A long time ago in a Peak District far far away............

Long time friend James & I have manged to arrange a weeks climbing around my new home in Vaud in Switzerland, I think we did our first route together over fifteen years ago when we were both in Derby Mountain Rescue Team, Wow how times have changed.


To day we opted to go up to Pierre du Moelle area specficically the Rochers de la latte, we climbed some great multi pitch routes which require some delicate balance on some of the more tricky sections.

 James on one of the fluted routes at Roches de La latte

Yesterday we opted to climb at Pierre Avoi above the ski resort of Vebier, we chose L'arete the classic of the crag, six ptches of F5c+  the exposure is something else, sorry only pictures of me as I forgot my camera.

Friday nights........ & there were two

Sarah & I headed to Verchez last night for a quick hit as we only had a couple of hours spare, this is a slabby area of three crags Dalle a Monnet is one of the sectors I've had my eye on since coming to Switzerland last August, we did two routes You are the one 6b+ & La ziza 6a* both were brilliant. The views down the Rhone valley from the top of the routes is awesome.

A great few hours, Thanks Sarah, you can be my wing man anytime................. she held a whipper...........

Click Click Click

Well my old camera finally said good bye after many years of good service in Russia, Scotland summer & winter (same thing isn't it), it being dropped in the North sea, the arctic, Hong Kong plus many other locations.

After a great deal of research I have opted for a Lumix TZ20 I have found it very intuitive, easy to use and great results. I'm over the moon with the pictures.

The Dru

 The Dru wider angle

Les Grand Charmoz

Have a look at my first attempts................ any comments welcome. Here's to a great summer and loads of pictures

Friday Nighters

If you've been keep up with the blog you will have seen that I have been out and about. Sarah Julia & I climb on local crags sand further afield, but 'Frday nighters' is something that I used to do in The Peak district with friends from Derby Mountain Rescue team.

below are a couple of pictures from a friday night session at Solalex (1462m)

Above it's not Yoga but if you reach right there is a hold...............

Going for it

Climbing, pizza & ice cream

It's been a busy few weeks and I'm very nearly at the end of my first year at Aiglon College in Switzerland, it's been great.

We had a long weekend a few weeks a go so Sarah, Lucy, Frances, Ed, Julia, Mark and headed down to Finale on the Italian Mediterranean for some R & R. I decided to just climb, others ran, biked, walked and took pictures.

The climbing in this area is out for this world, it has a reputation, for being difficult to find, and hard. We were lucky we found at the first time of asking some great cliffs around Monti Coco (sorry about the spelling) yes the grades were tough but it was about having a great time with friends and getting some mileage in. Thanks to Sarah for being a great climbing partner for the three days and poking me up a 7a+ as the last route, I didn't make it but I could see the moves................... but I always say that. The plan for the summer of climbing 7a is a little closer.

Thanks to Frances for taking the pictures

Climb, Bike, Ski

Well it's been a while since the last post, where does the time go...........................

It's spring here in the Alps.............. well it should be 3cm of snow in Villars this morning !!!!

I've set myself a few targets for the summer one is to climb F7a a few of us have out together a Friday night climbing program (some folk may remember that from the Peak District days) with as much climbing crammed in between.

I've also entered a local series of mountain bike races. The first one is on Saturday 40km so some first and last minute training has been going on, good job I live on a hill the only way is up. We'll see how it goes on Saturday.

Just as I might stop thinking about skiing for this year it snowed......... BIG UP and thanks to everyone who I've skied with this season, AWESOME same time same places (and some different ones next season) A few pics below.

The VB..............

I joined good friend James for a quick nip down the Valle Blanche earlier in the week we were one of the first teams down, having got an early 'bin' up the snow soften during the decent a great trip as always in stunning surroundings

 Working hard on the bumps