Smiler Cuthbertson - Mountain Guide

Lee and Lorna arrived full of hope for a good five-day course with me! They were camping down by the hospital, and their holiday would eventually be spoiled by the first really bad weather of the season.
Their five day course was really an intro into alpine mountaineering for Lee and Lorna, and a need to put into practice what they had read from the manuals, especially crevasse rescue systems.
We spent day 1 on the Crochures Traverse and Lorna did admirably well, considering she wasn’t a rock climber at all. With virtually no problems at all, we completed the traverse in a good time, a good job, as the clouds rolled in near the end of the route and we had a wet descent, dodging the lightning flashes, back to La Flegere.
The rain unfortunately didn’t stop, on day 2 it got worse and we spent a brief time down at the climbing wall in Les Houches. With Lorna not being a climber at all, she found it very hard to do any of the routes on the steeper walls, but eventually did do the slab routes very well. Lee had a field day on some hard problems.
Next day we managed to get up onto the Petite Verte, but it was pretty obvious we weren’t going too far up the ridge. The approach to the col at the bottom of the ridge was pretty difficult with the lack of snow, and even I was taking my time on the steep ice. Lorna did try to pluck up the courage and get onto the ice wall, but reluctantly, I had to suggest she went back to Lee, below the bergshrund. I decided to call the climbing to a halt, but we descended towards the steep slope to the cable car, and there, put into real action all the techniques for pulling people out of crevasses.

Appreciation was very high when, in turn, they hauled each other up a steep slope, simulating the rescue. Lee remarked, “Exactly what I wanted to see for real!”
Day 4 was a washout! I hadn’t seen bad weather like this for many a season.
Lee and Lorna were having a torrid time in their tent, the water was starting to seep through everywhere. So they called it a day and headed home a day early, hoping to catch some sunshine somewhere on the way. They are hoping to do some technical stuff with me next winter, and I look forward to that.

My one and only (planned) Mont Blanc course this season didn’t attract the numbers required to justify running it. Jim was keen but as he was the only member, I changed his course from a standard 9-day Mont Blanc course, to a 6-day private guiding course, with Mont Blanc as the last route.

Jim had never put a rope on, nor had touched rock, so it was wonderful to be able to start from the basics with Jim. He loved every minute, and through the 6 days, developed into a good rock climber. We even had a great day on the Cosmiques Arête, the route covered in the snow that had fallen when Lee and Lorna were baling their tent out! Together with the Midi climb, we managed the Petite Verte and some great climbing on the Guides crag, and successfully climbed Mont Blanc on day 6. I had a great time with Jim, and I look forward to seeing him in the Cairngorms next winter.