Two nights in the hills north of Tromsø, gliding gracefully across the snow with a small team of huskies. After darkness fell in the early afternoon, we drove on into the night to establish a camp, feed the dogs, light a fire and look out on the night sky for the elusive Northern Lights.
Clay and I set off with good intentions in the morning but it was far too cold and biting to contemplate a long rock route on Tryfan's East face. Instead, we nipped up the north ridge scramble and took a lap around back to the car. Chilly.
Day 2 out with Joe, and this time a big mountain ridgeline on the east face of Tryfan. We helped haul the couple behind us up the “infamous yellow slab”. Not bad for 73 years old!
Our first attempt at this much coveted Spanish summit didn't go so well as we hadn't factored in that the Picos de Europa in May was still in condition for ski touring. Ross and I spent a night in the hut then tried (and failed) to cross the frozen slopes to Naranjo de Bulnes in our approach shoes. We did manage to reach one face of the peak (with difficulty) and climbed a single, difficult, chossy pitch before abbing off and agreeing to return better prepared! As a consolation prize Ross also ticked two boulder problems on the walk down, for which he was very proud.
Despite the variable weather, myself and Ross ticked some of the classic routes in the Gower at Fall Bay Buttress on the Saturday including Osiris, Isis and South West Diedre. On the Sunday we were joined by Owen and headed to the sands of Three Cliffs Bay for some sunnier and sandier trad.
Two great routes up on the Midi, on Tuesday myself and Becky did the Arete des Cosmiques up to the Aiguille du Midi. After a night dug in on the Vallee Blanche, we used a 3:30am start to complete the Midi Plan Traverse (out and back) in around 9 hours total.
