As a British mountaineer, I always have a feeling of what more can I do. The Alps have some of the best mountaineering and are the home of my favourite style summiting mountains Alpinism. A logical next step for me was to head to some more unforgiving terrain. So I set out to find a course in the Alps to see what it is like and learn skills that will be transferable in the big mountainous areas around the world.
Having used Jagged Globe to learn about winter mountaineering and now feel confident to head out unguided anywhere in the UK. The next step in my journey has to be some real mountainous terrain and learning about glacier safety and being on bigger mountains. In comes the Jagged Globes Alpine Improvers course.
I chose the improvers and not the intro course, as I felt based on my current level of skill it would be more suited to me. No, I haven’t climbed in the Alps before, however, I have done a lot in the UK. While is where a lot of training was done for some of the world’s most dangerous climbs. Climbing up to E2 single pitch and VS multi-pitch along with 7a sport and winter IV. I felt this would be a good course to teach me about safety in the bigger mountains along with efficiency and more. So let’s take a look at an overview of the course before I split the days and take a look at what I did. Along with what else I did after the course I had 4 days in the Alps with a friend.
The Course Overview
First, let’s look at how much it has cost me.
My flight and transfer were about £400.
The course was £2195 (with a £160 deposit).
This covers all guide fees and your accommodation, however, doesn’t involve the use of huts or ski lifts.
You’ll also need to have all your gear for the most part, but some of it can be borrowed. Along with anything you’d have needed for your training in the UK whether it be courses or climbing with friends. My gear is probably what I spent the most money on and half of it won’t be coming on this trip.
Finally, I feel like I need to state that this may be my third course with Jagged Globe, but I am not associated with them sadly, and did have to fund 100% of this myself. I also know there are a lot of similar alpine courses out there. This is just my experience with a company I like. Whether you use Jagged Globe or another company, I am sure (from what I have read) they all do cover similar things on safer and moving alone and efficiently in the Alps)
From the Jagged Globes site, “Our Alpine Improvers course aims to build on existing climbing and mountaineering skills, through both teaching and practice. The course is designed to turn you into a fully-fledged, independent mountaineer. You will come away competent to lead a rope team on moderate and rocky Alpine terrain at grade PD or above (learn more about Alpine Grades here).”
My Time in the Alps with Jagged Globe and what you may expect to do
Day One
Day one was a simple day at a crag for the guide to see what we could do. In addition to this, we also looked at crevasse rescue along with talking about safe travel on a glacier. The skills we looked at were building a 3:1 pulley system using Prusiks along with a Micro Traxion. We also looked at Prusiking up a rope to self-rescue.
Doing it with a Micro Traxion is a lot quicker and easier. However, it’s an expensive piece of kit, It is handy to know how to do it with a simple kit that you always carry. For both crevasse rescue and prusiking out, you will need two prusiks.
Day Two
On day two, we covered moving together on a PD-graded ridge. The way it worked for us was a self-lead coached ascent. This was ideal as we could do it how we wanted, with input from the guide on ways to move more efficiently and safely together.
We also took what we learned on day one with the crevasse rescue and practised it on an actual glacier. You may also look at taking and how to tie off coils if that is something new to you. along with more glacier safety.
Ridge: Petit Flambeau North East Ridge, PD
Day Three
Not many new skills today, but similar to day one with a coached self-lead ascent of another ridge. We also further practised safe glacier travel, and got to have a lovely coffee in the Cosmiques hut.
Ridge: Arete Lawrence, PD 4
Day Four
Here is where we looked at some more difficult ridges with higher exposure. We did the Aiguille Marbrres. With a similar style to what we had been doing this was also a self-lead ascent with the guide there to provide any input to help us improve and become more independent.
Ridge: Aiguille Marbrees, AD 4b
This is also where we spent our first night in a hut. We stayed in the Torino hut on the Italian side of the Valle Blanche. It was nice to stay up here as it meant we didn’t need to keep paying for expensive lifts. I’ll look at what I had to spend at the end of the post.
Day Five
Day five was awesome and we did Aiguille D’Entreves AD- 4c at this point, I was starting to feel confident in an alpine environment. I know 5 days isn’t long enough to feel confident. However, Before this course, I was already a competent UK mountaineer and climber in both summer and winter.
You can see me on the ridge if you look carefully.
Day Six
The sixth and final day of the course. Being competent, the guide decided to take me to a slightly harder route which I led pretty much the whole thing including the crux pitches. We did the East face of the Pyramid Du Tacul. It was quite busy and a lot of climbing past people. However, it was 10 pitches of lovely granite climbing. It wasn’t hard, being only AD+ 5a. It was an awesome route that I’d recommend.
I also had a close call with a crevasse on the approach where I fell up to about mid-thigh. I say close because it wasn’t bad and I could quickly and easily sort myself out and carry on to the base of the route.
Hiking back to the hut, we had to cross a huge crevasse field that had big seracs to our right. I won’t lie, this was quite scary, as it was a hot day and I didn’t want a snow bridge to break. The crevasses were more than big enough to take us both down.
Conclusion
It was exactly what I wanted. I got to lead everything and have proper ascents of the mountains and routes. I like using a guide to learn and improve my skills. However, I am not a fan of being dragged up things, I want to do the work myself, which is exactly what we did.
The guide was just there to give tips and teach us about the glaciers. I think this course is great and I learned a lot and built up confidence within an alpine environment. I don’t regret taking the course.
However, the main thing I needed was the glacier stuff. I could have been able to go on a course just for that and save a lot. Yes, there were tips and tricks I learned from the guides that I definitely will be using, But for most of the week, it just felt like I was mountaineering with a partner, not a guide. We felt like equals, and climbed like equals.
One part I didn’t like was the estimated extra spend for cable cars etc. I know it’s just an estimate, and I knew we paid for our lifts, when it says £90 you end up spending roughly £165. With 2 of the 3 lifts, we took being on the slightly cheaper Italian side.
After this course, I went to Zermatt with a mate, and we climbed the Matterhorn without a guide. I’ve also written about this.
Disclaimer, I am not associated with Jagged Globe, nor have they sponsored this post
