My first trip to the
Alps
Saturday 11th August was the last day before I flew out to Geneva.I've had a busy summer, including 2 weeks down south at Longmoor then a week out in Bavaria.
I
finished all my packing and just sorted through everything I was taking. I had
a chill night and went to bed at about 9pm since I was up early the next
morning. I woke up at 3am in the morning and had a quick shower got ready and
put my bags in the boot. My dad drove me to Edinburgh airport, we were there
just before 5am so once I checked in we had a quick breakfast. My dad then left
as I went through security. I was nervous at first since I’ve never been on a
plane all by myself but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Before I
knew it, I was sitting on the plane to Geneva. On the plane I read through my
winter skills book again and fell asleep for a little while.
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| Ready for my big adventure "PoppyScotland" |
I soon got off the
plane and went through security again and then collected my bag. Willis had
phoned me to say he was here and I got him as soon as I left the airport
building. He gave me a hug welcomed me and we flung my luggage in the van. It
was just after 11am but it was absolutely roasting. I had gotten quite hungry
so we stopped at a supermarket and picked up some snacks and food for the rest
of the week. On our way to Chamonix we stopped at lake Passy for a swim. At the
first the water felt freezing but since it was so warm I just jumped in. after
our swim Willis drove to a small field where we sat and ate lunch. For lunch we
had a Caesar salad. We then sorted out all my kit and made sure it was all in
the right bags. While sorting through the kit we noticed I had forgot my belay
plate so we went to the shops and got a new one. Willis managed to get some
money off it which was good, we then went and bought our lift passes. We bought
ones that we could use for a week. There was two parts to the ski lift, the
first only took you hallway where there was a small café and there was a second
part which took you right to the top. We ran back to the van with our passes
and grabbed our bags and got on the lift. We never stayed at the middle part we
just got the second part straight to the top. I was feeling good and really
excited. We put our stuff on before stepping outside. We kept a grab bag handy
which was for stuff like helmets, harnesses and crampons. As soon as I climbed
over the barrier the cold hit me. It was very weird going from being roasting
to really cold but as soon as we started walking I heated up. At first it was
quite scary and I could feel myself walking quite slow. I started to speed up
after a wee while of just getting used to it. It took us just over twenty
minutes to walk to the bottom of the hut.
We had planned to save money and just
camp. A lot of other people were camping so the snow was already dug and all we
had to do was set up the tent. There was a lot of other tents around us but
most people were still out climbing. It didn’t take us long to set it up and
once we took sleeping bags and roll mats out our sleeping bag we went for a
walk. We walked and went up a wee bit at the start of Mount Tacul. We Walked
back to the tent and made some pasta and had a baguette. The reason for us
going for a walk was so I could start to acclimatise. We went to sleep at
around 9pm.
We woke up the next morning to a storm, it was a total
whiteout. We had breakfast bars and cereal for quickness then got all our stuff
packed away, while still in the tent. I woke up cold even though I had heated
up water and put it in my Nalgene bottle, and then put the Nalgene in my
sleeping bag over night. As soon as I stood outside the tent I realised how bad
the weather was it was wet, cold and the wind was picking up. We put the tent
away as quickly as we could and then headed back up to the lift. It took about
forty or fifty minutes and it felt pretty hard since I was still tired, we got
to the lift just after 8am. We got the ski lift all the way back down and then
threw the stuff in the van and drove to a campsite. We also went to a small café quite close and got cake and
coffee. It was really nice. It was the only campsite in Chamonix, there
was few close but most people want to stay in Chamonix so Willis said it was always
quite busy and he had struggled to get in a few times before so we weren’t sure
whether or not we would get in. it was only a five minute drive and we manged
to get a space. A lot of kit was wet from walking back in the morning so we
done a washing and hung it all up to dry when it wasn’t raining. We had our
showers. then ate dinner and set up the tent. Willis slept in the Van so I had
the tent to myself so I put all my luggage at the bottom. I fell asleep really
quickly since I was really tired.
