Dri Hörnli

Datum:

21.08.2014

Tourcharakter:

Alpinklettern

Tourlänge:

6:00h

After some heavy rain showers during the previous evening, we all woke up to a surprisingly sunny morning in Saas Grund. Turns out the weather was proving to be better than what we’d expected from the forecast. Anyway, we had a decent, laid-back breakfast and got ready to leave at around 10am. The plan for today was to walk up to the Almageller hut, leave behind stuff we didn’t need and then do an afternoon climb on the Dri Horlini (or Dri Hörnli), which is graded at around 4/4+. It was great to be wearing lighter and more flexible boots today too! I had only tested out a pair of Scarpa Rebel Lite goretex boots on one or two hikes before leaving Tromsø, so I hoped they would be equally as comfortable now. The walk up to the hut starts from Saas Almagell. We saved ourselves one or two hundred >>>

Tete de Balme

Datum:

12.01.2014

Tourcharakter:

Randonnée/Telemark

Tourlänge:

3:00h

Hadde en fri dag i Chamonix før skikjøringkurs skulle foregå, så jeg brukte anledning til å dra på en liten tur i området og få litt bevegelse i beina. Hadde ingen peiling om hvor som skulle passe bra til skiturer her, så fikk litt råd fra chalet-eieren. Hun foreslo om å gå opp fra Le Tour til Tete de Balme siden det var lov til å gå opp fjellet på ski ved siden av skibakkene. Så det jeg gjorde. Tok bussen fra Chamonix til Le Tour, hvor jeg traff utallige mange skikjørere som var på ferie. Litt annerledes for noen som kommer fra Nord-Norge og er vant til å se nesten ingen andre på det samme fjellet! Uansett, tok skiene på og satte kurs mot den første heisen. Selv om jeg var heldig med strålende sol i dag, var skiføret svært dårlig. Typisk vårsnø som ikke hadde blitt >>>

Weissmies

Datum:

14.07.2009

Tourcharakter:

Hochtour

© Hannah Vickers Tuesday, 14th July 2009 Having a day trip to the Weissmies meant that we could carry relatively light rucksacks and there wasn’t too many things to have to think about packing. So at 6am, we bundled back into Anthony’s Audi and drove down to the Tamoil garage at Sion to meet Hannah, our other guide and also split up into 2 cars which would be a lot more comfortable for the journey up to Saas Grund. It was a dry, slightly overcast morning, which was getting gradually sunnier as we progressed further east and up the valley again. Saas Grund wasn’t particularly high up, and we were going to take the Hohe Saas gondolas up to the station at about 3100m, which would place us quite nicely for the ascent to the top of the Weissmies at 4027m. We left the Hohe Saas station about 20 minutes after >>>

Pigne d'Arolla

Datum:

13.07.2009

Tourcharakter:

Hochtour

© Hannah Vickers Sunday, 12th July 2009 It was a nice, fresh morning we woke up to but it looked like it was gradually becoming more overcast as the morning drew on. Anthony, our guide, pulled up at the chalet at about 9.50am and our first stop was a gear hire shop in Les Hauderes, a couple of km down the road. Tobbe needed some proper boots and crampons, and Dan also needed to hire crampons. My chesty cough was still giving me much hassle, so I waited outside while they sorted out all the bits they needed. Once we'd driven to Arolla and parked up we began the walk in to the Dix hut. Mont Collon dominated the views at the top end of the valley, which stayed pretty much to our left. The air was warm but not too intense. At about halfway to the hut we reached a nice grassy plateau and stopped for some lunch. It >>>

Mont Blanc de Cheilon

Datum:

08.08.2005

Tourcharakter:

Hochtour

© Hannah Vickers Monday 8th August 2005: Leysin – Arolla – Dix Hut The ascent of Mont Blanc de Cheilon was the first peak of a week-long student mountaineering course. Unusually we were a group of five girls (we didn’t know each other before the course started) with a Swedish alpine guide named Dick. Our preparations for the week kicked off on the first day when the five of us – Lucy, Rosie, Gabie, Anna and me - went on a grocery shopping expedition in the local Coop in Leysin having been handed 200 swiss francs by Dick. Our basket was quickly filled up with cereal bars, chocolate, dried meat and fruits, cheese and bread and some fresh fruit for the journey over to Arolla. After the shopping efforts, we eventually drove out of Leysin and down the winding road into Aigle at the bottom of the valley. The >>>

Monte Rosa traverse

Datum:

24.07.2003

Castor

Datum:

21.07.2003

Tourcharakter:

Hochtour

Some very old pictures from a trip with the late guide Brede Arkless and Frances. Took the cable car up to the Klein Matterhorn station from Zermatt and went up Castor. Finished at the Quintino Sella hut. Not many memories of that hut, only that the coffee was awful (it tasted terrible at 3am anyway, maybe would have appreciated it more later in the day) and the hut breakfasts were not much better either.