The Vallee Blanche is a classic route in the French alps, a ridge walk from an epic cable car and then onto a 20km slope down through a colossal glacier above Chamonix. Just before we had arrived in Chamonix in late January they had some of the heaviest snowfall for a generation, which sounds great but threw up quite a few problems… The resort avalanche risk was level 5 (the highest possible) and you could hear avalanches high above the town below. Other people had been stranded in the weeks before in other resorts, but we at least flew in easily enough! The result of this being that for our first couple of days boarding most of the valley was closed and we had to go to the lower valley of Les Houches.

It is amazing to sit in your apartment and look up and see where you are going to walk along a few thousand feet above. We had a few days to find our feet before we met our guide Stuart. We had a coffee and sorted out the various harnesses and crampons over a coffee in the morning and the legendary Aiguille Du Midi cable car was still shut. We were planning other options until eventually the lift opened and we were able to ascend the 2800 meters to the top.

Later in the season the path along the Vallee Blanche ridge becomes quite wide and is well roped but at this point it was partially roped and pretty narrow! We put our crampons on, strapped our skis/boards to our bags and headed out from the lift station onto the exposed ridge. I had been a little apprehensive about this but it is actually fairly chilled walking along as the crampons give so much grip.

Crampons on and boards strapped in for the ridge walk

Jim navigating the lower ridge

Once we had finished the climb down the ridge it was time to start the long descent down into the valley.

Jim Dickson

Will Laws

Due to the recent snowfall the snow at the top was fantastic long powdery runs whilst admiring the vast and empty space around us.

Jim

Our guide Stu

Sketchy ice boulder drop off

Glacier floor. I was worried this would be a long walk but was actually okay even on a snowboard!

Natural ice cave

Moon rising over Chamonix

All in all it was an amazing day and well worth the effort, thanks again to Stuart for guiding us.

Hut on the way up to Mostnice waterfall

After a few days celebrating for my friend’s stag do in Ljubljana I headed to Lake Bohinj on my own to explore the beautiful countryside of Slovenia. I didn’t have a lot of time unfortunately, so I just walked around the lake and up into the nearby mountains for a few days staying in a basic but very nice room in a guest house. The landscapes of Slovenia are of the purest and greenest colors I think I have even seen, I guess especially as this was earlier in the year. Small huts dotted the landscape as you headed further away from civilisation and into the looming mountains above.

View from mountain restaurant

There were a few restaurants and guest houses actually on the lower parts of the mountains which served some great food but played some very questionable ‘Euro’ music… But the view and the strudel made up for the dodgy tunes!

Forest lizard

Whilst walking I came across several of these guys making their way around the hillsides.

View from the ‘devils bridge’

Several times one crossed streams and it was hard to believe just how clear and blue the water was. You didn’t have to look for long to see quite large fish swimming under rocks.

Lake Bohinj at sunset

Stream at dusk

River near lake Bled

I only stopped for the day in Lake Bled. Enough time to go and jump off some waterfalls in the pursuit of ‘canyoning’ (unfortunately I managed to forget my GoPro which was the sole purpose of bringing it on the trip…). Basically a local lunatic takes you to a series of increasingly high waterfalls which you jump off. The last of which we were told didn’t have a very deep pool beneath so we had to sort of fall backwards as to not break our legs… All good fun!

Lake Bled

Lake Bled from above

After a much needed lunch of the local specialty of sausage and mashed potato with onion and a few beers we went for a walk around the lake and then the chair lift to get a view down towards the Lake Bled. There was a sort of self controlled luge on a rail which descended back down which was pretty deadly but fun.

Overview of Ljubljana from the castle

In June I visited Slovenia, originally going for a friend’s stag do but I arrived a day early to get a feel of the city before the stag commenced. I didn’t know a lot about Slovenia, but I quickly learned that Slovenia is known for it’s beautiful lakes and landscapes. It turns out there are also a lot of fine buildings and many beautiful squares separated by the winding river in the capital Ljubljana. Looking down from the castle that sits above the city I was struck by the contrast of the orange roofs against the turquoise of the river and trees.

I wandered around the town before heading up to the castle which sits high above the city and provides stunning views across the city and into the distance of the small country of Slovenia. Every restaurant and bar we went to the people were very welcoming, surprising as at this point there were 12 of us turning up without booking anything! I can throughly recommend the local bread with soft white cheese in it, the perfect way to start the day.

Ljubljana castle

Spiral staircase in Ljubljana castle

Underground reservoir beneath Ljubljana castle