Thanks to Joe and other SWMC climbers who shared their photos and stories of their Cogne Trip in February 2016. We hope these inspire you to join us next year.

In recent years the SWMC have run an ice climbing trip to Cogne , once again this year’s event was superbly marshalled by Juls Williams.

This year’s pilgrimage  had a very  high ‘repeat customer’ turnout…it says it all really about the way Juls runs the event…we all just keep coming back and we add new aficionados every year…..some of those climbers have subsequently  organised summer Alps trips for SWMC members..so the virtuous circle just spirals bigger and wider.

Our normal berth this year was booked , the excellent La Barme  Hotel  but the self-catering alternative was great..it allowed us to make 5.30 am starts..so as I say it was just…great !!!

One morning ,  following a heavy snowfall  our target climbs were restricted to those which were shorter walk- ins so  we actually lay in late and left at 6.30..that bizarrely enough did feel great !..so the lesson for next year is that we’ll start at 4am and get progressively 15min later so that by the end of the week we’ll luxuriate with a 5.30 start…

This year we also tried to avoid the weekend traffic and by going Monday to Saturday we tended to have fewer  crampon scars on our backs from the Italian climbers going over the top of us..

An additional ‘must have’ kit item this year was a stab vest…works well for the aforementioned occasions when you share the route with Italian kindred spirits…Jason didn’t require one..he just showed them his ‘guns’ and it pretty much did the trick.

One day on our only visit to the pub (to ask directions)…as we sat mulling over our 4th beer (directions tale a long time to get right) …we pondered why the Italians were so good , so fast…we couldn’t figure out why our 5 days of ice climbing per year didn’t equip us to perform at the level their 200 ice climbing days per year did… We never could get that one..so answers on a post card please and we’ll discuss all replies the next time we go into ask for directions or 5 …..

The trip itinerary started with an early bird arrival at Bristol , flight to Geneva..seamless exit with the hire cars down towards the Chamonix end of the Mont Blanc tunnels then thru to Cogne.. It’s a pretty routine process now and works without any drama.

We dumped our surplus kit and were then on the ice late lunch time of our first day…thereafter followed another 4 full days with a multitude of grades , valleys and routes to choose from…it’ll take us 20 trips to work through them all but each year we revisit an old friend..the route has changed character anyway…

The party this year was made up of Juls and dell , who formed an awesome team..and argued constantly about who was wearing the trousers on which route… funnily enuf Juls didn’t argue hard over leading the disco leg options lol

Mary jumped straight back into leading as if she’d being doing it every week with our Italian cousins…

Andrew and Jason powered on from strength to strength…Jason has moved comfortably into the role of comfy leader on tougher and tougher routes and the scary adventures of ..where is the route…is this the correct route… never seemed to faze him at all. Andrew is rapidly turning into a pro in his whole approach to climbing , leading , supporting ..empathetic , great partner and a formidable force on the ice.

Dale and Alan  where on the first trip and therefore had the misfortune to do a bit with me.. both dived into it..Alan rekindled the skills he honed 30 years ago..or was it 80..during the Crimea conflict I think it was …..and Dale was flying by the end of the trip.

Role on next year..a few of us will be doing Scotland/dry tooling/indoor ice during the year to try to push the technique and skills so we’ll keep you all in the loop.

If you’re thinking about doing it next year…just do it…the group of competent lead climbers is growing.  Jul’s fantastic efforts nursing us over the last 3 trips means that we can look after more fit sensible novices and climb in lots of little independent pods …

Thanks Juls and thanks all for a FANTASTIC  experience AS PER !!!