Hi Rich, The one route I'm interested in in the Mont Blanc area is Divine Providence. I've got quite a bit of info for the actual route, but I've heard the approach is fairly gnarly. Do you know anything about it? Cheers, Jack

Thanks Jack. Yes ready to answer any qs on the exotic world of Alpine climbing. I will be working on the hill through April in Chamonix, hopefully climbing styrofoam ice couloirs... so should def. have some good conditions beta :) Cheers Rich

Hey Jack. Classic approach is Italy > Helbronner lift > approx 3 hrs to the Fourche bivouac hut on Maudits Frontier ridge, then drop in from there. Easy enough to here! Once you have dropped into the Brenva basin the gnarl starts - the dangers are fairly well documented and pretty obvious to see once you're there. Big seracs on the Brenva face around the Pear/Route Major etc threaten the approach across the glacier, plus of course the state of the glacier itself. Havent been on the route but seen plenty of serac activity from the summit of the Tour Ronde. An excellent viewpopint to go and get scared from! Cavey has done the route, and has a few things to say about the approach... Dont hear of much activity over there generally, its def. a fairly wild place. One things for sure, its not a place to hang around and you would def want to recce the state of the seracs and best line through the basin from a good viewpoint beforehand.

Hi Rich, Since doing an Alpine guides course in 2005 in La Grave i've become fairly self sufficient on ice and plan to do more continental ice trips. I would however like to extend my experience to winter alpinism. Just a few questions on this: - do i need to be able to ski? - if so to what level - where would you recommend....Cham is the obvious place i guess....any routes in particular - what avalanche training would i need cheers Morgan