An intensive long weekend ice climbing progressing from single to multi pitch ice routes.
Location: Champoleon, Southern French Alps
Challenge yourself, learn new skills and discover the magnificent hidden world of ice falls on this guided ice climbing weekend in the Alps.
This is a progressive course aimed at learning the fundamental skills and climbing techniques for ice climbing to be able to progress quickly onto multi pitch ice falls. We use a high guide ratio with just three people to a guide from day two to ensure quality one to one instruction so everyone can reach their potential and maximise their experience learning to ice climb and improving their ice climbing skills no matter what your ability level.
You will learn how to place your ice axe, get a firm grip with your crampons and balance your body to climb up the beautiful vertical ice falls. As you progress you will also learn how to place ice screws, belay each other and ice climb safely and securely. Find out more about more about ice climbing.
The southern French Alps is famous for its variety and quality of winter ice climbs which means there are many to choose from depending on the temperatures and local conditions at the time. Your guides will choose the best frozen waterfalls from this magnificent range of possibilities taking into account the local conditions so you can climb in optimal conditions. Read more about ice climbing in the southern French Alps
Ice falls can change on a daily basis and it is important to be up to date with the current weather, temperatures, quantities of water and precipitation and ice fall evolution to make a proper safety assessment. Your guides for this trip are all fully qualified UIAGM high mountain guides with this local knowledge and experience and hand picked for their positive attitude and professionalism with safety as their first priority.
Our ice climbing mountain guides are all highly passionate about ice climbing and have a very high level of technical ice climbing skill as well as ice and mixed climbing, rock climbing and winter mountaineering skills and experience to share with you!
This course is aimed at beginners with an adventurous and go for it attitude. You don't need to be experienced ice climbers or have any prior ice climbing experience but if you have previous rock climbing experience, this will be an advantage. You do need a reasonable level of fitness to be able to sustain a full day of activity in cold weather conditions.
Have a look at our winter activity kit list at the ice climbing section for more information on what kit you will need to bring. All technical equipment is provided but you will need your own personal kit including mountaineering boots that will take a step in crampon. These are available to hire if you don't have your own (they are expensive to buy so best to hire for this trip).
For this ice climbing course, you need to get to the town of Gap for the morning of the first day of the trip. This is possible using the overnight sleeper train from Paris or travelling the day before and staying in a hotel overnight. Please ask if you require a hotel for your first and / or last nights - we can arrange this for you.
Gap is on the SNCF train service which has links from Paris (overnight sleeper), Valence, Grenoble or Aix-en-Provence TGVs. You can plan your journey here form any European train station using Oui SNCF website
The nearest airports are Grenoble or Marseille. From Marseille airport there is a regular coach shuttle directly to Gap every 2 hours or so. Have a look at the timetables here. From Grenoble you would need to get to the train station form the airport via an airport shuttle and then get the train.
We can help you plan your journey, please ask us about getting here when you enquire.
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