Full Transcript of Alpine Story with Lou Reynolds

Please note this talk was transcribed by a robot and then checked by a human. both are prone to errors, so please forgive any typos or poor grammar.

Jenny Dart [00:07:25] So hello, everyone. Welcome to this week's Alpine's Stories, hosted by Women's Alpine Adventure Club. I'm Jenny. Coming to you from a stunning evening here in North Wales. I can report that the Idwal Slabs are still here in case anyone was wondering. And they are so dry and it looks great. And so I hope everyone is well where you are. Let's just no where you're joining us from in the chat function in Zoom. And hello to everyone on Facebook live as well in our group. We're thrilled to have you here this evening. So we're just going to go through a couple of slides and then we will kick off. So if you haven't joined us before, we are Women's Alpine Adventure Club and we're a community venture to try and help get more women in to alpine climbing. So we're quite a new club formed for about a year and a half now. We have winter and summer meets where we snowshoe ski, ice climb, rock climb, do alpinism, sport climb. And we just have a wonderful time all together. So thank you for joining us. You can see our website address in the bottom left hand corner. If you want to find out more about us, you can do that. So, yeah. And next slide, you see. And so just a little bit of etiquette about what your instincts might be. It's all a bit new, certainly is for me. So and doing the presentation as we've asked you all of our might some videos and we need it. Just so everyone can concentrate. And there isn't the kind of background noise from everyone being at home like it always is. And so you can tell us a wonderful story without being distracted. Later on after, we're going to have a question and answer session. So I'll get to that in more detail when Lou finishes talking. But you can ask your question by either writing in the chat function and we'll be monitoring that. If you're watching you can comment on the Facebook post and we'll pick things up and ask on your behalf or if you'd like to talk face to face to lead. You can raise your hands digitally. I'll tell you how to do that afterwards. And then we'll turn on your mike in video and then you can have a chat as well. So, yeah, just to note that we're recording all of these talks and we're going to put them on our Web site, afterwards with some information, a bit resource for everyone. So just be aware of that. Well, so doing it. So next slide.

[00:16:00] So I'm thrilled to introduce Lou Reynolds. Lou is a fellow Devonian.

[00:16:06] And as soon as she could moved up to the highlands of Scotland, where she's been based the last 10 years, Lou is a fantastic instructor and coach and she holds the mountaineering and climbing instructor as well as the winter version. And also since ski instructor qualifications. Lou is a trainee British mountain guide. And so she was hoping to do her first alpine module this summer. But she's based off in Scotland for now and I think raring to get going again. And Lou is passionate about sharing the mountains with other people and having been on courses myself with her where she's instructed me, she's absolutely fantastic and she's so, so enthusiastic and it just rubs off need. So I'm thrilled to introduce Lou Reynolds.

Lou Reynolds [00:17:09] Hello, everyone, I hear that. Excellent. Right. So over to you. Excellent. Thanks, Jenny. All right. All right. Hi, everyone. Thanks for going.

Lou Reynolds [00:17:21] And I hope everyone's well in lockdown or having just broken out of lock down lucky things.

Lou Reynolds [00:17:27] So I'm going to bring to you a talk on Alpine ground courses. So I had quite a long apprenticeship into alpinism. And I guess the end goal was to be able to do some of these big routes in the Alps called Grand Courses, which I'll explain a little bit later on. So I suppose I've learned lots of things over my long and steady alpine apprenticeship, beginning with an intro to alpinism course when I was about 17, which was with the compagnie des guides in Chamonix.

Lou Reynolds [00:18:02] And I guess this was the beginning of my fascination with climbing in the mountains.

Lou Reynolds [00:18:08] I'd been fascinated with them from a young age. But this was the chance to really get together with them and learn more things. But I didn't know anyone that climbed. So initially I took my mum out and then I found random friends to do things like Mont Blanc with. And then slowly accumulated friends and people to climb with along the way, with lots and lots of living. To save money, lots of sleeping in the back of cars and sleeping in random places under boulders to save money and get to the places I wanted to go to.

Lou Reynolds [00:18:44] And as I said, I always had these aspirations to climb these big routes, and I guess eventually to one day maybe be at work as a guide.

Lou Reynolds [00:18:52] So it's really cool to have got this far.

Lou Reynolds [00:18:56] And I'll explain a little bit about what Grand Courses are.

