James Iddon, Scottish Winter and Alpine Courses 2019
“I attended the Scottish winter and Chamonix Alpine courses in 2019. I wanted to give some feedback as I really appreciate the courses and how they changed my climbing.
Scottish winter course: My guide was Di Gilbert, the lovely Scottish lady who was extremely friendly, knowledgeable and a lot of fun to be in the mountains with. It was only when she gave a talk on her Himalayan adventures on the last evening that I found out she is also a complete badass! I learned a lot during the course: how to navigate in white out conditions (which we had), how to move in crampons, self arrest, route planning and route choice. I met some good friends who I later saw again on the same alpine course as me and climbed together with after that. I felt a lot more competent in the mountains after the course. I didn’t get any Scottish mountaineering done as soon after the course I moved to Geneva.
Alpine Course: My guide was Niel who was very knowledgeable and competent. I was in a group of three guided by him. One of the group is a close friend I had climbed with before the course. We learned a whole lot and after the course I stayed in Chamonix for a week climbing Cosmiques and Arete de la Table with course mates. I really felt like the course was like a driving test – once you are done with it you feel able to go out into the mountains safely but you really start learning once you are free to roam. I was very happy to climb with people with the same knowledge. Over the summer I climbed Rebuffat-baquet and the south west face of Dent du Geant as well as several other smaller (mostly rock routes). Every trip was brilliant and without serious incident.
I am immensely grateful for the two courses and I feel like my climbing / mountaineering has developed massively in the past year. The skills I learned on the courses have really opened up the mountains for me and I’m so happy that I can even look at a peak like Dent du Geant and think I am able to attempt it safely with my friends.
Thanks a lot.”
James Iddon, Scottish Winter and Alpine Courses 2019