Davie Scott's Blog: Alpinism for awareness

Earlier in July I headed out for some alpine adventures with Peter and James. The reason behind this trip was to raise awareness for Pancreatic Cancer United Kingdom (PCUK) which is a charity very close to my heart. On our first day we ventured up high for a 'wee look' as you do, with a view to attempting a Midi-Plan traverse. The snow conditions were absolutely awful and soon put a halt to that idea. The next day we decided to go up the Cosmiques arete on the Midi, this is a classic (and busy!) route and always worth doing as an acclimatisation route, good fun being had by all. Our next trip out was up the Petit Aiguille Verte via the Northwest Integrale. This was a great AD ridge which (in my opinion) had more interesting climbing than the out of condition north face had to offer. Great route, fantastic position! The very next day, Peter and I climbed the East ridge of the Aiguille des Grande montets, which was a very enjoyable scramble with one or two exposed 4c moves. The day after this we decided to walk in and bivvy on the col du Maudit at 13,450ft. at 0200hrs we left our snow graves and summited Mont Blanc (15,780ft) before returning to chamonix. The last climb of our trip was the Aiguille du Belvedere which is the highest peak in the Aiguille Rouge mountain range at 9,727ft (just twice as high as Ben Nevis). We climbed it via the south ridge, which was very similar to the Cuillin ridge in Skye, very exposed but relatively easy climbing at around uk Diff/V.Diff. We were rewarded by beautiful views over Lac Blanc and of the high mountains across the valley. All in all it was a very enjoyable and productive trip, massive thanks to Peter and James for a great few climbs!