Lou Reynolds [00:19:00] So they're usually routes that are about five hundred meters or more long, so usually five hundred plus meters long. That big committing routes usually on a mixture of terrain. So rock, ice, snow there usually got sections of route finding difficulty, some technical sections, sections that are long and you'll need to move together on that. They require a whole variety of mountaineering skills and then usually they're all in a large peak, which then involves a lot of mountaineering skills and decision making to get off. So they're kind of like the full picture of everything that you can learn within the mountains put together in one big test piece. And to get onto the British guide scheme, you need to have sort of a rack of these routes. Some of them smaller, some of them bigger. And then like five big routes that are usually TD and above. So this is a technical grade and Tres Dificile in French. And they're usually eight hundred meters long or more. So these are the kind of five big routes that can be snowy or rocky. It depends. So that's what's required to get onto the British guide scheme.

Lou Reynolds [00:20:15] And it was a really exciting time for me when I got to the point where I felt I had the skills and the ability and the climbing partners together to then go and have a go at these Grand Courses. And as you all sort of find out through my slide. Usually it's 50/50 success versus failure depending on the weather conditions, the climbing partners being free at the right time. So it's a lot of the stars aligning to get into the right places at the right times. So hopefully this tour will be inspiring, but it will stay or give you some lessons that I learned along the way, which might be of use to other people. So if we head onto the next slide, we'll be able to see what my first lesson was. So lesson number one, as I said, how to improvise a bivouac has been something that I have spent quite a bit of time doing in the UK and in the Alps. So this is my friend will do is currently about to bivi underneath a boulder near Piz Cengalo, which is next to the Piz Badile, which is a mountain we're gonna talk about in a moment. And this was one of our failed attempts on a route due to the condition of the glacier on approach and then also the condition of the route rock falls seem to be a bit of an imminent danger.

Lou Reynolds [00:21:30] So we retreated and went for an improvised bivouac under this boulder. So improvising a bivi is when you're not planning to. And you've basically got to sleep with what you have in your rucksack. So no sleeping bags or sleeping mats or maybe not even a stove. How much you take depends on the route and whether you think you're going to need to more or less, because it's always a game of fast and light vs. having enough kit with you.

Lou Reynolds [00:21:57] So I put together an amusing little video in my lock down entertainment, which I'm going to show to you now, which hopefully. An idea of what might be involved in an improvised bivi.

Lou Reynolds [00:22:40] So here we are. Here's my kit laid out. And obviously I've got my helmet on, my harness on already. Then I've got my socks and crampons. These are all essential bits of kit for the mountains. And then I'm going to go through I've got my rucksack and we're going to look at these insulated bits of case in a moment.

Lou Reynolds [00:22:59] So I've got a big jacket and a group shelter, a nice lightweight one, a first aid kit, some drinks, some snacks, a couple of pairs of gloves, hats and buff.

Lou Reynolds [00:23:12] And finally, my rope.

Lou Reynolds [00:23:13] So out of all this kit, we're going to need to make a bivi tonight.

Lou Reynolds [00:23:18] So I'm just start by getting insulated. Now we've got to find somewhere to sleep.

Lou Reynolds [00:23:31] Generally best to find somewhere out of the line of rock fall to sleep.

Lou Reynolds [00:23:45] When selecting your area to sleep, it's best to find somewhere not to sharp. I always think a good flat place is a good place to sleep. So. Where possible. Try not to sleep directly on the ice or snow. When biving it's also quite nice to try and have a roof over your head. Make sure it's big enough.

Lou Reynolds [00:24:33] So I think I found the perfect spot. Got a roof over my head, which protects me from falling rocks from drip.

Lou Reynolds [00:24:43] Then I cleared out all the sharp stones. Nice flat area and I've insulated it with my ropes. It should be really comfy. So I'm feeling quite happy and ready to get in.

Lou Reynolds [00:24:54] I'm going in.

Lou Reynolds [00:25:03] Always a good idea. Keep your helmet on. All right. Okay, now I'm in position.

Lou Reynolds [00:25:14] I'm gonna get myself ready for the night.

Lou Reynolds [00:25:16] So first thing I'm going to do is get my feet into my rucksack. Keep some extra roll. You might alter it for any reason. You carrying any gas? Also, put that in your rucksack to keep it warm. Your jet boil. And then I'm going to get my group shelter and get nice and cosy under that.

Lou Reynolds [00:25:43] I've got my water handy here. Any bit of equipment that I might need? A little pillow. I've got my metal work out the way. If it gets quite cold tonight, if I have the chance, I'll put warm water in this and put it between my legs.

Lou Reynolds [00:25:57] But certainly want to keep it nice and warm inside next to make sure it doesn't freeze.

