May 17

Posted by: Matt Spenceley
17 May 2010 

 A couple of seriously BUSY months of skiing, climbing and lots on in Greenland - so much so that I've not had a chance to put up anything on the bog - sorry about the radio silence!  I'll get some reports up soon on what has been a really cool season up north.

But for now, I got back to the Alps 12 days ago and have spent lots of time clipping bolts to get back some kind of climbing fitness.  We've had a load of bad weather - rain in the valleys and LOTS of snow up high - so it's mostly been the overhangs of a local crag called Lammi.  The forecast for the weekend just past was looking hopeful for the south side of the Alps, so after a quick call to Adi Brunner, we left a rainy Berner Oberland behind and headed to the valley of Aosta, Italy.  700 vertical metres and a slightly childish race with 2 Italian ski alpinists (full racing suits, thin skis and all - we won, ha ha!) later, we reached the Chabod hut for a very tasty meal and a warm welcome - a big difference to some huts I can think of!

4.30am on Sunday and the promised clear skies still hadn't arrived.  After a leisurely breakfast, we fell into the tracks made by the first party (the hut's only open at weekends at this time of year), gaining the glacier at 3100m.  It's worth noting that the hut guardian no longer recommends the route marked on the map due to serac exposure.  Rope on, we made our way through the crevasses, all the while enshrouded in cloud.  Near the point where our route joins the line taken when ascending from the Vittorio hut, we caught up with the fellas who'd been laying the track.  They were no longer that certain about where to go in the face of some steep ground.  Adi and I pushed on, making a series of kick-turns up a worryingly wind-loaded slope.  As soon as we were at the top of that, the cloud cleared and an extremely busy summit could be seen with queues going up and down the last bit of ridge.  

After a short time enjoying the wild views and surprisingly warm temperatures on the top, the descent down the normal route was great, the highest 1/3 powder, and the rest chopped up spring corn.