For some, its a high intensity sport in its own right. For climbers, via ferrata feels more like a relaxing day off. The route on the cliffs above Zermatt is steep and exciting and with the threat of rain fast approaching we raced around the relatively strenuous course .
Spending two nights in the Rossi and Volante Bivouac, we summited Castor and Pollox in a day via the normal routes as a part of our acclimatization. My head was feeling pretty rough after the first ascent to the hut, so we slept it out for a night and then beat the rush to top out on Castor before the queues arrived from the Italian hut below.
Tintern Abbey, is a brilliant ruined construction, just round the corner from some great limestone crags in the Wye Valley. A sunny Saturday before the rain came in gave a sociable atmosphere at the bottom of Shorn Cliff. Completed three single pitch routes with Becky, including an unplanned adventure up the direct finish to No Musketeers.
Both days began misty and dreary but soon cleared to give fantastic weather for some gritstone action. We managed to tick a number of the classic routes at both the Roaches and Bamford, including the photogenic Gargoyle Route, and my first E1 on Wrinkled Wall.
With a transfer booked back for the afternoon, there was just time to make use of the good weather on Saturday to run up the North Face of the Petite Verte. We skipped the final 50m of climbing which was shoulder to shoulder with other teams, and descended before taking the much quieter NE rocky ridge back to the lift station.
The rocky spires of the l'Aiguillette d'Argentiere towers over Argentiere (claims the guidebook). Some fine routes from 4c to 6b+ head up most of the faces, including a particularly atmospheric step across from one spire to another.