Lou Reynolds [00:26:03] And finally, if you're on an exposed ledge and use potential to fall off in the night, it might be a good idea to attach yourself to an anchor. I've this sling handy and a clip all ready for the night.

Lou Reynolds [00:26:22] Thanks, Lizzie. So I hope everyone enjoyed my bit of lockdown entertainment. Slightly embarrassed now, but hopefully that's kept everyone entertained to begin with anyway.

Lou Reynolds [00:26:35] Yeah. A few points from being the one that I did miss was. If you've got a climbing partner handy, it's always a good idea to huddle and cuddle together for a while.

Lou Reynolds [00:26:47] But unfortunately, the cameraman wasn't keen on getting involved in the shots, so I couldn't give you that one.

Lou Reynolds [00:26:55] Okay. So yeah. The other thing to think about when debating is bivi food.

Lou Reynolds [00:26:59] Now, sometimes if it's completely improvised and you weren't expecting to sleep out, then you probably aren't going to have a great deal of food and you might be thinking about what to save for the next day. But if there's any chance of needing to sleep out, I would say one of the important things to take is a stove and a bit of extra food, maybe some freeze dried meal or something. Just because having been caught out, especially with low water, it's really handy to be able to boil some snow melts and sooner so that you've got something to drink.

Lou Reynolds [00:27:29] So it sounds good, but yeah, think about what bivi food you take. You can see mine and Rob's faces here.

Lou Reynolds [00:27:34] Not really too excited about couscous and sardines again. So if you can splash out on something nice, I would recommend it. Great. Next slide.

Lou Reynolds [00:27:45] So finally, there's a picture of, well, ready for the night's under a boulder. Yeah. He's got everything sorted. And we were really lucky.

Lou Reynolds [00:27:53] We found a random tub full of bits of Karimat. Like someone else must have slept there at some point. So we had an even comfy a night. But yeah, this is one of our failed attempts on a route which involves sleeping and then walking down to the valley the next day. So yeah, lots of experiences of the bivis.

Lou Reynolds [00:28:12] Great. So we'll move on to when I actually do climb a route on the next slide here.

Lou Reynolds [00:28:17] So this is the Cassin on the north face of the Piz Baddile. So this is in the Regalia alps which is down in Switzerland right on this Swiss Italian border.

Lou Reynolds [00:28:30] It's a beautiful area. You've got lovely Italian style villages with nice pizza and coffee and ice cream. When you get down and beautiful wooded valleys and then these striking granite peaks coming out of the valleys, it's a really impressive place to climb. And the Piz Badile is particularly well, I guess the Cassin route is the prominence route because it's actually one of the six classic north faces along with things like the Eiger and the Matterhorn. So it's really kind of up there with the in the the important north face routes, I suppose.

Lou Reynolds [00:29:06] So this one in particular is nine hundred metres long and it gets the grade TD and the sort of crux, the crux pitch was about 6a+

Lou Reynolds [00:29:17] So in British trad that's like E1 5b. And so and the rest of the climbing was maybe around VS. Even some easier pitches. So a complete variety and we had sort of slabs into granite cracks and then chimney systems. So the whole the whole mix. And really nice solid rock to climb on. So it was a brilliant sort of first big north face for me. And that's a picture of well, coming up, one of the pitches there in the photo.

Lou Reynolds [00:29:46] So if we move on to the next slide, you'll get an idea of a bit more of the style of the route. So you can see we were lucky. We were maybe the second or third team on the route.

Lou Reynolds [00:29:58] So we didn't have too many people above us, but there were certainly lots of people around. And if you look to the picture on the left and that's one of the upper chimney sections and you can see all those people dotted down below. And a couple just stuck in front of us on that crap pitch. That's the lots of people on the mountain. But thankfully, we were fairly far up in the queue.

Lou Reynolds [00:30:22] So my second lesson from this river is a kind of amusing one. And luckily it happened in this particular situation rather than a worse one. So lesson two is attach your approach shoes to your harness with a locking carabiner or conversely, put them in your rucksack.

Lou Reynolds [00:30:39] What happened here was Will and I were climbing up these chimney sections and we'd been block leading. So doing so of chunks of various pitches. One person leading and the other person following and then swapping over. So this was Will's turn to block this section. And I was at the back seconding with the rucksack and both our pairs of climbing approach shoes clipped onto the back of my harness.

