Arc’teryx Alpine Academy

Photos & Story: Clare White

January 15^th, 2018

Easily distracted by springtime revision I spotted the online advert and found the dates matched one of my rare weekends off - a weekend in Chamonix certainly sounded tempting!

After a little online research I found a few resoundingly positive blog posts and remembered the guides from last year’s Conville Course saying they enjoyed being part of the Arc’teryx weekend. Clinics offered ranged from an introductory glacier hike, 7a+ sport coaching, trail running and mountain medicine, all supported by 120 mountain guides - a large number of whom were British mountain guides - and even better they were affordable. Would this really be the mutually inspiring and educational event the advertising promised or turn into an elaborate sales pitch for Arc’teryx? Despite the possibility of more hype than substance a weekend in Chamonix is never a bad thing….

CHOICE

It turns out the combination of affordability and advertising means it is rather popular - all One HUNDRED-plus clinic places were sold out in 8 minutes (as Phil sadly found out). I wanted to squeeze in as much as I could, managing to blag three clinics in three days. Firstly I booked an overnight bivi - I may spend as much time as possible in my tent in the UK but preparing for a bivi on glaciers and ledges sounded a good use of the Friday night. I opted to head straight from the bivi to the ‘advanced’ alpine clinic hoping this would force me to be a bit more bold. Unusually I picked a women’s ice climbing clinic for the final day - given I have particular strong feelings against this current trend for women’s specific outdoor stuff this was admittedly an odd choice but I am glad I made it.

BIVI NIGHT

The academy weekend coincided with seemingly half of NMC already being in Chamonix, which made the trip a very sociable one! As Phil and Joe headed across the telepherique to the Italian side I packed my bag for the bivi and the following day and got the bus to town. After registering and picking up my little goody bag I soaked up the sun watching free talks at the ‘Alpine Village’ with several coffees (free from the epic tv stand). After some questionable levels of organisation we headed off for the night. The forecast was terrible - lightning and fresh snowfall - and this changed the plan from a snow-filled bivi to a damp wild camp at Aiguille du Plan….. and that was about it. We even walked to the nearest hut for a beer - less ‘bivi’ tips, more ‘bevy’.… On to the Saturday…

ADVANCED ALPINE

We woke to fresh snow and hail covering the tents. Luckily some of the MSR-provided tents were orange, meaning we could find each other. By this point I was fairly convinced the weather was going to keep us down in the valley and predicted an unpleasant day showing myself up cragging in big boots - thankfully our guide had other plans! There weres 3 participants with one guide; Jon and I had met the previous night on the bivi and were joined by Marcus from Holland, with little climbing experience. After checking our experience our guide Olivier told me to crack on and short-rope Jon down the Midi Arete - most guides were roping all of their group together until they were down on the glacier but ours set the tone for the rest of the day: ‘This is the advanced course, you are the guides today - I am your rubbish client!’

Jon and I took turns to lead each other over the Cosmiques with Olivier setting tasks along the way. We swapped halfway along with Olivier falling over three times to test my short-roping skills - sideways, uphill and downhill. At the crux it was Jon’s and my turn to lead and coach our ‘clients’ movement. Once we had been greeted by the usual tourists at the top the snow started again - Marcus felt he’d been introduced to alpine routes and Jon and I felt we’d been taught some guiding tips and improved our confidence - definitely not brand-based hype! More coffee and talks in the town and back to the tent for tea. Staying in Argentière meant I missed the Saturday night party but I was quickly asleep in the tent.

MSR bivi clinic at Aiguille du plan with terrible weather forecast overnight - bagged the bivi shelter

Our guide Olivier with a steady stream of participants coming down the arete

WOMENS ICE CLIMBING

Staying in Argentière also made Sunday morning awkward - my clinic was meeting in town before the buses starts so I headed down on the first train and the ran to the meeting point in my B2s, only to find the Montreves train was late and we had an hour to spare….time for more coffee and croissant. The women ice clinic was lead by Heke and Tanja Schmitt. If you haven’t heard of them then look them up, they are seriously committed to ice and mixed climbing. Heke had qualified as an IFGM guide the week before and it was nice to see the camaraderie, with all the guides we met congratulating her. I knew the day was going to be a top-rope ‘up and down’ kinda day but hoped it would be confidence-building and any coaching a bonus. Due to the walk up the Mer du Glace from Monteves we didn't have a huge amount of time to climb, but after 5 or 6 pitches I felt like my technique had totally changed. Tanja identified very small improvements that could be made each pitch of climbing - suddenly climbing on ice didn't feel exhausting and felt much more in control. My opinion about ‘women’s only’ stuff has also softened; I’m still in touch with the girl I spent most of the day climbing with. The generic clinic next door, which incidentally was all male, provided plenty of entertainment in the form of Will Gadd demonstrating ice climbing techniques from the decades and then one of the French guides descending a practically vertical section in the style of Hillary et al - scary!. We spent most of the trip back to town chatting to Heke and Tanjia about climbing in various destinations from Cogne to Colorado.

Will Gadd - ‘It’s not ballet its f**king ice climbing!’

Me on the crux (not the most flattering but least its an action shot!)

SUMMARY

Yes the bivi night was a disappointment, but overall the weekend surpassed my expectations; certainly my day on Cosmiques would have been twice the price if not part of the academy and I would probably never have had the chance to learn as much about ice technique without many more years of scratching my crampons around. I even barely noticed Chamonix being any busier than a normal July weekend despite the academy taking over the town centre. I should also note there were lots of other free talks and seminars going on that clashed with my clinics up in the mountains, so if you only wanted one day’s activity there’s lots to see and do. Walking round Chamonix on the Sunday evening I passed the Alpine Village again just as all the guides and event organisers had gathered together - it was clear they had as much of a buzz from the weekend as the participants (see blog post by Andy Perkins for his summary of the event).

Overall I would certainly recommend the event - if you want to cover the basics there’ll be something for you. If you want to try something new, there’s a clinic for that; if you want to learn something specific that will be available too.