UKC

Hi Everyone

Just thought id share my new blog starting with my adventures from 2016. Any feedback from pictures and writing would be appreciated! I am new to blogging really.

https://samsimpson48.wordpress.com/2017/01/22/my-2016-in-pictures/

Hope you enjoy.

Sam

In reply to SamSimpson:

That report really made my day to see that there are still some British alpinists getting out onto adventurous things. Well done for a great and varied set of climbs.

In reply to jcw:

Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully many great adventures to come

In reply to SamSimpson:

Lovely Blogg!

In reply to SamSimpson:

Some great routes and fine achievements, well done, also some excellent pictures.

The Eccles hut is something very special, isn't it? What a location, as you look down on the Aiguille Noire.

Not quite sure your writing style is to my taste though, would be a bit more interesting to hear some more about the routes, and less about poos.

In reply to Simon4:

Eccles is totally awesome, cant wait to get back up there. Which routes did you do?

Will make sure to talk more about the routes next time. Cheers. Poo bit is pretty disgusting I must admit.

In reply to SamSimpson:
There once for a reconnaissance and aclimitisation, left the valley at four, got to Monzino at 7, then far too late at the Eccles. Mostly the glacier was in the shadow, but the snow slope from the col to the hut itself had been in sun for several hours and felt LETHAL.

Not done any routes going up from the Eccles, but stopped there descending from the Aig Blanche North face, chased down by a storm. That we knew the route down from the Eccles to the Monzino was invaluable in the zero visibility, blizzard descent. Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom time wasted. We only just found the hut before the weather got really bad, it is pretty hard to find in descent at the best of times, which this wasn't.

A wild, remote part of the Mont Blanc massif, definitely feels Himalayan to me. Have never got to Mont Blanc de Courmayeur, probably never will now, nor the Pic Luigi Amedo.

In reply to Simon4:

Sounds intense, I bet the relief getting back to the hut would have been immense.