Introduction to Alpine Mountaineering

There are four cornerstones to Alpine Mountaineering which those experienced in the hills of the UK may not be familiar with. These four themes will drive the content of the training throughout the week. They are:

• Always roping together members of the team on a snow covered glacier
• Good movement skills on all terrain from walking to steep climbing and from rock to ice.
• Sticking to guide book time for the route - the need to be efficient and how to achieve this
• An awareness of objective hazards and how to mitigate against them.

So the skills covered during the week will include;

• good crampon and ice axe skills
• personal movement skills on a variety of types of terrain
• safe and efficient glacier travel skills
• efficient use of the rope on mountaineering terrain
• crevasse rescue
• selecting appropriate equipment
• use of mountain huts
• use of alpine maps and guide books and selecting an appropriate route
• alpine navigation including GPS use.

Concurrent with the training element of the course we will aim to climb a number of classic alpine peaks to put everything you have learned into practice....and have a great time!

This is a very good opportunity to quiz your Guide about all things mountaineering. If you are staying on to do more mountaineering after the course this is a great way of gaining accurate information and recommendations about what routes to do.

Suggested Experience: Solid background of hillwalking in the UK with some scrambling experience. Whilst it not essential to have a background of UK rock climbing and winter mountaineering this will be useful. A good fitness level is required for alpine mountaineering days up to 8 hours in duration.