Last Summer, quite a lot of people from Dubln University Climbing Club went away to the Alps. In fact, at the MCI annual Alpine Meet last Summer, Trinity made up one of the larger groups of climbers. The meet was held at Vicosoprano in the Swiss Alps. Ask anyone who was there and they will all tell you the same thing: the alpine meet is great!!!

Every year, the MCI organise a two week meet in which Irish climbers head off to a different location in the Alps for rockclimbing, ice climbing, hill walking and a bit of craic. The MCI pay professional guides to come over so that people can partake in courses that cater for the total beginner and for those who may already have some Alpine experience. The great thing about the meets is that you decide what you are going to do. You can turn up and do courses and learn loads. You could turn up and do your own climbing and walking with fellow climbing friends on your own or you can sit on your bottom for two weeks, drink and talk about climbing. Everyone to their own! It is also a great opportunity to meet other climbers from outside your club and from outside your country. At the last meet, there were climbers from all over Ireland including UCD, Cork, Clare, Queens Uni and the MCI itself. The craic is ninety. When people are not up in the mountains, they are down in the campsite cooking, drinkin, telling stories of routes and having sing songs and great craic. While living in the valley campsite you also met climbers and walkers from all over Europe.

Vicosoprano turned out to be a paradise for the multi-pitch rockclimber and mountaineers with a favoured taste for rock routes. However, there were things to do if you wanted snow and ice and many people had their first experience of crossing a glacier or practising an ice-axe arrest (which is a lot of fun) There were mixed routes (routes with both rock and ice/snow) and some purely ice routes. Those who just went for hill walking were not let down either and the scenery was just beautiful

My favourite route that I did in Switzerland had to have been the North ridge of Piz Badile. Declan Flood and I succeeded on summiting this lovely mountain on our second attempt. The first attempt was in vain due to large amounts of snow and ice on the upper section of the ridge which is usually only rock! But on that particular day, no party of climbers got to the top for the same reason which made us feel better!! We tried it again about a week or two later when warm weather had thawed the ridge out. The route is not particularily technically difficult but it is very long, with a beautiful but bitch of a walk in and a snow section that requires crampons and an axe. The ridge itself is just lovely a pleasure to climb. However speed is necessary unless you want to bivvy on the top (not recommended) or want to abseil down in the dark. We got up in very good time by moving together for most of the climb. However coming down was annoying and took us 8 hours. Our ropes just kept getting caught while abseiling the 20 pitches. This was down to the fact that the abseiling was not on steep ground and the ropes tended to catch on cracks and or blow off the side of the ridge. Luckily, there were on most pitches one or two ring bolts to ab off which sped things up. Eight hours from the top and we were back at our bivvy spot and on easier ground. Packed our bivvy gear and started the walk down to the valley floor beneath and down to the village of Bondo. We stopped for water at the refuge but by the time we made it to the motorway at Bondo, it was half eleven at night and we tried in vain for a half hour to hitch to Vicosoprano. So we just bivvied at the side of the road in a field beneath an electrical pole! It was our last route in Switzerland and it was our best. Other routes we done were the Steiger, the Lene route, Felicia, Second Pillar, the NE ridge of Spazzaculdera, La Fiemme, La Verginie, the Al Gal traverse, Cimo De Castillo (normal route). Other people climbed the highest mountain in the area, Piz Bernina which was apparently a lovely snow/ice route.

After the meet, most people went home to Ireland. However, certain groups of people stayed on in Europe for a while longer. The main group moved on to Ceuse for a bit of sport climbing. Myself and Dec were some of the last to leave Switzerland due to our final attempt on Badile. However, we journeyed via a stay in Turin over to Ceuse to join the others (Barry, Dermot, Karen, Dermuid, Brian, Brendan, Dave, Nigel, Alan ,Aoife, Joe, Niall and Regan the New Zealand dude). Ceuse was cool. Well it was very hot actually but the climbing was deadly. Although, Dec and I were kind of using that week as a rest period before heading off to Chamonix, I did end up climbing a bit. The campsite at Ceuse is grand…it was cheap, with good facilities and a shop. It was the closest one to the crag (although not close enough when you are in a lazy mood) The craic was brilliant that week. Good drinking sessions around the Irish contingents table and there was a bit of messing on the slack line. The climbing itself was classic. Nice steep to overhanging bolted climbing. Some of the popular areas for us being Berlin and Demilune. My only problem with Ceuse that week was that it was probrably too hot in the day to climb really and the walk up to the crag is bloody savage in the heat of the middle of the day. People ended up either going up in the early morning or going up after about 3 or 4 pm to avoid the heat. There was good bouldering not too far from the campsite but the rock was usually fairly greasy due to the heat.

