And so day two of the course proper began quite gently really, which in fact straight after breakfast manifested itself in the garden of the hotel, learning various rope skills with Andy our instructor.

Armed with a host of carabiners, slings, ropes and various other strange looking devices, oh yes and also the stump of a tree, we practiced all sorts of things which we would later put into practice either on the glacier, or otherwise climbing somewhere. It was a bit safer to teach us in the garden, Andy reckoned, and this is an introductory course after all.

Learning how to secure things properly whilst on 'dry' land 🙂

The training was great. Andy is a great and very patient teacher, and he needs it with people like me! Before you can learn to do anything there are so many knots that you need, and so when asked to do a clove hitch I just look blankly and said ‘help’! I am glad to say that I can now do this, helped by a strange arm-crossing movement which at least means I can remember it. I can also do Italian hitches, double-threaded figure of eights (used when you are at the end, as opposed to the middle, of a rope), and various other useful ones. I hope to be able to remember them all under pressure.

I also now know what a prussic rope is for! This great revelation will come in very handy in so many situations, but I can now tie a prussic knot (French and English varieties, if you please) and use one. I can also differentiate between different types of carabiners, know how the loading works, when to use each kind etc. Before I went on this course, I have to say that I could tie a reef knot, and that that was probably it, so the learning curve was certainly steep, but thankfully never insurmoutable.

So armed with all sorts of new knowledge, we set out for our hut in the afternoon, armed with crampons, ice-axes, various ropes and harnesses etc, to climb our first Alpine peak.

On our way through the meadows for our first peak....

The walk was tough, made tougher by the very hot weather. The weather forecast I looked at last week showed temperatures in Arolla at around about the freezing mark. This week it has been around 25C here every day. We climbed out of Arolla, at 2000m, up to our base for the evening, the Aiguilles Rouge hut. The hut is at 2,850m, and the walk took around 3 and a half hours. On our way up we stopped in a few snowy spots to learn how to make anchors using ice-axes, and we would get to put this into use in anger the following day.

Practicing ice-axe crevasse rescue techniques in the snow

The views on the way up of the surrounding mountains were absolutely stunning. We had great views of Mont Collon (3,637m, Pigne D’Arolla (3,796m, our destination for Friday apparently), and so many other glorious as yet unidentified peaks. Here are some views:

View back down the valley from about 2,700m on way to Aiguilles Hut

The path towards the hut.....

And the hut finally comes into view........

The hut was a typical Alpine hut, small dormitory bedrooms, a communal eating area, and no facilities to speak of, or not inside anyway. To clean your teeth or get water (although undrinkable) you had to walk down to a tap outside. To go to the toilet you had to walk about 25 vertical metres down a sharp hill to a ‘drop-off’ toilet – memories of Kilimanjaro came flooding back to me.

The Aiguilles Rouges Hut, at about 2.850m, our home for the night.....

...and the view of the hut from the other side.....

....and the 'drop-off' toilets - definitely a precarious place to perch.

Dinner was great. Loads of soup, a big hearty roast beef dinner, and custard pudding to finish with. A few glasses of wine seemed a good idea, which Kelly, Andreas and I quaffed. Andy said he had never seen anyone come to a hut and drink two bottles of wine. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I thought we were being quite reserved 🙂

We were all in bed at around 9.30, as we would need to be ready to go at 5 the next morning. The dormitory was comfortable (we had a place for the four of us to ourselves) but sleep was very hard to come by for me – Kelly said she struggled badly too. Maybe it was the altitude, maybe the thought of getting up at 4am, maybe the trepidation/excitement of scaling your first ever Alpine peak.

Pointe de Vouassan would be our destination in the morning. I was quite nervous – how would I fare at 3,500m on crampons?