I woke up on Tuesday morning to really bad weather at about
10am. We spent the first half of the day just chilling, we got showers and ate.
We done all the dishes and double checked all the kit. In the afternoon once
the weather had cleared up a bit we packed the tent and
everything up and got the lift up again and walked down to the glacier, where
we had slept on Sunday. We got the exact same spot and set up the tent before
spending the night.
Willis woke me up at about 5:30am and gave me breakfast
which was cereal bars. We left the tent at about 6am. We walked up and over the
shoulder of Mount Tacul then back down on the other side. Then done the same,
we walked and over Mount Mouldy but I enjoyed this more since we had to climb a
ladder and there was also a crux with fixed ropes which was pretty steep. Before
we got to where we were planning on bivviing we came across three Russians who
needed help. One had tripped up and fallen over an edge, dragging the other two
with him. They were all in really bad shock and one guy had badly hit his head
and another one had fallen on his ice axe. Willis unzipped the guys gator just
to see a puddle of blood so he decided to tournacate his leg. We waited with
them till the helicopter came and took them away. We got to where we had
originally planned to bivvi but I was feeling alright and when Willis suggested
we just go for the top of Mount Blanc I agreed and before I knew it we had
dropped all the kit we never needed in my bag and Willis carried a small light
one. We left mine in the snow. I could feel myself slow down again but Willis
kept me motivated the whole time. For the next while we were slowly making our way
up Mont Banc. We finally came it to the top! It was the most amazing feeling
ever I was so proud of myself. There were a few other people there as well,
some had come from the guttier hut route. At the top we checked Willis's watch
and it had taken us about 7 hours since we left the tent. The first person we
phoned was my dad who was in work at the time but was really pleased because we
weren’t planning on summiting till the next day. I then phoned my mum and she
was very proud as well. It was my first mountain and it felt amazing to be
standing on top. Willis gave his girlfriend a quick phone call the we got some
photos before the cold made his battery die. We stayed at the top for about
twenty minutes before we got too cold and decided to head back down. I much
prefer going down, I think its fun and takes a lot less time except it
sometimes hurts my knees. We got to my bag with the other kit and stopped for a
quick snack and water before sorting the bags out and quickly heading back the
way we came. Most of it was downhill but some of it was uphill an the uphill
parts killed me. We got back to the tent and realised we still had about two
hours before the last lift so packed the tent away as quickly as possible and
headed up towards the lift. This was he worst part because it was all really
steep and I felt like it went on forever. There was also a few other teams
trying to get up before the last lift. A few had slowed down but we just went
as quick as we could and we made it back to the lift. Once we were back down in
Chamonix we went for a Poco Loco’s. It's the best burger place ever. I got the Poco
Loco special with chips and it was mazzive but I managed to eat most of it
since I was so hungry.
Thursday was our rest day… we pretty much done nothing, we
both just enjoyed chilling at the campsite. It gave us time to update all our
social media and phone everyone back home. I woke up with my face red raw.
Whilst sleeping on the glacier we realised that we had forgot the sun cream but
it was too late by that point. I was wearing glasses so it was only the bottom
half of my face but it was very swollen and sore to the touch. My whole face
looked a different shape. Willis was also burnt quite bad so we headed out to
the shops and bought some after sun, moisturiser and picked up some more food.
Since it was a rest day we got stuff like pancake mix and made them later on
after our dinner. We done any dishes we had and just spent most of the day
watching Netflix and at night we planned for the next day. Willis had got in
contact with the Russians who had gotten rescued on our way to the summit of Mont
Blanc just to make sure they were ok, which thankfully they were. They had
mentioned that the rest of their kit and stuff like sleeping bags, roll mats
and tents were all still in the glacier, Willis and I had offered to go and
collect it for them. They said that would be great and gave us an address to
drop it off to, which was a friend of theirs. We double checked all the kit and
then went to bed.
