Blog
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
Friday, June 8th, 2012
Packing for guides course No3: Summer Alpine climbing course
I’m on my way back to the Alps tomorrow for guides course No3: Summer alpine climbing. We will start in Chamonix next Thursday and then go somewhere in Valais, Switzerland. At least that’s plan A, but if the weather is bad we might go somewhere else. It’s going to be awesome go back to Chamonix and start the real climbing season.
Thursday, June 7th, 2012
Film work in Luleå
The last few days good friend Bjarne Sahlén has been around at my parents’ home in Luleå to finish the audio for the film about our South America adventure last autumn. After 164 takes Bjarne was happy. It was good to have him around, but it´s really demanding working with audio for films…
Bjarne in our high tech studio – might look like amateurs, but hey, wait for the result!
Below are the five episodes that are going to be taken down to one. I think it´s looking really good and Bjarne is doing an amazing job. Lots of new material is added, and much more time is put in to the editing. Remember that the episodes where done in hotel-rooms in Riobamba, Huaraz, La Paz, Mendoza and Santiago under time pressure and stress. Now the full movie will be made under normal circumstances and with time for reflection. The result will be worth waiting for!
