Climbing at Traversella and first ski
A rather mixed week so far Kate and I escaped the drizzle in Chamonix on Sunday morning and drove down to Traversella a great set of crags near Ivrea at the bottom of the Val d'Aosta. All th e crags face south so you can climb in the sun almost all year round. There is a great hut at the bottom of the crag which is open at weekends from March to December. We started off on Parete degli Eroi climbing the 2 pitch 5c Panorama sul Piazza we then moved round to Salto della Felici and climbed a number of single pitch routes. Ubfortunatley a few of the routes on this sector of crag have been chipped giving some of the steepest route in the 5s I have ever climbed. On Monday we walked a bit further up the hill to the Torrione degli Istruttori and climbed a coulple of 4 pitch routes we started with Via Degli Istruttori 5b which is great the top 5b pitch up an overhung wall on huge holds. In contrast the second route we did Ladri di Cristalli 6a+ which had 2 great thin slab pitches.
Since we got back it has snowed again about 30cm up high, Richard Lundberg and I went for a skin near St Gervais we went from Communailles to the bottom of the Evasion lift. There was plently of snow and I didn't hit the base once on the way down. We spotted a piste machine working near Le Bettex so fingers crossed for more snow.