Cold Chamonix...

Chamonix is starting to get COLD!

This is a slightly bitty post, and hopefully a more exciting and less disjointed post will follow shortly...

In the last week there was snow as low as Argentiere, we've had first, second and third frost so far i think and my trousers actually froze to my bike seat at 6am this morning!

Heres a couple of pictures of cold things:

The view from our balcony up towards Argie

Waking up to see a winter wonderland after a night of snow last week, we spent a morning frantically trying to locate a sledge, and generally failed miserably. Accepting defeat, we headed up to Buet, stopping to get Ben and Hannah on the way and headed for a short walk up the valley...

We walked up the valley through the trees and eventually came out above the treeline to be greeted by a gorgeous sunny day and knee deep powder!

The view of the Buet valley from the treeline

Just before the hut in glorious sunshine

We had a chilled walk upto the hut, had lunch, admired the view and then walked back down again. Lots of ski tours come down this valley so we spent some time looking at potential December days out and threw some snowballs etc. General conclusion was that the snow might be skiable and psyche is high for some ski touring!

By the next day the snow had mainly melted and we were back to normal Chamonix sunshine. Both me and Jonny have been working flat out for the last two weeks, so not much outdoor climbing has been done but lots of training at the EMHM military wall (an Indy equivalent). I've been working cleaning in a very posh chalet complex in Les Houches and getting free lunches, and for the last few days in one of the most expensive chalets in the valley doing a bit of hosting and lots of bed making for a male model underwear shoot, so I'm not complaining!

In other news, we finally experienced a rendition of Marvin Gaye's Sexual healing by Rob Greenwood. This had been hugely hyped and did not dissapoint, despite him and Jack only just having returned from an ascent of the North face of the Matterhorn.

Rob 'Hot just like an oven'

The last few days we've been scraping frost off the windscreen of the van and Autumn has definately hit. The garden was still frozen at about 11 today as the sun takes a long time to hit it, but it makes for a very pretty view!

The garden just before the sun hit

As of Sunday I'm free again and have no work lined up, so I'm hoping when Sandra gets back from Germany we are going to get some routes in either down the valley or up high! Psyche is high and after a break to recover from a mega work stint, I'm sure I will be ready to get some cragging on the go. Who know, maybe even some alpine peaks!?