Due to an unfortunate cancellation I had this week off so Kate and I headed down to Piemonte in Italy to try Monte Viso. We walked into the Quintino Sella hut on Saturday and climbed the East Ridge which is a superb 1200m AD on Sunday. The summit is superb sitting 500m above all the surrounding peaks with a view across most of the major 4000m peaks of the Alps. When we got down to the car we decided to head down to the med for a swim and spend the rest of the weekend at the beach!
I was climbing with Brian and Liz O'Connor this week, we had a variable forecast and some pretty poor weather so routes were snatched where possible. We started climbing the Via Corde in the Chamonix valley, a great mix of pitches and scrambling that takes you from the Bois du Bouchet to Buvette which overlooks the Mer du Glace. Tuesday was a bit of a wash out but the forecast looked better for the next 2 days. We decided to head south where there would be less fresh snow and climb Monte Viso. Wednesday dawned perfectly with an amazing view over the Italian plains we climbed the normal south face route which was in great condition with great neve when on snow and dry rock when climbing with out crampons. The summit has one of the best views of any alpine peak, you can see the whole Alps from the Queyras round through the Ecrin, Vanoise, Paradiso, Mont Blanc right round to Monte Rosa. We had a long day with Brian making a sterling effort driving all the way back to Chamonix after 14hrs on the hill. We had a mellow day on Thursday heading to the Torino hut hoping for some good weather on Friday, unfortunately it didn't arrive in time so we wandered round to the Tour Ronde in thick mist and snow before heading back to Courmayeur for coffee.