Diarmuid Collins

Pictures from hikes on Cime du Diable and Cime du Mont Claiper uploaded.

Wrecked after a weekend of hiking. On Saturday did a hike from La Madone de Fenestre to Col de Fenestre and across to Lac de Trecolpas. The hike took about 6 hours (970m climbed) and was not too stressful

On Sunday I went back to La Madone de Fenestre to do a “classic” AD mountaineering route. Pierre Axel left Nice at 9am to begin our climb at 10:50. The approach took about 1hour 20mins to climb the 500m to the base of the climb.

For the next 7 hours we climbed the 7 pitches to the summit. We were quite slow as it was my first mountaineering route and PA’s first in 3 years. We summited at 7:45 and were back at the car at 22:10. The climb was quite “airy” but not too difficult. However the exposure added a lot to the climbing.

Completed my first unguided 4000m climb in the Alps. Tamas and I set off on Friday from Nice on the 500km drive to Saas Fee. On arrival we got the last cable car to 3000m and short 1 hour hike to the Britannica hut. After a few hours sleep we awoke at 2:45 and started the hike at 3:45. The start was a steady climb on the glacier with no route finding issues.

On reaching the ridge we followed a well worn path up to the rock step. This was a long steep slog (upto 40 degrees at times). The step was snowed over and due to the congestion we climbed together on the one rope with some protection. We summited at 11:30.

Tamas made a video of the climb:

Gallery of the two day hike up to Cime De Roccassiera uploaded

I added a few more picture galleries especially to 2006:

After St Patrick’s Day disappointment of losing out on the Six Nation Championship Yvonne and I went for a walk along the coast from Nice to the Palais Materlinck. Caitriona will be having her wedding reception here so it was a good opportunity to check it out

Also uploaded my Bolivia pictures to the new gallery

I added a few new galleries tonight. The first was from a long weekend in Chamonix. The weather was quite warm resulting in rain to 2200m on two days but still one great day skiing in Grand Montets

Last weekend a few of us did a short walk around Cap Ferrat. Great day out for mid March

Another week without snow, so Helmut and I decided to start out snowshoeing careers. We drove to Isola2000 and after renting shoes we start on out hike to Tete Merciere. It took about 2.5 hours to reach the peak and back down in less than 2. A great day out and despite packing way too much clothes it wasn’t too strenuous. The summit was at 2493m

Pictures Here

To get the New Year off to a good start Yvonne and I went for a hike from Boreon. We were hoping to do some snowshoeing but there was not enough snow at 1500m so settled for a small hike

Pictures Here

Spent the weekend in Italy. Drove to Rapello and checked out Monterosso and Vernazza on Saturday and Portofino on Sunday. Very nice

The weather at the weekend was good so I figured I would make the most of it while it lasts. I haven’t hiked in the Haute Tinee region this summer so now was a good time to try. We drove to Isola2000, a local ski station during the winter, arriving around 12h30. This was probably about 1 hour later than we should have been there as the hike I had picked was estimated to be 5h30. Isola looks quite different with no snow around,

After just under 2 hours we reached Baisse Druos (2620m) This is the boarder with Italy.

After 40mins we were at Baisse de la Lause, the pass back into France. Then a long trek of almost 3 hours to Col Merciere. It was getting dark as we arrived at this col overlooking Isola.

Another 50 mins back to the car The full gallery is here

I went for a relatively easy walk on Sunday 29th October with Damo, Lou, Yvonne and Fred. The hike starts from Utelle in the Vesubie valley. Utelle is about 1 hours drive from Nice and the hike was described as a 4hr30 sporty hike. The views from the top are amazing.. Here is the gallery and I also created a magnalog of the walk