IML Summer Assessment Preparation - A tale of flowers and stress!

 I recently returned from a trip to the Grand Massif area of the French Alps where I had travelled to spend some time doing a recce of the area followed by summer assessment for the International Mountain Leader Award.

 Choosing to travel down to the South East of France by car on the evening of August Bank Holiday may not have been one of my wisest decisions but hindsight is a wonderful thing! Travelling down with Matt (Trekking Skills) we had thought it may be good to have the car as we would be free to head to different areas of the Grand Massif without relying on public transport but the 23hr journey was slightly less than a pleasure after sitting on the M1 motionless in a UK summer downpour for longer than comfortable if we were to make the ferry!

 On reaching our base in the village of Samoens we debated our plan of attack for the next few days which would lead us up to assessment.

 The IML assessment would cover a whole range of topics that may be required should I be out taking a group out in the surrounding area such as flora & fauna, geology, local history, industry, local food and culture as well as the mountain skills of navigation and emergency ropework etc, I'll be quite honest and say I have never considered myself anything like academically gifted and so the syllabus was giving me more than a few worries!

 We would have 3 days walking around the Samoens 1600, Pointe d'Angolon and Refuge de Boston areas to gain an insight of differing habits and species. We would then be spending a day with a local accompagnatuer, who Matt had had the foresight to arrange before we left the UK, to give us a broad insight into the locality and a view of the standard that we should be aiming for to become an IML.

  3 days of looking for and trying to identify the alpine flora followed by evenings writing up notes and doing research was far from how I would like to spend my time when away from work so I felt quite relived when Saturday arrived and we would be listening to our local guide rather than searching through reference books.

 Meeting at the Bureau des Guides in Samoens we explained what we wanted from the day and despite joking we hoped to one day return and take the jobs of the local IML's Harvey quickly set out a suitable plan to educate us, very nice bloke!

 We began with a visit to the 'Gorge de Tines' and a walk through the old gorge to look at the specialised flora and smooth limestone walls created over thousands of years by water and ice before heading back to the car to drive past the impressive 'Cascade du Rouge' waterfall and to the starting point of what would be our walk up through the valley on the GR5 long distance path and on to the Refuge De Sales, which is found in the 'Natural Reserve of Sixt Fer a Cheval'.

Whilst not easily being able to get into the flora aspect of the syllabus I have discovered I am slightly better with trees, possibly due to spending most of my boyhood years hanging from the branches of varying species!

 We made our way higher and through the varying habitat as trees have way to sub alpine species before reaching the Refuge de Sales where we had lunch then had a look at the alpage (higher grazing area) before retracing our path back down the GR5 to the car to drive the short distance to the 'cirque de sixt fer à cheval', a natural formation of limestone cliffs and waterfalls which is nearly as impressive as Malham Cove in Yorkshire!

 This brought my personal pre assessment studies to an end (there is only so much information my head can handle) and I spent Sunday getting my kit ready and checking all my paper work was in order.

Happily I am pleased to say my preperation was enough to get me through and I gained a pass on the assessment which means I can now I on to the winter assessment based in the Pyrenees in March 2015 and hopefully gain the full award, fortunately the flowers will be under snow so I don't have to go through flora terror again!

White Out and Dig Out in Lochnagar - A Tale Of Motion Sickness And Rough Accomodation!

 With the rare opportunity of a few days available to spend on the hills I joined up with Matt Dawson of Trekking Skills to grab some precious Winter Mountain Leader & International Mountain Leader Award log book days.
 Following on from our recent IML Winter training week spent on snow shoes in France we headed to the Lochnagar region of Scotlands Cairngorm mountains where we could again put the snowshoes to use.

 After a much later than planned arrival in the Lochangar region due to a mechanical breakdown we headed to the bothy at Callater Lodge where we arrived at approx 4am!

Beginning our walk to the bothy in the early hours!

 With a full moon in a partially cloudy sky we walked without head torches until we reached the bothy at approx 4am.

Matt gets ready for a spot of well needed shut eye!

