Europe 26/27

[ChrisC]

We will go to Cham for the specific purpose of me doing the Vallee Blanche with Kylie. There’s no way I’ll get her to agree to descend that ridge in anything but nice fine weather.

Vallee Blanche.

Another Option: You could just ask your guide to "leash you" and walk you down the arete like a dog. Or - I mean - create a "ropes team".

I have not often seen skiers/riders roped, because then you introduce crampons, which can destroy/split the rope.

 

[Tony Crocker]

You could just ask your guide to "leash you" and walk you down the arete like a dog. Or - I mean - create a "ropes team".

I have not often seen skiers/riders roped

I was roped both times. I remember the 8-person NASJA group in 2004 because the guide is in the back for control of the rope and he specifically ordered me to be in the front. Liz says we were roped in 2018 too. I didn't recall as I was sick that day and in somewhat of a daze at 12,000 feet.

So presumably the guide makes the call, and perhaps it's different for private groups of expert skiers like ChrisC. Roping may be SOP for typical tourist groups.

 

[ChrisC]

So presumably the guide makes the call, and perhaps it's different for private groups of expert skiers like ChrisC. Roping may be SOP for typical tourist groups.

I have to go dig out photos from my 2006 (?) visit to see my safety equipment setup.

Think I was complaining about wearing crampons in 2018.

I cannot imagine how many ropes get destroyed by guided skiers per year. They would have no awareness, nor be holding it out of the way. There are a lot worse hiking paths in the USA (Big Sky-Moonlight Basin, Taos, Telluride-Palmyra, Silverton, A-Basin, Jackson), but those areas often do not try to accommodate intermediate skiers.

 

[ChrisC]

As part of Fraser's observation that climate change is hitting across the pond harder than North America and faster in the Alps than in the lowlands -- he expects temps in London to be in the high 90s by mid-next week and even worse for France with wide sections hitting 105 for several days and the potential for a Death Valley-like 113 in places. Yikes.

Unreal, but not atypical heat anymore.

I did not know drowning deaths get added to heat fatality numbers.

Gift Link https://wapo.st/4ajJZz4

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I did not know drowning deaths get added to heat fatality numbers. Gift Link https://wapo.st/4ajJZz4

Hundreds of people all complained about the same thing in the comments -- that the article put the 40 drownings in the headline then didn't bother to explain their circumstances. Difficult to believe that Brittany of all places reached 106F; however, western France seems to be getting hit hard by recent heat waves.

 

[ChrisC]

Difficult to believe that Brittany of all places reached 106F; however, western France seems to be getting hit hard by recent heat waves.

That's insane. The North Atlantic region of France generally has moderate to cool temperatures.

And I was always curious about the 'Surf Culture' of San Sebastian and Biarritz. Seemed rough and cold to me, but so is NorCal. Scuba and surfing, even in Santa Cruz/Monterey Bay, are not something I want to do too often.

 

[Tony Crocker]

And I was always curious about the 'Surf Culture' of San Sebastian and Biarritz.

We will be visiting both in late July.