Spring Cleaning

so this is the end of my Alpine winter holiday.

After a flying visit to Cham that established it was snowing and getting anywhere near any climbing or skiing was going to cost an arm and a leg I felt that heading west is my best option. Hopefully it will not be snowing in font and I will be able to find my rock shoes in the boot of my car?????

While in Chamonix I made a trip to Le Fayet (The Dry Spa – dry tooling crag) with Nick and Charlie, although I had visited this place before I had not climbed there (I don't think i even looked up as i was avoiding the muddy puddles). It was still unpleasantly wet and muddy this visit but I was pleased to find that 3 of the 4 routes i did were pretty good (of course the best line was the one that climbed a natural feature). And the other route?? A hard, loose and insect infested failure.

The Zoo (nr. Sallanches) also made an appearance on the end of my axe and I confirmed my opinion that it's a great place to get strong. Sadly strong was not on my agenda and after the two warm ups wind and snow increased and motivation decreased to a stop 1/3 of the way up the blatantly good Hippo route.

Now at the end of a good trip with some interesting routes to remember I am burdened with a tick list that includes: nearly all of the mixed around Kandersteg & Freissinieres. The Zoo. Drylands. Law and order. Matador (another Hippo style half arsed non tick!!) and thats not even considering Stanley. OR the other end of the Rockies. OR the other end of North America.

oh yea, and the competitions.

So that was my best winter ever (actually last winter was pretty good) and now i just hope the summer is half as good.

Bring it on............