After Ceuse, Dec and I headed over to Chamonix by train for more alpine adventure. On arriving, we meet Barry, Dave, Aoife and Alan who arrived by car after stopping at Interlacken for some messages. Darragh Curran and Keith Cuss were also there at the campsite. It was my first time in Chamonix and my first season in the alps and I must say I loved the place. The valley life is expensive but good craic…mmmmm balouga burgers, frite baguettes, wine and beer…oh and mc flurrys! The climbing and scenery was just brilliant. Dec and I teamed up with Darragh and Keith for the best part of a week. We would head up to the Col du Midi by the teleferique and set up Darraghs tent on the glacier as our base camp. Then we would stay up for 2 or 3 nights before returning to the valley floor for rest days (and rain days) Each day, Darragh and Keith would head off and do a route and we would do ours. Routes that Dec and I did were: the Cosmiques ridge, Cherrie Couloir, South Face of Cosmiques Routes that Cuss and Daz did: Cherrie Couloir, South face of Cosmiques, Gervussutti Pillar

On the fourth day, we all planned to return to the valley for rest but Keith wanted to do the Rebuffat route and talked me into staying up another night. The other lads took the tent and excess gear and got the telerferique back down to Cham. We bivvied in the station that night and walked down to the bottom of the route the next morning and did the route. The Rebuffat route, named after the famous French Guide and author Gaston Rebuffat, is a brilliant route. Sun backed South facing granite walls and slabs leading from the glaring white snow of the glacier beneath up to the side of the Midi cable car station.

After that week, the weather was poor for a while and the gang opted for a bit of Chamonix socialising. Teaming up with some of the Limerick lads, Darragh Dolan in particular, there was a good bit of drinking, cooking, messing about and jumping into as many swimming pools as possible around the town. The Chamonix pool challenge. Thanks to Rory Blare for showing us around the good spots and for letting us hang around his chalet.

During this week, Patrick Davey and Katie Sheehan arrived for a short visit. Dec and I brought them up the Argentiere glacier to do a route but we ended up having to come down the next day due to bad weather. The bivvy cave was cool though!

Declan decided he wanted to go home to Ireland and I was going to climb with Keith since I was staying longer. Darragh Curran teamed up with Darragh Dolan and everything was cool. The weather improved for a few days and Keith and I got two nice routes done: the North face of the Tour Ronde and the Swiss Direct on the Grand Capucin. The first of these is a really nice snow route in beautiful surroundings and has an easy snow/ rock sramble descent. A great route to do for someone who wants to do their first snow route. The second route was a technical rock route up the famous granite rock tower, the Grand Capucin. The approach requires crampons and an ice axe and can be prone to stone fall. However, this equipment can be left at the start of the route as the descent is by a series of vertical abseils which leads you back to the start. The route itself is quite sustained with one or two pitches of V1 and V11. We freed the entire route except a pitch involving a roof where I decided to aid past the difficulties. It was during this pitch that a helicopter hovered in real close to us and watched for some time before flying away. Although kind of cool, it was unnerving all the same. The route has a great feeling of exposure and has some beautiful rock and views. Some of the abseils were scary…make sure you bring spare tat if you try it.

After these two routes, Keith wanted to do the Midi Plan traverse but I felt I was too tired and opted to return to the valley. It was to be our last time up in the Alps for that year. We left a few days later for Paris and Fontainbleau.

Keith and I arrived in Font on a Sunday and the busses were scarce. We barely knew how to get to the bouldering areas or campsites. All we did know was that Barry O Dwyer and Dave Hanlon might be still staying at some campsite. Luckily, some French dude gave us a lift and spent an hour looking around for campsites and eventually we found one that the lads were staying at. It was cool to see some friendly faces and to have someone to show us were the various bouldering areas and the free campsite was. Brian Mc Glinchey was also there but was heading home the next day. We hung out with Baz for the next week or so, camping in the free field which is just a 5min walk from Bas Cuvier. There were a few people at the campsite that we got to know and we ended up cooking potatoe chips and curry for half the camp on one or two nights. A sound guy from Holland called Mateus climbed with us and kindly drove us to various areas and to the super market. Font is a really cool place with some excellent bouldering in a chilled atmosphere. If people decide to go to Font, get directions and an explanation of someone of where to go and how. It can be confussing. My advice is hitch from Fontainbleau town to a village called Barbizon. This is about a 15min walk from a garage on the main Paris road. Beside the garage is a forest track and a field with a water tap/hose in the corner. This is the field which people camp in for free. It is a 5min walk to the area known as Bas Cuvier which has plenty of problems.

After about a week, Baz went home and myself and Keith stayed a day or two longer before heading into Paris and then heading home.

I had spent 8 weeks in total over in Europe climbing and it had been great. But it was nice to get home and have a pint of Guinness.