A hot end to the summer trekking season

Mont Blanc

It's been a hot and sweaty week on the Tour of Mont Blanc trail. The media warned us the "canicule" was coming and we should keep old people and pets hydrated. Last weekend saw the temps soar to well over 35°C in the valleys, obviously considerably less in the mountains, but nevertheless my fellow hikers were seeking out the shade.
But what luck to have such amazing weather! We were never cold and could sit out in the evenings watching then sun go down. Our sacs were light as we had no need to carry lots of extra layers.

Herens cow at the Col des Posettes

Getting close to the Grand Col Ferret and the Swiss Italian frontier

Clearly we had to carry more water but not a ridiculous amount. My group coped really well and were rather spoilt by great views from the start.

Storms were forecast from mid week but somehow we managed to always miss them and only had real rain overnight a couple of times. However we did hurry along a few times when black clouds cloaked and thunder rumbled down the hillsides!

Storms clouds over the Mont Blanc massif

Admiring the view from the Val Veny

Conditions were probably better where we were than in the high mountains. With a freezing level at 4600m the glaciers have become very open and icy, and there have been reports of considerable rockfall on certain slopes and gullies. Also the threat of storms will have stopped play these last few days.
All that is about to change with snow forecast this weekend at 2000m - I had to scrape ice off the car windscreen this morning!

Mont Dolent from the Grand Col Ferret

Monte Bianco

Taking it all in above Refuge Bertone

Onwards and downwards!

This marks the end of my summer trekking season - somewhat earlier than usual but everyone needs a break sometimes. Trekking in the Alps is heading off on holiday for a few weeks - time to hang up the boots and lie on the beach (in my dreams anyway!)
However, don't panic, the winter and spring programme 2013 is already up and bookings are coming in. Go to this link: http://www.trekkinginthealps.com/calendar.htm

2 days of rain then paradise returns

What do you do when you have a fab week revisiting some walks you've not done in a while with a wonderful group of kind, funny and good looking folk? You make a very long blog post with loads of photos!!

This was a Creaky Knees Special based in Chamonix, but none of the members had creaky knees (well not really anyway) so we just made it a week of adventurous hikes around the Mont Blanc region.

Photo Tracy Fantham

Okay so we did have rain for the first two days, but after that the sun came right back out and it was perfect - I mean really perfect.
A hotel based week like this allows me to go wherever I think we'll have good views, the right sort of walking and get away from the crowds (it's high season now so this is important).

3 days in the Chamonix valley area right opposite the Mont Blanc massif gave us great views of all the glaciated peaks. Then we headed over to Vallorcine and did an adventurous trail near to the impressive Emosson lake. The views really were excellent and the flowers too. We also got to see some wildlife - ibex and eagles on these walks, supplemented by more of the same and chamois and a ptarmigan later on.

The Aravis range provides a real contrast in many ways to the walks near to Mont Blanc and we all enjoyed the rocky scenery and totally different views of the Mont Blanc massif seen from here.
All in all a real blast - I hope the group enjoyed it as much as I did!

Sun and storms

This is what we walked around - the mighty Monte Bianco

Really busy time here, barely a minute to write up the blog. Luckily though I have lots of photos as ever. For this post the photos will have to tell the tale of what we've been up to lately: great sunny trekking with the odd storm thrown in for good measure.

Crossing from France into Italy at the Col de la Seigne

Pink T shirts on the trail

On the Mont de la Saxe

Me and Skip, my favourite dog, guardian of the Rifugio Bonatti

Beautiful Queen of the Alps

First day after a storm, beautifully clear

Pending storm

Tours of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn in near perfect conditions

High above Zermatt

July this year is a very busy month for Trekking in the Alps, with more or less non-stop treks. This is a Good Thing but makes posting on the blog a touch difficult as I often have limited phone reception let alone the chance to upload photos and post on here.

Just finished two wonderful treks, a Tour of Mont Blanc followed by the Tour of the Matterhorn, or at least the Italian part of that tour, preceded by a couple of days in Zermatt.

July is prime flower time in the Alps

We were lucky to miss the first very rainy days of July, after which the sun came out and conditions have been excellent ever since. Clearly there has been the odd rain shower but usually at night and day time it's been mainly dry with beautiful clear views. 

The Aiguille Noire de Peuterey en route to the French border

Both tours cross high cols and late lying snow has been a slight problem this summer but for us it just made things more interesting without any real terror. As ever the photos tell the story better than I can so here goes:

Martagon lily at its best

On the Grand Col Ferret, TMB

Nearing the top of the very steep ascent to Mont Fortin TMB variant

First day, getting to know the Matterhorn and each other

Steep equipped section on the TOM

Great ibex viewing on the TOM

Burnet moth

Hugo gave us a fine performance on the TOM

The glacier section on the TOM

Frost one early morning made it feel more like September than July

Marmot enjoying the first rays of sunshine on the TMB

So that's the story right now from Trekking in the Alps. back on the TMB next week, going in the other direction. Watch this space!

Heading up the Breithorn summit on the last day of the TOM

Chamonix Mountain Adventures - the rest of the story

Last post we'd just started a week of hiking and adventures in the Chamonix region, based on my new book Chamonix Mountain Adventures.

The group consisted of some regular Trekking in the Alps devotees, good friends amongst themselves and also with me.

We were lucky to have pretty good weather except Wednesday morning when we got caught out in rather a fierce storm and ended up Very Wet. But true to form with Trekking in the Alps, the sun came out, and by the end of the day all that lashing rain, crashing thunder and very steep hills was just a blurry memory.

After that excitement we headed back into the mountains for a 2 day trip with an overnight in a mountain hut. We did a foray onto the snow from the hut, taking in some local wildlife at the same time.

It's good sometimes to remind yourself how lucky you are to normally sleeep in your own bedroom, alone or with just one other person of choice, rather than 20 unknowns, to have electricity and hot water and showers....and slippers that fit! But we had a great evening as a storm raged outside and awoke next day to clearing weather and some fab views.

We had our last picnic watching then paragliders take off above Chamonix then a trip up the famous Aiguille du Midi cable car gave a spectacular and beautiful finale to a wonderful week of adventures.

Thanks to all for being such good company, such fervent advocates of my new book and for starting my summer season in such fine style.  

This is surely why we do it, isn't it?