Layed back day in the Alps

With temperatures remaining relatively high the Mont Blanc range is a good month behind where it was this time last year. Goulottes aren't quite consolidated and icefields are still looking very black.

After getting prematurely excited and scratching around on out of condition mixed routes last week i decided to suck it up and head for the Dru.


The "American Direct" is on the left hand side of the west face and was fairly unaffected by the huge rock falls which have taken out the majority of the face over the years. Climbing as a three with spanish friend Oscar Lopez and Mark Stevenson of "Hard Rock" fame made for a very layed back day and we were on the crux diedre just after mid day. The quality of climbing on the route is exceptional with the 45 metre lay back (about E2 free) and the 90 metre diedre (about E4 if freed) particularly standing out.

Some good weather and drop in temps forcasted so lets see what happens....



A big thanks to Oscar Lopez for allowing us to use these images.

Hot Chocolate anybody ???

Will Sim and Jon Griffith have recently been getting some acclimatization in on Mont Blanc Du Tacul with an ascent of what they hope was the line of ‘Hot Chocolate’.

The line was found to be very mixed with limited ice and hard dry tooling moves required to complete the line.

A big thanks to Jon Griffith for allows us to use these images of Will in action.
Be sure to check out Jon’s great website: http://www.alpineexposures.com/blogs/chamonix-conditions for additional photo’s and reports on current Chamonix conditions.

The Walker Spur with Will Sim

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At long last things are starting to look autumnal in the Alps, the month and a half long dry spell which saw que's on summer classics such as the Freney and Dru has come to an end. I spent most of that month trying to snatch routes in on Scafell and Gogarth between periods of rain!



By the time I arrived back in the valley the top half of the Jorasse was starting to look rather white which made for an interesting ascent of the Walker Spur? Half of the route was climbed in big boots and crampons- which ultimately made for a more interesting ascent.


A brilliant but windy bivi on the top of the face gave me a good opportunity to try out the excellent new Alpinist Bivi Bag and the surprisingly robust Ellsworth jacket. The next day provided a torturously long descent in to Italy, tiptoeing underneath the 40000 ton serac which is predicted to release in the next few days.



It was nice to climb this classic summer route, and i'm now left full of excitement for the next few months, bring on the winter!

A big thank you to OSCAR LOPEZ for allowing Marmot use of these images.

Extreme locations for photgraphic needs.

Recently we put a call into our very own sponsored photographer Tim Glasby requesting action images of Marmot sleeping bags being used in extreme locations.

Tim did us proud by shooting an excellent image of Lucy Creamer poised on a ledge in North Wales.

Grab yourself a copy of Cotswold’s new winter catalogue to see the final action shot by Tim.

A big thanks to Tim Glasby for all his hard work on this project and another big thanks to Craig Hiller wfor the shot of Tim in action.