Lou Reynolds [00:31:04] I was back in footing and wiggling up this chimney, this tight to chimney section. And I heard a thunk and one of my and one of my approach shoes had fallen off. The carabiner somehow kind of got unclipped somehow and rolled off down the mountain. Past a load of people. I was shouting. And they were cursing me. And then into the abyss, onto the go there below. So I was a little stressed about this situation. Well, so it was hilarious. And thankfully, we worked out and there was no glaciers or anything to deal with. We were not trainers. So we worked out that I could walk off the mountain with one of Will's climbing shoes on, which was a little bit more comfortable than mine. I thought this first day from the summit was quite amusing because Will seemed to like to wear different coloured shoes at the time. And then I had two different colour shoes on as well. So it was almost hard to spot the rocks, you see.

Lou Reynolds [00:31:58] The plan had been to go down and around the next day back over a sort of big pass down into the valley that we started from, which was in Switzerland. But because of the shoe situation, we decided to descend down the south side, which was easier. Just a couple of abseils, not quite as far. And then we ended up walking out down into Italy and got a taxi round with another climbing team back to sort of starting point. So one other lesson I would say is make sure you take your passport, because occasionally you end up crossing a border on these cross-border climbs. So you never know when you might need to possible. Great.

Lou Reynolds [00:32:43] So that was my lesson from that. Always a good one to learn at some point. And what I did get, actually, I forgot to mention was Will found a locking carabiner, which had like two snap gates.

Lou Reynolds [00:32:54] So it was a good way to carry climbing shoes or something like that. So it's nice to be lightweight and not have loads of screw gate carabiners, but equally. Yes, finding the right thing for the job.

Lou Reynolds [00:33:06] So moving on.

Lou Reynolds [00:33:08] Well, here we are at the Aiguille Noir de Peuterey. And the particular reason we did with the South Ridge.

Lou Reynolds [00:33:16] So the Aiguille Noir de Peuterey is on the Italian side of Mont Blanc. Very impressive area. Loads of really steep cliffs and prominent points. And the Aiguille Noir de Peuterey actually live leads into a classic route, which I would really like to do. Called the Peuterey Integral. We just did the first part and that was quite an undertaking in itself. Actually, it's a fairly involved route, so I'm just going to move my camera a second.

Lou Reynolds [00:33:47] So the route was one thousand four hundred meters long. And it's a TD+ overall grade, so a little bit harder.

Lou Reynolds [00:33:56] Mostly because of more route finding difficulties and really bit more committing longer, but more loose rock and things like that, but not as difficult. Overall grade. So it was about HVS British trad climbing grade 5C on here.

Lou Reynolds [00:34:13] So that is my friend Matt, I climbed it with Matt we knew that this route could take a little bit longer, especially the descent.

Lou Reynolds [00:34:20] We'd heard it was quite involved from a couple of other friends who had taken longer than expected. So we did take a much and a lightweight sleeping bag each this time, which was a good shout. And if I take you into the next slide, you'll be able to see a little bit more of the route.

Lou Reynolds [00:34:38] So here we've got Matt with the ridge up in front of him, so you can see the finding difficulties and loose rock as well.

Lou Reynolds [00:34:46] And then higher up we get to some really excellent granite pitches, sort of HVS difficulty, some lovely pitches of climbing up in the clouds.

Lou Reynolds [00:34:57] So we kept on going. And if we get to the next slide, you can see we near the top cheezy summit selfie so Matt was maybe a little bit more stressed about the descent. And rightly so. I think he was flagging. [00:35:11]So my lesson here is lesson three, the descent can be the crux. [3.5s] So the reason for that is because it's often hardest, because you're exhausted at the end of the day. And that can be the time that things start to go wrong. Decision making fades and you've got less energy, maybe a bit more dehydrated. Altitude might be getting the better of me. There it's really important not to forget about the descent. And I was rather chirpy in this photo to be at the summit. But yeah, there's a lot to happen after that. So things to think about on the route down. We had a long descent with marked painted markers to point out where you're going and some abseils along the way. But other people had obviously gone the wrong way, maybe in the dark or whatever. So that was abseil tat all over the place. So you had to be really vigilant as to why the descent went and with with daylight waning. And we had to really think about this carefully. So things that I do to sort of mitigate trouble on the descent would be memorize the description. So you do that for the ascent, but also the descent. Make sure you know in your mind what's going to happen. Which directions you going? How many obstacles there are so you can be prepared. But also take things like a printed copy of the description, not just a phone description, because phone batteries die. And I actually used to like my first 4000 meter peaks sort of guide book. We used to cut out the pages, the description and take them with us and then stick them back in with a bit of symmetry. So that makes the guidebook look more interesting now. And then sometimes you have to stop and wait until daylight return. [00:36:59]So if it gets dark and you can't see where you're going, as long as the weather is on your side, sometimes the safest thing to do is to persist out and wait until daylight comes back and you can see your route. [10.1s] So myself and Matt had to do this on the way down, I didn't have a photo of the bivi. I think we were concentrating too much at that point. But yet we slept for the night and then did the rest of the descent in daylight the next day all the way down to the valley. So we sort of spent a whole extra day out in the mountain longer than we were expecting. So a bit thirsty, bit hungry, but always well. And so a few things to think about. Remember the descent? Great. To the next slide.