 After a few hours sleep we had breakfast and packed up our kit, the rucksacks were heavier than we would have liked but we had to carry food and cooking equipment, plus sleeping bags and bivi's as well as all the usual extra kit that should be carried for winter conditions. The weather hadn't lived up to the bright forecast and cloud hung around 700m on the sides of the Glen and as we made our way up 'Carn an t-Sagairt Mor' we were soon hit by strong winds, driven snow and low visibility. From here on it was snow goggles on and head down looking at the compass, visibility was now minimal and it was impossible to see the difference between the white of the low cloud and the snow laying on the ground - white out conditions!

Matt navigates through continuous white out.

 Discussing our options we opted to alter our original plan of walking to the summit of Lochnagar as there would nothing to see but the inside of a cloud and our time would be better spent navigating our way to the 'Lunkard Bothy'. Previously planned objectives often have to change as conditions on the ground develop in my opinion.
 Using features in the terrain along with compass bearings and pacing we walked on to 'Broad Cairn' before deciding to head in a southerly direction to intersect with 'Jock's Road' which we would then follow to the bothy, of course 'Jock's Road' would be under the snow pack so we would be relying on our navigational skills.
 It was during this leg that I experienced a sense of complete disorientation! Whilst following only the compass bearing and with no visible reference points I began to think I was walking in a circle and began to feel dizzy and sick, I would liken it the feeling of the room spinning when drunk (so i'm told). I had to ignore what my senses were telling me and believe in what my compass was showing me, though I could also have followed the sound of Matt's stifled laughter at my confusion!!
 We continued as darkness descended, though this made little difference as we had seen nothing but a few metre's in front of us all day, until we found the 'Lunkard Bothy'.

 We could of easily missed the bothy as it is dug into the hillside and not the tallest of structures, it was also fairly well covered in snow.

That'll be the bothy under there!

 Not exactly what we were hoping for when we found the bothy with only the top 8inch of the door showing above the snow, we broke out the shovels unaware that worse was to come!

It seems there a 'bit' of snow may have got in!

 After digging away the snow that was blocking the door we opened it to be greeted by a wall of snow inside! We had to tunnel nearly 2metres until we broke through into the bothy, which was grim to say the least!

Matt tunneling into the bothy!

 After eventually getting into the bothy we quickly got the stoves going to make some well needed nourishment before setting up our sleeping bags and bivi's for the night in our 'basic' accommodation.

I didn't see this in the brochure.

 Getting out of a warm sleeping bag into the cold interior of a winter shelter is not the most enjoyable experience but we were keen to get out of the cold, damp bothy/snow shelter and get moving. Quickly making breakfast whilst packing up our kit we were soon ready for the off and decided make our way back towards 'Glen Clunie' around the hills to the South of  'Loch Callater'.

A second day of navigation without visual references, bonus!

The view we had for the best part of 2 full days.

  As we ascended from the bothy we were soon in familiar 'white out' conditions and again had to rely on our compass bearings and contour interpretation as we made our way to 'Carn an Tuirc' before descending down to Lochcallater Lodge.

Matt pleased to be back at Loch Callater.

 Summary - We had an idea of what we wanted to do over the couple of days before we set out but were both happy to change the plan as we assessed the changing conditions and I believe we made the best of it by using the 'white out' to our advantage to practice our navigation skills in challenging conditions that we could easily encounter at any time whilst out on the hills in winter.

August Alpine Adventure

 August saw me make a trip to the Swiss Alps with Rob Johnson of www.expeditionguide.com who is my 'mountain guru' as I seek to continue on from the Mountain Leader UK award on to the International Mountain Leader award and gain experience in various mountain environments and conditions.

 The first couple of days saw us head for lake of Stellisee which lays at 2537meters above sea level and provides stunning views over across the lake to the Matterhorn (sometimes!). With the Matterhorn shrouded in cloud we decided to take lunch at the 'Flue' mountain hut before heading up to height of 3250meters to gain views over the Findel Glacier and surrounded peaks.
 N.B Gaining height like this then dropping down to camp and spend the night at Stellisee some 750m lower would help us acclimatise and avoid altitude sickness.

View across Stellisee to the Matterhorn.

Rob surveys the surroundings with Josh far in the background.

Findel Glacier.

  After a nigh spent camping by the side of Stellisee we decided to test our fitness by taking in a summit, climbing to the very windy & chilly 3424m summit of Oberrothorn.

I walk all the way up here and all there is to see for miles around are mountains!

Desert like conditions underfoot in the Alps!