Conditions are still very snowy for Mid-May and our Toubkal training weekend made the most of the better weather on Saturday on the high glaciers accessed from the Skyway Monte Bianco lift. Some good glacier trekking on the very well filled in upper slopes of the Vallee Blanche, where snow shoes were not required today.
Other teams were climbing the Aiguilles Marbrees and North Face of the Tour Ronde which was in reasonable conditions except for some hard ice over one section. The old descent route is already looking loose and unapealing and was avoided by Gav and partner even in these snowy mid May conditions!
Our Mont Blanc training team did some mountaineering training and made a descent of the Aiguille du Midi snow ridge before making the glacier trek across the Col du Midi for an ascent of Pointe Lachenal. Sunday was very wet with lots of snow falling above 2000m and even lower with plenty of fresh snow visible on the pistes again as the clouds start to clear this Monday morning.
Teams have still been enjoying good ski mountaineering conditions in the high mountains with numerous ski descents of Mont Blanc and the Gran Paradiso albeit with an increased avalanche risk after this fresh snow.
Our summer courses are starting to fill up but there are still a few places left on Chamonix Intro Alpine, Weissmies, Climb The Gran Paradiso, Monte Rosa Mountaineer and others, please check our course page below for more details of these as well as our Matterhorn training weekend in Snowdonia over the weekend May 26-27.
https://highmountainguides.com/open_courses/