Lou Reynolds [00:37:43] OK. So here we Salbitschijen as the next mountain that we're looking at. And this is in the Swiss Alps again. But an area called the Urrner Alps. And this is a slightly smaller peak.

Lou Reynolds [00:37:57] It's only two thousand nine hundred and eighty one meters high and there's no glacial approach or descent. So it's all a rock route, but it's still pretty involved.

Lou Reynolds [00:38:07] It's one thousand two hundred meters long and it sort of follows this amazing ridge line.

Lou Reynolds [00:38:13] So the West graph follows this brilliant Pinnacle Ridge line.

Lou Reynolds [00:38:17] So there's loads of climbing up to a little summit and then abseiling down and then round the corner to another tower. And so it goes on. So it's really quite an involved route and a bit of a hard grade. So ED1. So that's more like one maybe E2 overall grade and much more sustained at that grade.

Lou Reynolds [00:38:36] So lots of pitches of more difficulty which gave fantastic climbing all kinds of granite climbing from crack's to chimney's to aretz to scary slabs the whole lot. So it's really fantastic route.

Lou Reynolds [00:38:51] So the lessons from this route were to work with the weather and be flexible and open minded. And I think this was something that I learned working on Skye. So over that you've often got clients for the week and you've maybe got some objectives of mountains to go and climb and you're going to look at where the weather's coming from and which end of the ridge is maybe better to work on.

Lou Reynolds [00:39:15] But also you might try and take the weather windows to go a bit later in the day or start earlier so that you get the best of the weather and the situation for us with this particular peak. We had been in Chamonix for over a week in the rain sitting about not doing very much, which sometimes is nice. It's a good rest. But I think we were eager to get going now. And we've had a couple of like failed attempts going up to a hut thinking we could make the weather work. And it not working. So we had little looked at some research and discovered that there was gonna be two and a half days of good weather over in this area here, but it was already beginning now. So we got in the car and started driving to this area early in the morning from Chamonix that day and then walked up to the base of the ridge and actually started climbing and decided to be on the route. You can see a theme here. It was my bivi.

Lou Reynolds [00:40:13] So the slightly heavy a way to do it. We had to carry more kit with us, but it meant that we could make the most of that weather window.

Lou Reynolds [00:40:20] And actually, it meant we got to be in a really cool spot.

Lou Reynolds [00:40:23] So if we go onto the next slide, we can see on the left there, that's the photo of myself and Matt climbing, one of the steep sections, steeper pitch.

Lou Reynolds [00:40:34] And then on the right side, that is where I myself am actually bivid. So we were on this amazing sort of square cut tower, an awesome flat with a big boulder in the middle, which is perfect. And we attach ourselves to the boulder, sat down and have some dinner and then went to sleep. So totally awesome place to watch the sunrise and sunset. But yeah, entertaining. And it was really cool because there was another climbing team who had also had the same idea.

Lou Reynolds [00:41:05] So they will build on another tower across the way from us so we could wave at each other and take photos and generally share a bit of the journey, which is really nice. So they sent me these photos.

Lou Reynolds [00:41:17] And if you have a look. So my lesson here. Less than five take a straw.

Lou Reynolds [00:41:22] Or when I say straw, often a bit of tubing like a cut down section of a platypus tube would be perfect for this.

Lou Reynolds [00:41:32] Well, I mean, here is and this is another skill I learned on Skye.

Lou Reynolds [00:41:37] So the Cuillin ridge itself is very dry and it will take maybe two days to get across. And water is often the issue. And so there's a few places where there's a spring or there might be some snowmelt leftover or something, but it's not a lot of water. So you might need to use the straw to actually siphon off, will be able to drink some of the water along the way. So this came in really handy here because as you can see in the corner, there are some puddles nicely circled there.

Lou Reynolds [00:42:11] So we actually ended up drinking the water out of these puddles, which we were. I think not the nicest thing to drink, but it looked like it was clear.

Lou Reynolds [00:42:22] So we made the most of that. And that meant that we had extra water for the next day. So it's super lightweight and it's a really useful bit of kit take. So you take a straw. Great. So moving on to the next journey.

