Monday 23 September 2013

The Road Goes On

The 10 days in Ponte Brolla were great, good weather (apart from one wet day), superb climbing and a really lovely part of the world. It amazes me that the area isn't better known to a UK audience, it has that great blend of easy accessibility, loads of routes across the grades, good weather and a fantastic ambiance.
Camping again after several years of the Good Life proved 'interesting' - or should that read 'hard-work' - especially the time between sundown and bed, a few hours to kill in the dark and the cold, though we managed well enough!  Eventually though we gave in and made the five hour drive back to Thorbjørn's superb pad in Chamonix. So far the weather has been fantastic and the climbing excellent. The season has already ended (when we were here in June it hadn't started) so everywhere is quiet though on the downside, most of the cable cars are shut.
Already we are already thinking about heading back to the UK so we can initiate the Autumn Regime - that will be Ariège and Kalymnos for starters then!

Tuesday 10 September 2013

Mountain Weather

Swiss September


On the plus side - there are no crowds, it isn't too hot, the campsite and the towns are almost deserted.

On the minus side, and unlike other years when we have been here in the autumn - the weather is best described a bit mixed.

It has been one day on and one day off at the moment and the forecast doesn't look too sparking - come on or we will have to run away to the seaside!

Left: Sherri belayed halfway up Azalee Beach - on the only dry route on the crag

Update: An afternoon and evening of rain (just after we put the tent up) decided it for us, upsticks, over the Susten Pass, through the Gothard Tunnel and into sunny Ponte Brolla - brill!

Around the Loop

Snowshoeing at Beille We left the Costa Blanca with some misgivings, we had been there quite a while and were well settled, plus I wasn'...