The Rucksack Club

Author: Neil Sawyer

Winter Alpine Meet 2018

Member Posts

And so it starts – WAM’18: We have 19 members and guest and more snow than we have ever had on the meet during the past 12 years that the club has been running its Winter Alpine Meet. We also have the youngest guest to ever attend a RC winter alpine meet – Josh Nasse. That will please the New Members’ Secretary 🙂 On Monday Gus and I reconnoitred the Tete de la Sallaz (2026m) as a possible route to the Pointe d’Areu (2462m). From the little know ski resort of Romme above Cluses we were able to use the ski tow for the princely sum of 2 euros! That saved 25 minutes of up hill.    

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Winter Alpine Meet 10/17 March ’18

Member Posts

We currently have around 15 members and guests coming on the Winter Alpine Meet. If you intend joining us and are not on the list please let me know so I can coordinate activities etc. I was asked a question by Steve relating to the WAM’18 and ski touring in general: Steve’s question: “I’ve been looking at replacing my rope for glacier travel on skis, mainly to save weight. 8mm 30metres seems to be the recommendation. Opinions seem to vary regarding dynamic (less likely to break or cause injury in event of falling into a crevasse) or static (easier to prussik up). I could order a Beal Rando 8mm from Snow Leader in Chamonix for UK delivery for £42 which would save having to go shopping when we arrive. I’ve read that this is dynamic though it’s not specified on the shop’s website. Any thoughts?” I answered: “I’ve been looking at ropes with the same idea – weight saving. The latest ropes are 6mm like the Petzl Rad Line which is static. There is a good explanation of this on the Petzel site: https://www.petzl.com/GB/en/Sport/Ropes/RAD-SYSTEM including the static vs. dynamic argument. The upside is weight -only 660g/30m. The down sides are:[…]

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Igloo Meet – 17/18 March 2018

Member Posts

Igloo Meet – 17/18 March 2018 On Christmas day I checked out the site for the 2018 Igloo meet with Moira. Access is via the Bellevue cable car followed by about an hour’s skinning or snowshoeing (alternatively about 2.5 hours from the valley if you’re feeling fit). Avalanche transceivers are highly recommended whenever travelling in the Alpine mountains in winter and these are available for hire locally along with snowshoes or ski touring equipment. Other equipment: sleeping bag, Thermorest/Karrimat, backpacking stove, pans, food etc., snow shovel/snow saw plus all your normal winter mountaineering safety kit. Winter mountaineering experience necessary. Please let me know if you interested in attending the meet.

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Winter Alpine Meet: 10 – 17 March 2018

Member Posts

12th December 2017. Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed some lovely skiing, the snow stopped and the mountains looked fantastic in their winter cloaks (zoom in to the cable car station in the bottom right corner of the photo for a sense of scale). Nice fresh snow on and off piste. Minus 10 last night and heavy snow today: What to do: no this isn’t me skinning up from the Prarion lift station this morning -I took the photo from the warm and the dry – looking out of my chalet window 🙂 Today looked more like a day for indoor Crevasse Rescue practice, no we haven’t got a severe subsidence problem but it seemed like a good time to dig out the Glacier Skiing Equipment and make sure we can remember everything. It was also finally time to put the summer rock climbing gear away for the winter. After lunch I think we’ll do some indoor avalanche transceiver practice – its a game I play with Moira. One person hides a transceiver somewhere in the house and the other person has to find it against the clock. It’s not quite as easy as it sounds because is a three dimensional problem[…]

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