Lou Reynolds [00:42:37] Oh, hang on. Yeah. So we've got photos of the summit here. As the pinnacle top, it's a really close summit to this particular bridge. And that's a photo of myself on the top there. And then you can actually see I've drawn a line all the way along that skyline of repped, which is the route that we've just done.

Lou Reynolds [00:42:59] So you can see all those pinnacles and places along the way. And this photo was taken from the next slide. When we were eating cake. So, yep, sometimes you get to any cake and enjoy the views and the way back. So all works out really well. Working with the weather. And you can just see the clouds coming in for the change. So we timed it perfectly.

Lou Reynolds [00:43:20] So a good lesson learned and successful round. So if we move on to the next slide.

Lou Reynolds [00:43:29] So the next route I'm going to talk about is the Swiss routes on Les Courtes, which is from the Chamonix Valley. So up the Argentiere glacier. And it's a bit of a bigger peak. This one not massive, but three thousand eight hundred and fifty six meters high. And this is a classic route. It often comes into condition quite quickly when you've had some snow and refreeze. So freeze thaw cycles in the spring or in the autumn. And I would say it's a popular route to do for a first sort of icy big Grand Course like this as nothing too difficult. It's fairly steady going. The descent isn't too technical. So it's a nice peak to get a feel for this style of climbing, but still very involved. But a good one to start with.

Lou Reynolds [00:44:19] So, yes, as I said, it's a hundred meters and TD again, but this time more ice next.

Lou Reynolds [00:44:25] So the ice climbing was maybe great for Scottish grade four and then the mixed climbing above this kind of terrain that you can move together on a bit more, a mixture of rock and snow and then onto an arrest to follow up to the summit. So if we go into the next slide, you get an idea of a bit more of that terrain. So that's Reece climbing up in front of me and then looking down and a couple of climbers below on a route below as well.

Lou Reynolds [00:44:54] So the lessons learned on this particular route, if we look at the next slide, is keep feeding your climbing partner. And I just quite like these two pictures because they were a great example of the two differences. So on the Swiss three in particular, I didn't know Reece as well.

Lou Reynolds [00:45:12] We were friends and we'd climbed together a bit before, but we didn't know each other really well as myself and Tamsin knew each other super well. And we're really, really good at knowing to feed each other. So we get hungry otherwise.

Lou Reynolds [00:45:26] So the reason I had eagerly set off from the valley, from the glacier, left our skis at the bottom and we've probably been climbing for a little bit too long without really eating very much. And this then had a bit of a knock on effect. Was the top Reeces really flagging just energy low. And the trouble with it is it's a bit like a marathon or a big, long endurance type race. Once you run out of energy, you have a lot of difficulty to come back from that place. Really. Your muscles are not working at the best function. So it's really important to try and treat these Grandes Courses a bit like a marathon and you want to start off nice and steady even though it might be cold in the morning and you want to go quickly and try and stop for food every half an hour or so. Sorry, I'm amazed that Tamsin's comment. I'm also greedy. So yeah, you want to have food regularly and it's nice to feed each other. So one person can be sorting the ropes out, taking the gear back and the other person can be shovelling some food into their mouth or vice versa. And also altitude. You might feel less hungry. I definitely struggle with this sometimes that I don't feel like eating. So I try and work out some snacks that you really like and then offer them to keep feeding each other. Make sure that everyone's well. So good lesson.

Lou Reynolds [00:46:54] Great. If you go on to the next slide. I think this fits in nicely with eating. Also important to drink wine. So I like this better.

Lou Reynolds [00:47:07] That's me and Tomsin in the Treviño, hut in some bad weather. So, yeah, as I said, when the weather is bad, it's good to drink wine.

Lou Reynolds [00:47:16] And I think as Brits, we like to try and push the weather out a little bit. We're used to going out and all weather, especially in Scotland, but sometimes especially in the Alps, it's best just to chill out and drink wine where the weather is bad.

Lou Reynolds [00:47:30] This is also sort of acclimatisation, I think. So we went up and did a really expensive thing, actually, and went to the to the Torino hut on the Italian side of Mont Blanc, got lift up, went to the hut. I think we went onto the glacier for maybe half an hour and then we went inside and drinks wine, danced on the tables and no one else is in the hut. So it was a right laugh, then went back down. And that led us to be in good condition for the next group, I think. So if we went to the next slide. So yeah, the route that followed this was Tamsin and I went and climbed the Goulotte Bettembourg on the Aiguille Verte. And so the Aiguille Verte is again from the Chamonix Valley. You've got Mont Blanc and the Chmonix valley, and then you've got the Aiguille Verte with Dru on the side of them next to that.

