovels and probes. If you want to know more just email me on info@trekkinginthealps.com .
Below is also my Summer Programme 2008
Mont Blanc Region France - meet in Vallorcine near Chamonix. 6 day holidays, price: £675 995€.
Meet 5 January, 8 March.


Mont Blanc Region Half Term Week based in Finhaut Switzerland. 6 day holiday, price £675 995€.
Meet 10 February.


Aosta Valley Italy - meet in Aosta. 6 day holidays, price: £705 1050€
Meet 16 February


Valais Switzerland - meet Martigny. 6 day holidays, price £705 1050€
Easter Week 22 March.


Aravis massif France - meet St Gervais. 6 day holiday, price £705 1050€
Meet 8 March.


Dauphiné Alps France - meet Briançon. 6 day holiday, price £705 1050€
Meet 1 March.


4 day long weekends in the Mont Blanc Region France
Meet Vallorcine near Chamonix. Price: £525 780€
Meet 23 January, 6 February and 12 April




Summer programme

Tour of Mont Blanc

meet 14/06/08 7 days €985 £660


Aosta Italian Summits

meet 14/06/08, & 9/08/08 6 days €1010 £685


Corsica Northern Summits

meet 22/06/08 6 days €1050 £705


Chamonix Summits

meet 29/06/08 6 days €1010 £685


Tour of Mont Ruan

meet 12/07/08 6 days €995 £670


Tour of the Jungfrau Region

meet 19/07/08 6 days €995 £670


Gran Paradiso Alta Via plus summit

meet 26/07/08 €1100 £735


Tour of the Matterhorn

6 days meet 9/08/08 €1100 £735


Glacier trekking week

(itinerary to be decided): meet 12/07/07 €1250 £905

NB: the Summits trips are non-glaciated trekking summits accessible to all hill-walkers with no technical expertise, and do not involve ropes, crampons or ice-axe.

Summer trekking

It's been a great summer for Trekking in the Alps even if the sun has not been shining every day. Although hiking in the rain and snow is not quite what we have planned, it can be quite an adventure, notably on the Tour of Mont Blanc when we had two days of snow. A big plus about bad weather is that when the sun returns the views are generally quite stunning: fresh snow coats the mountains and everything is very clear and glistening. This was certainly the case in the latter part of the TMB when we had unbeatable scenery.

The Austrian Otztal week was as much a quest for fine wine as a trekking holiday. And we certainly had fun doing both. The hiking was good, although again the sun was a little shy. A highlight of the trip was managing to make our way up to the Austro-Italian border to the exact spot where the 5000 year old ice-man "Otzi" was found some years ago. As for the wine, I can now vouch for the fact that Austrian does have some great wines. There are also lots of lederhosen around and dancing and yodelling.

The autumn has begun here with morning frosts and beautiful clear days. The trees are already beginning to turn orange and days are that little bit shorter. This is a great time for trekking and my Highlights of the Tour of Mont Blanc starts tomorrow. Perhaps we are due for an Indian Summer - certainly we must make the most of these mellow days before the winter arrives as it surely will. Bookings for the snowshoeing season are coming in and some weeks are already full. Check www.trekkinginthealps.com for availabilty and be sure to keep an eye on the latest blog postings.

Davos 78.5kms Swiss Alpine Marathon

The 28 July I took part in the Davos Swiss Alpine Marathon. This is 78.5kms but there are also several other races including two marathons and a half marathon.
The race was extremely well organised from start to finish, with spectators and volunteers doing a great job. We were lucky to have sunny weather, at least for the main part of our race. A storm came in during the early afternoon and got me at the high point of the race, but the organisers were out in force with dustbin bags for those who had no rain gear.
This is one of the best races I have done because the terrain is rolling for much of the way so you can expect to run a large part of the race, and also because the trails are wide and so there are very few traffic jams. When you finally hit single track on the steep climb to the Kesch Hut you are 50kms into the race so the crowds have spread out.
Definitely a highlight of my summer and a welcome treat even though it had to be slotted in between treks - this is after all high season. Highly recommended to those of you looking for a good long run in the mountains.

Successful new treks and plans for 2008!

Trekking in the Alps has organised several new treks these last weeks which have been a great success. The Tour of the Jungfrau Region was a 6 day trek which enjoyed superb hot and sunny weather mid July. This trek takes an intriguing route around the Oberland region, with superb views of the Giants of this massif - the Eiger, Mönsch and Jungfrau among others. The trek is not easy - lots of steep ascents and descents - but the scenery is more than rewarding. After a couple of days in the well-known Kleine Scheidegg area the route heads off to the wider Lauterbrunnen valley and explores the far side of this, including a fine day traversing the Schilthorn summit and also taking us into some fabulous remote and unspoilt valleys. A real classic that we will be repeating next year.

Another big success was the Gran Paradiso Alta Via plus summit week. The Gran Paradiso 4061m is Italy's highest summit and we managed to climb this (just) as a storm enveloped us last week. The rest of the week was fine and sunny and so we were able to do the whole trek as planned including 5 passes of 3000+m. An international group proved to be great fun socially and this was definitely a highlight of the summer for us. Again this will feature on the 2008 calendar.

Finally due to popular demand the Tour of Mont Ruan is already confirmed for 2008. This is a little-known trek in the remote limestone massif on the edge of Mont Blanc. We did this trek in 2003 and the group are still talking about it. I have just had an article published about it in the August issue of TGO magazine. If you're interested in hiking away from the crowds on a demanding trek including several trekking summits - this one is for you.

We are in the midst of several wet and cold days - hopefully the sun will soon be back for the final treks of this season.