Glaciers currently cover about 10% of the Earth’s surface and 80% of the fresh water on Earth is frozen in the form of Glacier ice. There are two main types of glaciers: alpine glaciers (about 1%) which are found in mountain terrain like the Alps, and continental glaciers (about 99%) which are associated with the » read more »
Day 12: We had a leisurely 4.00am breakfast at the Rifugio Vittorio Emanuele and waited for the bulk of the climbers to set off ahead of us (we hoped they would trample the fresh snow of yesterday and make the path easier for us!). The weather was fantastic and we enjoyed a beautiful sunrise and a » read more »
For this year’s trek, we decided to do our own variant of the classic glacier Haute Route, but missing out both the Chamonix and Zermatt ends. Day 1: Champex to Cabane d’Orny (2811m) We took the Champex chair lift to La Breya, and did the short walk up to Cabane d’Orny (2811m). Distance: 4km – » read more »
Directly after finishing our Tour des Combin we we went round to Zermatt and met up with British Mountain Guides Kathy Murphy and Cube to do some high level glacier treking & Hutting with a bit of easy 4000m peak bagging too. Our group was Roger, Patrick, Jane, Jon, Martin and another Phil. Day » read more »
Day 1: We took the Montenvers train from Chamonix up to the Mer de Glace for a bit of crevasse rescue practice and gentle acclimatisation in advance of doing anything more serious. The infamous Mer de Glace ladders turned out to be great fun. We used basic “cow tails” to clip on for extra security and » read more »
Author: Phil Newby