Lou Reynolds [00:48:23] So it's quite a prominent mountain.

Lou Reynolds [00:48:25] And I guess it's got a bit of a reputation. It's one of those peaks that people say you're not a mountaineer until you've climbed it.

Lou Reynolds [00:48:31] And I think that it's because it's kind of committing on all sides. There's no easy route up and there's no easy route off, so the route that we descended sort of normal way up or maybe the easiest way up the Whymper Couloir has got a lot of abseils to get back down again. So, yeah, it's a fairly inboth mountain and it's again a thousand metres long.

Lou Reynolds [00:48:57] TD and mostly ice this time. And if you have a look at the photo on the right, you can see the difference in the snow. And I see you've got nice snow neve and then you've got some quite grey ice, which is actually sort of fairly old glacial ice and Tamsin and then I discovered that that was fairly hard going higher up in Goulotte Bettembourg itself. And I think with a little bit more snow ice blasted on top, it would have been a lot easier. But we were stuck with fairly brittle ice, which took a lot of work to get up. So the photo on the left that was taken by a couple of friends, Tim and Keith, who were on a route next door. And that's Tamsin and I'm making our way steadily up Bettembourg as times, he says. It was hellish. And it was yeah. It was really hard work. Lots of little pitches. Good. Also get really slow, though.

Lou Reynolds [00:49:49] If we go on to the next slide, you'll get an idea of what it looks like, say the photo on the left that is making our way up into the lower part.

Lou Reynolds [00:50:00] You look back and back and you can see that I'm standing or not very much. I'm on my front points on the belay, like so serious calf burn in all directions. It was really hard to get rest. Every axe placement took like two or three swings. The ice was shattering. It's really hard to get a good stick. So it was exhausting physically but also mentally it was just draining.

Lou Reynolds [00:50:21] You could just see it went on and cuts deeper with sort of unrelenting difficulty. So yeah, it was the monotony of the route that was hard. And as times in on the right that nearly at the top. So we were glad to get into those bucket steps near the top. So if we go on to the next slide, the lesson here is mind over matter and keep on going. And I think I must've hit Tamsin with a bit of ice, probably from all this shattering ice that was coming off my axes bashed in the face.

Lou Reynolds [00:50:54] So, yeah, we were generally a bit bloodied and having a hard time, but sometimes you just gotta keep going. So once you've put the work into your planning and your preparation, making sure the weather's right. Kit's right. Climbing partners are sorted, then sometimes you've just gotta keep battering on. And it's a lot better to go up than is to try and start coming down. So yeah, even if it's slow, you just gotta keep putting one foot in front of the other. The nice thing about this was that Tamsin and I were Tamsin and I was like encouraging each other. I think sometimes when you get stressed and tired on a route, it can be easy to take out the other climbing partner. And oh, why are you so slow? Why didn't you do that? Whatever it might be. But I feel like we were fairly encouraging towards each other. I kept feeding each other and kept plugging onto the top and we weren't talk about what happened on the other side.

Lou Reynolds [00:51:48] There I'll leave that for later when I've had some more wine. Tamsin can bring that one up, so I'll leave you hanging with that one. And if we move onto the next slide. So here I am, the south face Direct on La Meije. So this is down in the south of France in the Ecrins.

Lou Reynolds [00:52:17] You look up at the La Meije from La Grauwe, which is a beautiful town that we were climbing on the south side. So we went from La Grave up and over a col and stayed at the Promontoire hut on the south side. And then we were going to climb up a route which you can see behind Rob's head and tops out on that pinnacle above his head.

Lou Reynolds [00:52:37] Yeah. Exactly. And then you traverse into the cloud and do the rest of the traverse of La Meije, which is quite long. And then descend back down to the La Grave side. So it's sort of a big up and round route.

Lou Reynolds [00:52:50] So this particular route, again, not super difficult, but and a hundred meters, TD rock route.

Lou Reynolds [00:52:57] But we also had mixed snow and ice to deal with afterwards. So we needed to carry ice axes, crampons, big boots to then do the rest of the traverse along. So that made everything a little bit more. More kit to carry and things like that.

Lou Reynolds [00:53:14] So we arrived at the Promontoire hut all in good time. It was a nice day. We had some beer chilled out. And one of the things that is good to do, which if we move on to the next slide, you will see is time spent on the recce.