We woke up on Friday at about 9pm, my face was still really
swollen and was starting to badly blister. I had a shower whilst Willis made
breakfast. We had really good boiled eggs with some fruit and veg. we once
again quickly checked the kit and put it in the van. We had a pretty chilled
morning, not really doing much other than reading my book. We packed our bags
as light as possible, the weather wasn’t looking great so all we took was a
water proof. We made our way to the ski lift in the afternoon and walked down the
midi to collect the kit for the three Russians. They had quite a lot and it
felt quite heavy. There was two tents, three roll mats and three sleeping bags
plus a lot of other stuff like food, stove and gas. We repacked both our bags
and set off back up to the lift as quickly as possible. I could tell I was
still knackered from the day before by my pace. It was constant but slower than
usual. It didn’t take us that long but it was a killer and I was so relieved
once we got back to the lift. We dropped their kit off to their friend. It took
us a wee while to actually find the house but we managed in the end. Willis had
found a nice spot by a river, so we decided to stay there for the night. It was
in a little forest area so it was really nice and quiet. For dinner we had
slightly different thing, I had cheesy pasta and Willis had a pesto type thing.
I woke up on Saturday with my face feeling a bit better but
not looking at all better. It had just went all blistered but it was healing.
We
headed up to Brevent for some multi-pitch climbing. The weather was really good
but it was cold with the wind. We started up O Poeme a Lou, we took it in turns
to climb with the rucksack. The grades varied from 6a to 6c with lots of
sketchy moves. Willis done the first lead with me continuing up as the second.
The last three pitches became manic as we started running out of time but with
some slick changeovers and speed climbing we made it to the top of the climb
with little time to spare before getting on the ski lift. Back at the campsite
we were talking about plans. Our original one was to head up to the Matterhorn
but the weather looked pretty rubbish with lots of snow. Instead we decided we
would go for the Grandes Jorasses. We planned to do the traverse over two or
three days. We had an early night as we planned to catch the first lift the
next day.
I woke up the next morning feeling pretty tired still, I
didn’t have a good sleep but I was still feeling up for the Grandes Jorasses so
we got an early start and were on the lift by seven. It was really busy with
lots of groups heading up to the midi. We were trying to be as quick as
possible so overtook most groups and continued walking across the glacier all
the way till we made it across to the Italian side. We got the guidebook out
and continued to walk, as it got gradually steeper I got more and more tired. I
had started to feel a bit unwell but thought it was just excitement so never
mentioned anything. We made it to the bottom of the scrambling. We finished the
scrambling and stopped for food and water but by this point I really didn’t
feel well at all and was totally exhausted. I gave my mum and dad a ring and
spoke to Willis and in the end I made the decision to go back down. I gave it a
lot of thought but I was feeling too unwell to continue and I'm still glad we
turned around. Willis was completely fine and whatever we did never bothered
him so we finished our food, which only made me feel worse, and continued to
head back down. On the Italian lift Willis met someone he knew from climbing
the Eiger and he offered to give us a lift back to Chamonix. We got more food
back at the campsite once we were in Chamonix we just rested at the campsite
the rest of the night.
Monday and Tuesday were just rest day, on Monday we had a
supper long lie in and spent more of the day at the campsite. Willis spent a
bit of time planning what he was going to do once I left. We done more dishes
and lots of washing. Tuesday was a really good day. I woke on Wednesday really
upset that the trip was over but still super excited to be going back home. We
went to the wee café and got cake and coffee for breakfast before heading to
the airport.
Many thanks to Willis Morris for giving me such an amazing
opportunity, my first Alpine trip, camping on a glacier and assisting a helicopter
rescue. To Simon Ward who had spent time over the winter coming to Scotland to
train me and putting up with my trips to practise trad, my sponsors RAB for the
super clothing and Sleeping bag that kept me warm and toasty and Snow Factor
Braehead for the ongoing support of their Ice wall, Ski and Snowboard lessons.
Lastly I would like to thank Yvonne and Denny who helped to
finance this year and of course my mum and dad who pay for everything. I am
grateful to you all for helping me achieve
everything on this trip and so lucky I have you all.
