 | The French Alps |
| I spent the summers of 1976 in 1977 in the French Alps, based near the village of Peisey Nancroix in the Vanoise National Park. I was helping a small adventure holiday company whose aim was to give walkers their first taste of alpine climbing. I had booked on one of their holidays myself in 1975 - I found out later it was only the second holiday they had run! But it was a great success - after a gradual build up, which included some rock climbing, we went off for our first peak, Pt. de Picheres. We spent the night bivouacked in a cave, then reached the summit on a glorious morning. After a day's rest we successfully climbed a serious glacier route on Mont Pourri, at just over 12,000 feet one the highest peaks of the Tarantaise.
|
|
| Once back home though, I couldn't settle back into a boring job so the following year I gave it up and headed out to the Alps for three months. Although I had a lot to learn in a short time I enjoyed it immensely and met several people who became close friends, three of whom I still regularly walk with. We climbed Mont Blanc and several other peaks, but the route which really sticks in my mind is the traverse of the Dômes de Miage, one of the best days I've had in the mountains. After a few months unemployed, mainly spent in walking and climbing around Britain, I went to France again for the following summer. Once again we managed to get all our parties to the top of Mont Pourri, we climbed Mont Blanc again, and finished off the summer by climbing the Grandes Jorasses. Once back home though it was back to reality and I had to get a job - my savings had run out! Some of these images, plus a few others, are available for download from Alamy |