Lou Reynolds [00:53:31] So it's really good. I do. When you get to the hut to go in, recce the route for the next day. So you might go down onto the glacier and then go to the base of the route you're going to climb, which is what we should have done. Or you might want to say you're on the Matterhorn, you might do the first part of the ridge and then come back down again.

Lou Reynolds [00:53:50] It's basically a familiarisation with where you're going so that the next day in the dark at 2:00 a.m., when everyone's hustling and bustling around and it's stressful and you're nervous and you're tired and haven't had any sleep, you kind of have an idea of where you're going.

Lou Reynolds [00:54:05] But Rob and I think you've got a little bit confident. Things have been going well.

Lou Reynolds [00:54:10] And we both thought we knew the lesson and we could see exactly where you go in the glacier. And it meant going down a long way and round people.

Lou Reynolds [00:54:18] So we're a little bit lazy, embarrassingly, and didn't bother until the next day in the dark when we realised that it might have been a good idea. And because actually we went maybe in the right place. So this is me in the dark wondering why that doesn't look like a perfect chimney above me.

Lou Reynolds [00:54:40] I'm sure it climbs up the chimney. We kind of go, it looks like a chimney. I think it's okay. When we did maybe three pitches up this sort of chossy ground that goes deeper and more scary and eventually managed to construct an abseil and run away, landed ourselves back down on the glacier in broad daylight to see three hundred meters further up the glacier.

Lou Reynolds [00:55:03] Our route with some people on it. So yeah, that was fairly embarrassing and a little bit silly, especially as we knew this one.

Lou Reynolds [00:55:12] So we gathered our thoughts and I managed to persuade Rob that it was a good idea to go back to the hut. I think he wanted to run away and not see the audience rightly so.

Lou Reynolds [00:55:22] It was a bit embarrassing, but we went back to the hut. The Guardian left us and then said that someone else had done exactly the same thing a week before. So we managed to get on the route the next day and do the whole thing we had. We were lucky. We had a good weather window. So that's me on the right, climbing up, having a great time on the route. The next day.

Lou Reynolds [00:55:42] So if we move on to the next slide, you'll be able to see a little bit more of the route and says a couple of photos of me following the one on the right is on the lower section across nice of slabs of rock and then higher up it gets a bit steeper and all the rock gets a little bit wobbly, a slightly more insecure.

Lou Reynolds [00:56:03] So there was quite a lot of tense climbing on chossy Rock, kind of throwing things off as you go and putting them back in place and generally trying to fix the mountain back together as you go up.

Lou Reynolds [00:56:14] And so we reached the summit on the next slide. And as me, I'm not texting and promise. I'm checking the route for the rest of the route on.

Lou Reynolds [00:56:25] Yeah. I have got my backup copy in my bag just in case. Don't forget the second copy. In case, phone battery runs out. So, yeah, you can see I've got my socks and things ready. So we're going to change into our mountaineering kit and carry on along the ridge and see if we move on to the next slide.

Lou Reynolds [00:56:44] You get a bit of a view of the rest of the rich here so you can see the top of the ground pic in the background.

Lou Reynolds [00:56:53] And then we come up and over all these pinnacles, which is really fantastic ground. I'd love to just guide a whole traverse of La Meije, looks stunning as a root. And that's a picture of me just coming down one of the snow slopes there.

Lou Reynolds [00:57:07] So it gives you an idea if we move on to the next slide again. Of just how long these outlying routes are. And so someone once said to me that. How do you define an alpine route and their reply was it's a third too long. And I think they're totally right. You always feel longer than you expect them to feel. You think you're nearly there and you still not there. So I guess what I'm trying to say here is all of those things that I've explained and lots more.

Lou Reynolds [00:57:39] They will all those little lessons, all those bits of experience put together hopefully helped to make you more efficient. And that efficiency doesn't come in being really fast. It just comes in being slick and smooth and making up time wherever you can so that you're saving it in the bank for later on. And then if you're lucky, you get to look around and actually enjoy the view back behind you. A lot of the time climbing these big routes, it's not really about the view. It's about getting up there and getting down there before anything happens. Before darkness comes in. So you don't always appreciate where you are. So it's really nice to have a little bit of time in the bank to turn around and take a few photos and enjoy where you've been.

Lou Reynolds [00:58:20] And that will take me to the final slide. So thanks very much for listening. I hope I didn't ruffle too much or talk too quickly here if everyone learned something or enjoyed the voters.

Jenny Dart [00:58:33] Thanks very much.

Jenny Dart [00:58:36] Thanks so much, Lou. That was fantastic. Really, really enjoyable and some great lessons.