Sun, Snow and Saucisson

‘Weekend Warrior’ (Noun) ‘A person/persons who has a boring rat race job, and compensates by being irresponsible during the weekend’ Urban Dictionary.

I can definitely  be accused of having one of the traits mentioned in the above quote, all I’ll say is I enjoy my job!

Four days probably isn’t enough time for a holiday in the Alps, the highest and most demanding playpark in western Europe. Decades of ill prepared but ambitious folk have embarked upon adventures there with such vigour and determination, only to be thwarted by weather, loose rock or an inebriating hangover from an overzealous night slamming shots of genepi. Equally, many of these people are struck by a combination of luck and more luck, and pull of amazing feats of mountaineering skill and persistence. Circumstantially, our trip to the Alps this year was neither of these; it was a lot of hard work, we didn’t get to the top of everything we set out to do but we did eat our own body weight in delicious saucisson and learned how to open a bottle of wine with a tent peg and rock. Every cloud has a silver lining then clearly! 

Some photos from our adventure are posted below. Enjoy!

Ed enjoying some unexpected sunshine crossing beyond the Col des Flambeaux

High on the Aiguille d'Entreves traverse

Climbing up to the belay just before the crux crack on the Aiguille d'Entreves traverse

Alpine cuisine preparation at its most sophisticated 

Taking a breather on the approach to the Dent du Geant

Sunrise hitting the summit of Mont Blanc

Think light thoughts..

Descending from the Midi

"The weather is better than they foretasted!"

"Oh Wait.." This photo was taken 10 minutes after the one above

Bad weather = crevasse rescue training! Until the lightening that is..

Looks like a great crack right, just don't push the top bit! 

Topping out on the Cosmiques Arete after the storm

Sunshine sport climbing!

Thanks to Ed and Laurine for an ace trip. Perhaps we'll go for more than a weekend next year!