Starting Early

Part of our teams success in last years X-Alps was the fact that we'd spent many, many days checking out the route as a team.  We knew where to go both in the air and on the ground and we had the route pretty well sussed out before the start gun went off.

That said, there were some interesting route choices that we'd overlooked and some of these proved very useful for those that took them. Some of the more, ahem, adventurous routes include sections over 3000m. The problem with these parts is that they become rather snowed in well into the summer, so spring reconnaisance trips are not really feasible. With this in mind, Dad and I set off for a few days of good late summer weather to check out a top secret 'haute route' between the Matterhorn and Mt Blanc. Here are some pictures from our trip: