Alpine Styling!

Louise high on the Cosmiques having summited Mont Blanc du Tacul (behind) in the morning 

Recovering from injury is frustrating.... but then the amount of work I've had alongside the poor weather this summer, have made it a good one to take it slow. With my alpine mountaineering expedition fast approaching, I was also aware that I really needed to get used to wearing crampons again! My first trip down the Midi arete (one morning before work...) was terrifying. I suddenly realised that my leg was weak and I couldn't stamp my right foot in properly! Still, once I survived this I found that actually climbing up and front pointing was not too difficult or painful. Since then my alpine rehab has mainly involved soloing my favourite easy classics around Cham, with a few 4000m peaks thrown in for acclimatisation. Sadly not much of my wishlist got done this year but I got some fun days out and managed to not reinjury my ankle! Heading off on a cheeky jaunt to the Tien Shan now, like our Facebook page for updates about how we are getting on

Louise meets the first of many Madonnas on Gran Paradiso

From the busiest mountain that I've ever been on..... (and not technically in Chamonix!!)

... to one of the emptiest!

My first attempt at mixed climbing (Rebuffat Gully) after making a mess of my ankle back in April. Awkward and clumsy but good fun! Sadly I got scared and didn't really do much leading beyond this point...

Mixed climbing is fun... You can see Dave's write up of it here!

Out of the jaws....