Many thanks to John Carney for sending this report in today from the brilliant ice climbing in the Cogne Valley above the Val d'Aosta. John and I climbed the Frendo Spur on the North Face of the Aiguille du Midi last autumn and it seems he has been out on the ice a lot since!

Disclaimer: The views expressed below are not necessarily those of High Mountain Guides. Use this information with along with your own personal mountaineering judgment, as always!

"While a lot of the classic stalactites are gone already with the warm conditions, there are still a few routes which are 'game on' including Lillaz Gully, Stella Artice and Tutto Relativo. All of these seem to be getting a reasonable amount of traffic. They were all better a few weeks ago, when they were pretty 'virgin' but are still good value. We did Cold Couloir yesterday. Quite a few teams on the route including a Courmayeur guide who seemed to put in only 1 screw per pitch and his two clients, one equipped with carbon-fibre axes, hacking up behind him. After the joys of having french climbers rapping onto us from above, we got away from the traffic and enjoyed a very fine crux pitch two-thirds up, a 35m icefall which has been generally climbed on the lh side but is much better on the right - sustained vertical and a bit brittle, but well worth it. After this, two pitches out of a small ampitheatre lead to an easy exit from the couloir and the summit slopes... The couloir doesn't get much sun but the opening pitch has receded a lot in the last 2 weeks so I reckon it will be in condition for another fortnight if the sunny conditions continue...at least there is no avalanche risk, a bit of stonefall in the late afternoon but otherwise all quiet. Some photos attached...last one is Stella Artice, and the others are from Cold Couloir (in Scotland they would call this Point 12 Gully...it goes on and on!).

Photos, John Carney

Photo: John Carney