PINK RIB IN THE RAIN

After yesterdays heavy deluge today was just heavy showers and strong winds. Not deterred by a bit of damp weather Laurence and I had a leisurely start, 2.30pm, and had a short and sweet bit of fun on Ben Chrualaiste's Pink Rib scramble. There are several short scrambles on this west side of the hill and Pink Rib is the best of the lot. With fine views across Glencoe to Stob Dearg it's perfect for a couple of hours of upward fun. We had more fun than expected today with waterfalls running down the rocks, strong winds and slipping about in our approach shoes, maybe proper boots would have been a better idea today. We got some nice breaks between the showers and even a few bright, sunny spells.

EAST RIDGE CARN DEARG MEADONACH

It was the best weather day of the bank Holiday weekend and judging by the packed North Face carpark it looked like it was a busy day on the hills. Laurence and I were looking for some peace and quiet ( again) so we headed over the shoulder of Carn Beag Dearg and into the quiet and wild feeling Allt Daim. We saw no one for the majority of the day as we headed to the foot of the fabulous and spectacular East ridge of Carn Dearg Meadonach. This fine grade 1 scramble gives some 'delicate' clambering amongst fragile granite rocks. Laurence enjoyed the route and the feeling of remoteness until we came onto the Carn Mor Dearg ridge when we bumped into a few folk gong over or coming from the CMD arete. A bright and sunny morning but much cooler day and tomorrow looks pretty wild and wet.

PEACE AND QUIET ON LEDGE ROUTE

I met up with Frank at the Glen Nevis VC car park this morning. He was wanting a more interesting ascent of Ben Nevis and one look at the hoards of coaches at the car park and it was an easy decision for me to escape round to the North Face car park for our start point. We had a very quiet and peaceful walk into the north face under low cloud early on but by the time we reached the CIC Hut things were improving. The higher we got into the Ciste Corrie the higher the clouds lifted. All good timing. After reassuring Frank about some easy scrambling to gain the summit he was soon up for some excitement and grand mountain scenery. We had Ledge Route to ourselves and saw no one. The views kept opening up and Frank really enjoyed the route to the top. The clouds finally lifted as we reached the summit so all good timing. Many folk out today so we were quickly back down to Lochan Meall an t-Suidhe and into peaceful surroundings as we headed back to the NF car park. We had fine views on the way down and the last hour or so some nice warm sunshine to end the day. Apparently it was pouring with rain down in the lowlands all day today. Looks like a good day tomorrow and more sunshine.

A QUICK BLAST ON THE BEN

Carn Dearg Buttress & The CIC Hut just visible in the gloom

The narrow fun bit

Looking back in one of the brighter moments

Back to reality this week and enough of all this blue skies and hot sun in The Alps. Back in The Highlands it's been a cooler, showery and cloudier affair. So despite the weather it was so nice to get out on the hill and today I had a quick blast up Ledge Route on Ben Nevis. I was soon on the top of Carn Dearg in just over 2 hours from the house incl the bike ride to the NF car park. Not really a day for photos though. There were just a few folk from the Outward Bound centre on the route today but plenty of folk still coming up the Pony Path on the descent, quite a few of them must have had a long lie in as they were just at the half way point at 2pm. Oh well I guess it is still light till 9pm and the weather forecast did hint at a few bright spells later on. I counted two of these that lasted a few seconds.

HOME

Happy folk outside the Bonatti Refugio

The south side of Mont Blanc & Aiguille Nord

The Elisabetta Refuge

The Tete de Tranche summit

The Grand Jorassess

The Val de Arpette

Approaching the Grand Col Ferret with the Grand Jorassess

The Fenetre Arpette, the highest point on the TMB

Mont Blanc from the Col de la Seigne

After another stint in The Alps it's back home to a mix of showery weather for the rest of this week but hopefully some sunshine. There have been very high temperatures in The Alps and on Sunday the temperature in Chamonix was 37 degress C. quite ironic to see there is a lot of thundery weather in The Highlands when it's usually The Alps getting many thunder storms during August. A nice way to spend summer trotting along the most famous long distance walk in The Alps. Every day full of charachter with high mountain passes, beautiful meadows and soaring 4000m summits. All blessed in glorious hot sunshine and blue skies fo the majority of the last few weeks.

SCORCHIO

Final day on TMB over Col de Balm. Very high temps over 30 deg in Chamonix. A week of virtually clear skies day and night.



The final high point, Col de Balme in scorching temperatures



FINAL TMB

The very fine weather continues this week in The Alps. My final TMB in August and just a fee picd from ladt couple of days. Today we headed over the Grand Col Ferret into Swiss. Unusual there had been hardly any cloud build up and thunder storms in the afternoon.

GETTING HOTTER

A couple of days at 'Basecamp'. ie hotel in Chamonix. The temperstured are rising daily with a valley temp of 31 degrees by midweek. blue skies and hot sun for the rest of my time here this seaon. Next few days on TMB again.

HOT

Just back at base in Chamonix after fine weather and great craic on TMB with clients Jill,Catherine,Sue,Andy and Dean from USA. We had an exciting end to the tour,over Fenetre Arpette yesterday. After a thundery and low cloud first 2 days we had clear skies and hot sun rest of the week. Off go Cormayeur tomorrow and another tour. Looks like even hotter next week with temps up to 30 deg and over.

SETTLED WEATHER IN THE ALPS

A fine settled spell of weather in the Alps with the last 4 days being completely clear skies. My group of 5 folk from the USA enjoying the great views along the Tour of Mont Blanc. Over the Fenetre Arpette tomorow.

Tour Mont Blanc

After a couple of wet, Scottish weather days the hot sun and blue skies have returnd and this week looks settled for the rest of the Tour of Mont Blanc trip I am guiding on. My group of 5 folk from USA enjoyed the fab views from Les Chapieux to Cormayeur yesterday. The final section being the best views of Mont Blanc.