Last week, I once again had the pleasure of joining in the Arc'tertyx Alpine Academy in Chamonix. It's basically a fondue of great people with good attitudes, who just want to get into the mountains and play.
Sometimes these same people get up to mischief...
Cham is great because in spite of the bustling tourism scene, it's got some character, like my favorite mountain shop, Technique Extreme - it's in the name.
All manners of different styles and techniques are used in Cham, like this guy who really likes his quickdraws.
People really like to go and get some here...
After the Academy, I jumped in a van with Jesse Huey, Vikki Weldon, Paolo Marazzi, Ines Papert and Seppi Pfnur (there were two vans in fact) and drove a couple hours to beautiful Cadarese, Italy.
Cadarese is so delightful! the climbing is on great gneiss full of splitter cracks and the local flavors are really rich.
This fellow was the real deal
Paolo was our ringleader, his specialty is skiing but he attacks the stone with a vigor that reminded me of myself as a young man. I learned a lot of new Italian words from Paolo...
Giulia Monego another bad ass skier who crushes rocks
Jesse on a rowdy groove
Vikki on the Arco with Matteo and Jesse
Yosesigo: Italian for Amazeballs! The splitters here were all time, this route Paolo is starting up, Super Simpson goes on my all time top ten list.
Ange and Vikki, chillin' at the crag
Riky Felderer, local crag developer and lensmaster.
Village life was as good as the cragging
A cheese truck would turn up when you needed it most.
But the easy pace of rural living had to come to a close, so we hightailed it for Courmayeur and headed to the Torino Hut in search of big rocks.
Big Rock Candy Mountain
The joys of the early morning carfuffle
Hut life was also civilized: Jesse stays updated and a French man expresses himself through Yoga
I teamed up with Vikki for a lap on the Trident du Tacul. The line called Bonne Ethique follows the most continuous splitter system
Jesse and Ines on the neighbouring Grand Cappucin
Stiff warm up for pitch 1
Vikki crushing the crux pitch 2
Again on pitch 4
You get the idea...
Climbing high above a glacier on a tower of rock dressed like a European is my life's passion
On our final day, Ines and I snuck in a flight from the Brevent.
The vistas from the décollage were majestueux!
From the landing field it was not too bad either
Europe is soooooooooo good!
Grazzi Mille!!!!!
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