Monday, June 25th, 2012
Whistler
On Friday after the guide course I jumped on a plane to Vancouver via Frankfurt from Geneva. At the airport my friend Mike Douglas picked me up and drove me to his home in Whistler. The last two days we have been working on a ski documentary for Salomon in between sightseeing, running and mountain biking. It´s been a great time so far with the Douglas family and it´s a dream coming true to finally get to visit Whistler!
At Frankfurt airport in Germany
In Vancouver
A photo from a beautiful run almost to the top of Whistler mountain. I had to turn around as I saw I was going to get late to work.
Pancakes with maple syrup, Canadian style
Mike at work in town
Going for a bike ride… When leaving the road for the super mellow trails there was no chance i could take photos. It was the first time in my life that i’ve done downhill mountain biking and there was just no way i could keep up.
A seriously secret place in the forest.
Whistler’s bike park
Whistler mountain
Mike working late hours at the office
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Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
Guide Course no 3 – Day 6-8 – 4000-meter peak bagging and snow climbing above Zermatt and Valle d’Ayas.
On the last days of the course we moved to Zermatt further east in Switzerland and took the lift up to Klein Matterhorn at almost 3900 meters. From there we traversed the glacier east in a total whiteout and climbed Pollux 4092 m in a snowstorm before we made our way to the rifugio Guide della Val d’Ayas, by many regarded as the best hut in the Alps. We received extremely good service and Italian food and most of us were agreeing that it was the best hut we had ever visited.
The next day it was really bad weather with snow, rain, no visibility and really hard winds. We did a try on the 4226 m high Castor, but turned around at the base of the mountain.
It’s always good to practice turning around and we still got a very good theory day in the hut.
On our last day we woke up early as usual and started the day by climbing Castor traversing the summit ridge back and fourth for training, and then we walked over to Breithorn and traversed the ridge between the west and central summit before we called it a day and went back down to Zermatt.
Overall it was a really good course with a good team of candidates as well as instructors. Now, after three courses we are about half way to our aspirant exam next spring and we have been training in four countries.
Next course is ice-climbing and navigation up in the north of Sweden in November.
For more information about the Swedish guide program, visit www.sbo.nu.
Our training area for the later part of the course
Matterhorn
At the tunnel at Klein Matterhorn
Mike, Morgan and Tobias coming out of the fog after some intense whiteout navigation
Our team on the Pollux ridge
Oscar crew in the snowstorm
Friends on the summit of Pollux
HK lowering
Skål
Another whiteout day
A glacier meeting
And an afternoon in the hut
The weather was getting better
Leaving the Ayas hut in the morning
Walking towards Castor
Whats the best way up?
The summit ridge
Eva on a stomper belay
Tobbe, Mike and Hk on the summit ridge
Friends on the summit of Castor
Ridge-walking
Per and Sammi
On the Breithorn traverse
Finished
Morgan, Tobias and CH in Zermatt
Saturday, June 23rd, 2012
Guide Course no 3 – Day 2-5 – Ecole du Glace and classic mountaineering in Switzerland
From Chamonix we continued around to the Swiss side of the Mont Blanc massif to the Cabane d’Orny. On the first day we walked up from Champex and practiced glacier travel and rescue. On the second day we continued with short roping on the lower peaks above the hut and on the following day we traversed Aiguille du Tour north to south, east to west and back again. On the last day we climbed the classic traverse of Les Ecandies on our way back down to our cars.
It was some really good days at the Cabane d’Orny and we all learnt a lot. It’s a big change going from normal mountaineering to guide training, as the technical difficulty of the bulk of what we are training for is not very high, but its really inspiring to work on moving fast in easy terrain and short rope as a way of travelling safely through the mountains.
Going up with the lift from Champex
The team getting started
Ecole du glace
Glacier travel
Crevasse rescue training
Cabane d’Orny
Short rope practice
Eva and myself took turns in being guides on day 3
It’s getting crowded
Lowering
They melt in pretty good, don’t they?
Early start
Oscar and Tobias in the sunrise
One of our teams on Aiguille du Tour
Tobbe and Oscar on the ridge
The Chamonix massif from the north summit of Aiguille du Tour
Tobias and myself on the south summit
Me, taking a bath…
HK trying up after our collective swim
In the huts, we have to help out with the dish
A tired crew
Where’s my glove?
A team on their way to Ecandies
Where are we going?
Per Ås following on the first pitch
HK and Per in the cave
Eva and Anders following on the razor
Per following on the razor
Eva leading up the last crux
HK on the jump
Walking down from another good day in the mountains
Tobias close to Champex
Friday, June 22nd, 2012
Epic TV #7
Last week, just before the start of our guide course in Chamonix I attended another Epic TV weekly show! I had a great time together with Trey and during the hour and something show; we had the opportunity to chat up one of the worlds best free divers, William Trubridge, Canadian pro skier Chris Rubens as well as Epic’s surf expert Dave Mailman. The whole team is agreeing that it’s one of the best shows so far!
Thursday, June 14th, 2012
Day one of the summer alpine course
Today was the first day of our third mountain guide course. We are in Chamonix at the moment and spent the day close to the mid station of Aiguille du Midi for some ecole de neige (snow school). We were going through everything that has to do with snow and guiding (with out skis), such as making steps, tracking, self arrest, short roping in snow, different snow anchors etc. It was a good day in the sun, and tomorrow really early we are driving to Champex to walk up to Cabane d’Orny for a couple of days of short roping in alpine terrain, glacier travel and rescue and so on. From there the weather decide where we will go!
Instructors Anders Swensson, Mike Wright and Per Ås
The crew, ready for a week of mountain adventures!
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012
Another day in the mountains snow walking
Yesterday I went up with Morgan Sahlén on Aiguille du Midi to do another day of short-roping and acclimatization. It had been snowing heavy over night and it would have been a perfect day for skiing if we didn’t have to train with the rope. Walking down the ridge there was plenty of snow and our lungs got the work out they were so much longing for.
We started with walking over to Pointe Lachenal and traversed most of it, then walked back almost the same way we came from and then traversed arête Lawrence and finished of with another arête des Cosmiques.
It was another good day up high, and on the way back on the lift we got served one of the most peculiar comments I have heard from someone working in a service profession. One of the lifties (who are usually awesome) on Aiguille du Midi explained why we had to wait forty minutes for the next bin. “Well, the directors make all the money, and we don’t earn more if we help you go down – so we won’t”.
Now it´s time for two rest days before the next guide course is starting.
Wolfgang Huber and Eva Eskilsson tracking the wild snow ridge down from Aiguille du Midi
Morgan Sahlén, my rope partner for the day
HK, CH and Tobias all class mates on the guides course, also out training
Morgan following our own variation on Lachenal
The weather was adventurous
We met gangsta mountain guides Jeff Banks and Stefan Sporly on the ridge
Aiguille du Midi seen from the Lawrence ridge
Wolfie and Eva
CH lowering HK
Tobbe
Morgan, done for the day
Sunday, June 10th, 2012
Arête des Cosmiques x 2
Back in Chamonix again, this time for our guides course starting on Thursday. To try to get back some acclimatization me and Sami Modenius went up Aiguille du Midi with the first bin this morning. Our main goal was to breath some thinner air, practice some crevasse rescue and do some short roping and as the forecast wasn’t too good we wanted to stay close to the lift. We got everything we asked for; and lapped the Cosmiques arête two times, got to fall down some crevasses in between, had a long coffee break at the station and where back in time around three o’clock. What a good day!
Sami – Finish sisu!
Arete des Cosmiques
Sami with Mt Blanc in the backdrop
Round two
