Willie, Neil and I have had a great weeks mountaineering with www.frostguiding.co.uk.
We spent Sunday and Monday in the Arolla area climbing Point 2943m and the Pigne d’Arolla (3796m) visiting the Cabane des Dix on the way. The mountains were in good condition.
On Tuesday during the bad weather we made use of the day by approaching the Rifugio Quintino Sella from Staffal near Gressoney. After overnighting we traversed Il Naso (4272m) and climbed Piramide Vincent (4215m) before staying at the Rifugio Mantova.
The line on Il Naso when climbing from the Rifugio Quintino Sella is not currently that described in the British guidebooks. Rather than climbing the face on the right, it now climbs a rocky ridge which borders the left side of this face followed by a icy nose above which leads to easy ground and the summit. We used ice screws for belays on the nose.
On Thursday we climbed Balmenhorn (4167m), Ludwigshohe (4342m), Parrotspitze (4432m) and the Signalkuppe (4554m) before overnighting at the Rifugio Margherita. The mountains were in good condition.
The Rifugio Margherita is an amazing place to stay being the highest building in Europe and also having some of the best hut food in the Alps.
The weather was poor overnight on Thursday and on Friday morning with fresh snow and high winds giving poor visibility. Using compass, map and GPS we descended to the Punta Indren and then onto Gressoney.
The conditions in the Monte Rosa Massif are currently excellent with much more snow on the glaciers than at this time last year.
There are more photos on the facebook page.
