For the last 5 years, my wife Nina Alpinice and our dog Garro have been on the Oberhasli-region alpine rescue team, specialising in avalanche search and rescue.  Each winter, when on-call, they have to reach a heli landing point within 8 minutes, from where they're flown directly to the accident site.  

It took quite a few years of training to qualify for the team and since then, every 2 years, they're required to attend a 5-day test to make sure they're still working well.   It was time to go again this season,

After the heavy rains that reached towards the summits on Monday, the temperatures have again dropped.  The sodden snowpack is quickly re-freezing and making a strong bond with the ground, at least above around 1500m.  Lorenz and I headed for a sleepy pre-season Grindelwald First.  The first thing that stood out was just how cold it was on the chairlift up to the highest station, Oberjoch;  a big contrast with the almost balmy conditions down at the lowest (Bort).  With a strong wind blowing, the upper mountain didn't offer any safe powder but the slopes dropping down to Schreckfeld from First provided around 20cm over a crust - enough to ski with a light touch.......

After Engelberg last Wednesday, we ended up waiting until the weekend to get the skis out again, using the time to get back into some winter rock training - always a strange transition after so much climbing outside over the summer.  The reports on the touring conditions from a couple of folk who had been out weren't great, the lack of a firm base making for some BIG scratches in the skis.

Our local resort, Meiringen Hasliberg, opened for the first time this season so Lorenz, Rahel, Nina and I met on Saturday morning, all pretty excited.  Many of the pistes were in good nick but the deep powder meant that we barely touched any of the groomed surfaces.  Rocks were still lurking, but by sticking to the clean slopes, we avoided any major damage.  It was great to be all out together again, with a whole season to look forward to.

The book written by Patrick Peters on our crossing of the icecap last summer has just been published.  Have a look on the Latest News for more info.  Some beautiful photos....   

It’s been a slow start to the ski season this year.  In the last two winters, we made our first tours in early November, but over the past month the temperatures have remained high and the first light flurries of snow melted almost as soon as they fell.  Back in the UK last week for the expedition meetings and trad climbing, I kept an eye out on the forecast and the high-pressure system holding the snow away from the Alps (and directing the rain at us in the UK!).  It looked like we’d be waiting into December for first tracks.  In Manchester airport, I received a text from Nina that there was snow falling in Meiringen.  An exciting return home to deep snow down to the valley floor!


 

With 2 pre-expedition meetings back in the UK on consecutive weekends, I was seriously psyched to chase after some classic trad rock in the 5 days free in-between.  My similarly motivated partner Michiel Engelsman, fresh from Yosemite, flew into Liverpool to join me, and armed with a big rack, a load of guidebooks, and a full tank of petrol we set off with big plans.  Unfortunately, reality caught up with us in the form of front after front of dire weather racing in off the Atlantic.  Even without the atrocious weather, we’d planned to keep a close eye on the radar images, prepared to drive to wherever dry rock called.

It seems like a season's climbing in the mountains is over.  As the first snows cover the rock faces we were planning to climb this month, it doesn't look likely they'll dry again before winter starts in earnest.  Thoughts turn back to 5 months of the most fantastic climbing and adventure with some great partners.....

Lorenz and I headed eastwards in search of big granite lines and the Bergell didn't disappoint.  It was my first time visiting the range and already on the walk-in I was awe-struck by the imposing, clean spires that rise out of wild coniferous forest.  The whole area felt more secluded and adventurous than the ranges closer to home.

Hot Shots Productions have produced a short movie documenting a really exciting journey through the Yukon.  Using a raft and kayaks to run the length of a river, stopping off en route to climb and ski peaks, before reaching an iceberg-studded ocean, is just the kind of thing I'm always looking for in Greenland; there's something really special about undertaking an expedition that follows an aesthetic line, whether through a mountain range, over an icecap or down a river, and above all under your own steam.