Davie Scott's Blog: Ali in the Alps!

I have been horrendously busy the past few weeks and the old Blog is always the first to suffer! After my last day guiding Christine on the Ben, Ali and I left and headed for Chamonix to get some climbing done and have a bit of a busmans holiday. We got to Cham after a horrendous bus journey thanks to National Express being to bus journeys what Brian Blessed is to libraries. Anyway, we got there and we spent the first day trying to forget the journey, the second day we headed to the Gaillands climbing area which was (and always is) absolutely mobbed, after bagging a few routes we had decided it was infact too hot to climb. The next day we got the but to Argentiere and climbed the Aiguilette d'Argentiere. This is a great route and a very pleasant day out, offering great views of the valley and the odd charmoz or two. After this it was time for Ali to bag her first ever alpine route and Cosmiques Arete was the natural choice. A great AD route, with a short walk in and no walk out that can be done in as little as 3-5hrs depending on the traffic jams in all the usual places. The weather was perfect, the rock was dry and the day was very enjoyable indeed (even meeting Ali's strict criteria for a good day out!). After we topped out, a quick 40 euros later and we were enjoying tea (as negotiated by Ali before we had even left the UK) and some chips at the cafe in the Midi. 2 days later Ali left Chamonix and took all the good weather, much to the disappointment of Paul, Simon and myself who stayed on another week.