31st Jan - winter is back!
At last, cold and a little fresh snow. With more forecast for the next few days, maybe it's the end of the amazingly warm weather. Hopefully the warm spell actually did some good, settling the unstable windblown snowpack from the early winter.
Great tracks appearing all over the place today at Arolla. Here's Janine's "first powder turns" smile
25th Jan - blue sky ice climbing
Well, the Giette pillar collapsed today. Sorry, no "action" shots!
Great conditions yesterday on the Cascade de Veisivi - This gets no sun at all, and is getting fatter by the day. Scottish ex-pat Graeme Ettle here on pitch 2
In Kandersteg today there was good, wet ice with teams on several classic routes. It's warm though - Holes are appearing, and colder weather would be nice!
22nd jan - icicle cracks!
Warm weather and lots of snow melt have had a dramatic effect on the Giette freestanding pitch!
Compare this to this, only a week ago.
Still, ice is still good higher in the valley and lots of new snow high up is great news for the ski season. Conditions have been good the last few days at Arolla, Evolene, Thyons and Super St Bernard.
17th jan - Zinal ice
A trip round to Zinal today. Loads of snow there too,so skis or snowshoes are useful. Good ice on le Livre, 3/4, Pistes de Fond area. 2 pitches to a bolt belay below the final short pitch. This is steep and harder than the rest of the route, so maybe best to abseil from the belay (There is a tree up and left of the finish if you do this last pitch)
15th Jan - cold and snowy
Great piste snow at Evolene yesterday, but strong winds overnight moved loads of snow - drifting over the road to Arolla. Lots of new windslab, so pick routes carefully!.jpg)
Still, good ice again today at the Cascade de l'Usine Électrique, Arolla. The first pitch is getting shorter each time as more snow drifts in!
14th Jan- Back on ice
Cascade des Glacons de la Giette was hard work today with a covering of fresh snow. Still good ice though, and only a short walk from the road - you can see it when driving past la Tour to les Hauderes. 2 pitches, WI4 then 5. 50m ropes reach the ground in 1 abseil from the trees.
13th Jan - Powder!
Blue skies and 50-60cm of fresh snow today at Arolla - great skiing! Better still, skiing at Arolla is half price till the end of Jan, a bargain at 16.50CHF per day.
11th January - Steep ice!
Great ice conditions today on the Cascade de Veisivi, les Hauderes. Fantasic steep climbing in a great situation. Three long pitches, WI 3, 5+, 5. The approach from les Hauderes is easy at the moment with quite hard snow, but the climb funnels huge avalanches from the Dents de Veisivi, so not a place to be after a big snowfall!
8th jan - Good ice at Arolla
cold, sunny day. The ice has survived the last 2 days of warm weather. Good climbing on a quick visit to La Gouille.
7th jan - warm, but ice still good
woken this morning by the sound of rain on the roof...
Still plenty of ice around at the moment. The Evolene "Coop" icefall was good yesterday, but the forecast is warm wet and windy all week, oh dear.
A lot of areas have been a bit too dry for ice formation, so hopefully a wet week followed by a freeze will sort things out
4th January
Good conditions on la cascade des glacons de la Giette. This is visible from the road, opposite la Tour. Walk from here or from les Hauderes. 2 pitches, first a "cauliflower" grade 4, then a steep free standing 5. Walk left then abseil from a tree.
3rd January
Great ice this morning on the Cascade d'Evolene. This is the icefall you can see from the road, directly above the Coop!
2 pitches of WI4, with a short free standing pillar on pitch 1. You can avoid this by going left, which makes the route a bit easier. Abseil off from old bolts(!) or trees, or walk but this is much longer.
