Ice climbing 'Festival' week

Our first Ice climbing 'fest' was a great week, with 6 climbers (Dave Andrew, Pete Holden, Dave Richards, Richard Hopkinson, Dave McKinney, Chris Woodall) staying with us for 8 nights. A big thanks to them for coming!

The build up to the week had been perfect - loads of ice at all levels, low temperatures for a month and half, stable snowpack.....so of course the weather turned on the day of arrival and we had to contend with a series of westerly fronts bringing milder temperatures and some rain / snow! This made route selection more tricky, as on a couple of days the milder temperatures meant doing lower routes wasn't a sensible option and then after the dump of snow on the monday / tuesday the higher routes were fairly plastered and we had to be wary of avalanche etc. However, because of the excellent build up there was always something to go for and people went climbing on 6 days out of 8 (with some skiing and walking on off days). Some great routes were done as the photos show (click on the title above or go to our flickr album / slideshow for more photos from the week: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alpineelephant/sets/72157613043434470/)

Routes done included:

'Torrent du Vivier' I, 3+ (several ascents)

'Cascade du Rouget' II, 4 (several ascents)

'Douche Ecossaise' II, 2

'Bain Moussant' II, 5

'Cascade du Deschargeux' II, 3

'Double Cigare' III, 5+

'Cascade du Nant d'Ant' II, 5 (several ascents)

'Le Sortilege du Bois des Brumes II, 5

Plus 2 unnamed routes:

One in the Cascade de Rouget area: I, 4 (several ascents)

One in the Le Perret 'Coin de Rue' area: I, 4 (several ascents)

On the last night we enjoyed a slideshow courtesy of Pete Holden about a recent trip he made to Mexico, and we were also able to look at a slideshow of all the photos taken that week. Again, thanks to all who came and a big thanks to Kath for the 'behind the scenes' stuff, the excellent cooking and for letting me go out and climb with our guests on 4 days! Regards Nick