Saturday, 30 July 2011

three full walking days to go wooh

weve been back in france for a few days now. col de la siegne was the border and it was the first border we could actually stop for more than two minutes before freezing. we managed to cross the border in a varuey of ways from handstands t flips to jumps. it could have kept us amused for hours.

that night we stayed in our first refuge and as they were full we got upgraded to rooms of four for free until the horrible woman tried charging us fifty euros a head. grr. we finally won tho after threatening to leave and paid the price we were told when w booked and enjoyed the showers food and acordian playing. the girls attepmted to wah pretty much evry item of clothing weowned which made for good bag decoration the next day. heehee.

as already posted the next day was tough but amazing to arrive at our highest point to a snowy col. the kids donned theirwaterproof trousers and went tobogganing much to some fench womans disgust. bambi on ie was definaely an apt term.steep steep down and then have arrived at les contamines this morning. once again ive been abandoned with the bags while they all shopfor another five kilos of sweets each. fours da left walkin including today. yeah. even better now is that everyone we meet has only just started and how good does that feel.

Friday, 29 July 2011

Wednesday 26th.

No signal again yesterday !It probably was the toughest day so far.We gained 1200m of height going up a very strange mountain ! It drizzled most of the day too! We are about 2 hours away from France, we have a short day ahead so we are going to have a lie in.
 Then its off to refuge de mottets!

Your half way there team, and doing well !
 We are so proud of you all !
 xxxxxxxxxxxx

Tuesday, 26 July 2011

courmayer today.

Hello!
No signal yesterday ! We crossed the grand col ferret into Italy yesterday.It was sunny but freezing at the top.So we couldn't stop for long.We then descended in hail and snow !It wasn't long until it stopped and we camped by a glacial stream,ooh it was cold !
Today we have made it to courmayer, and we are now awaiting pizza !
We are beginning to ache today, and some of us have the dreaded blisters.

Keep going team !!

interdite in Italy

in courmayer. we succeessfully managed to surive our first illegal activity in italy by sneakily wild camping in some woods by a glacial river. wooh. we were excited by entering italy as switzerland was so so expensive. boo. it was roasting hot on our was up the thousand m height climb to the grand col feret which is the boarder but after putting off our picnic for a few hours we were dissappointed as it was so freezing we had to run off down the other side into italy while it snowed nd hailed on us again. in the vally it was sunny again and we dried all our stuff out. awesome day today to refuge bonatti and then bertone before down ro courmayer. tomorrow were heading up to the col de seigne ti camp by a mountain tarn for a wild swim. apologies for the bad typing abusing the kindle for free wifi. bring on the pizza

Monday, 25 July 2011

Hannahs birthday. Sunday eve.

Much better afternoon,walked through snow this morning in the mountains ! Now celebrating Hannahs birthday with a fondue !

Sunday, 24 July 2011

Third day.

...and if it hasn't rained enough in the last few 48 hours , today it is sleeting !
Not the best of days for Hannahs 18th birthday! Please send us some sunshine !

Congratulations Hannah, hope you still get to celebrate in style,Love from your Mum and all of us here.
xxxx

Saturday, 23 July 2011

MORE NEWS !

Saturday 23rd July.
Tu le grands hut.Then onto col de forclaz.Then near alp bovine.It has rained for 21 hours , but the sun has been out for a couple of hours and they are all drying out and the team are smiling again !

 We wont let them know that dorset have had e beautiful summers day ! Lets keep our fingers crossed for a drier day for them tomorrow.

Mels mum here attempting to BLOG !!

Well the team arrived safely after very little sleep the previous night ! On arrival in Chamonix, of course it was raining! Though the excitement had kicked in and all were busy with their cameras taking photos of a very wet Chamonix,

Friday 23nd July.
Cole de balme.
Weather is much better,the sun is shining ! Off for a stroll to Switzerland. After an awesome meal,your youngsters carried two roast chickens up a mountain ! Hot, hot, hot ! (not sure whether that was the weather or the roast chickens ) but im sure either way it was good !!

P.S   Just have to say, YIPPEE ive fiished school today, and im a happy bunny !!!
( oh yes im as nutty as my daughter)

More news from the team soon.

Thursday, 21 July 2011

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

Ash....

erm why are making everyone leave so early :P Hahah we get three more hours sleep then you guys.

Faye....

Where are you?! Me and Chris got here BEFORE seven and we are still waiting for you to turn up! we want sleep

Boo to you

Time for an early night....

Wooh!!!!! 5 hours to go....!!!

Definately time for a nap.... only Faye hasn't arrrived! Why doesnt taht surprise me! The boys are dying to get to bed but i said they had to wait to see Faye. Is that mean?!

See everyone in 2 and a half weeks. Yeah!

Yeah!

That's better!

Ok, so if in doubt keep searching until you find a better forecast and stick with that one!!!!

Yeah!!

Boooo!!!

Who odered this?!

Monday, 18 July 2011

Our tour by pictures thanks to Gill Robinson!

Faye's mum has done an amazing photgraphic time schedule for our tour. We are now planning to complete the route in reverse day 3 to 13! 

We decided to reverse the route to go against the flow of all the tourists. This means we'll always meet new people instead of the same people over and over and it hopefully means that our mornings and late afternoons will be lots quieter with just a busy cross over in the afternoon.

Thanks Gill, this is brilliant!

Not long now...!!!!

Day 1    Travel to Chamonix   

  
Day 2    Stay at hostel in Les Houches  

  
Day 3    Trek from Les Houches to Les Contamines (via Coi de Tricot) 14km  


Day 4    Trek to Les Chipieux 17km  


Day 5    Trek to Rifugio Elisabetta 13.5km  


Day 6    Trek to Rifugio Monte Bianco 11.5km  

  
Day 7    Trek to Refugio Bertone 9km  


Day 8    Trek to Rifugio Elena 16km  


Day 9    Trek to La Forly 11km  

  
Day 10   Trek to Champex 14km  


Day 11   Trek to Le Peuty 14.5km  


Day 12   Trek to Tre le Champ 12km  


Day 13   Trek to Les Houches 20.5km


Day 14   extra day in case they need it

Day 15   Visit to Mer de Giace  



and Aguille du Midi 
       


Day 16    Fly from Geneva  



Sunday, 17 July 2011

Hello from Mels Mum!

Hi im learning how to edit the blog.You will have to be patient with me to start with as this is completely new to me as a mere mum !

I will try to keep all you worried mums and dads up to date with their travels.


Saturday, 16 July 2011

Recent training...

Wooh! Under a week and I've neglected the blog! Really should be packing now too but time to sneak up a few pictures to document some of the acitivites of the team mates over the last few weeks with them successfully completing several levels of DOE...



The sock drying technique! The first day of the gold expedition was awful! Torrential rain and hail! Who orders that?!



The gold group storming the mugwumps on the horizon...

And then celebrating in style at the finish line... With Ben getting a face full of champagne!!



Jack cooking on silver



Chris loves sharpies!!



Camp fire games on silver...


Adam wasn't so successful at those camp fire games!!!

Chris, Ben and Laura hunting for geocaches and letter boxes on Crockern Tor.





Faye has retrieved a couple of geocoins for us to whisk away over to the Alps



You would have thought after our training weekends Ben would have learn to lighten his load... But no!! His gold DOE bag was over 26kg without the group food!!



He did have a few snacks in there though!!

We manged to remove 6kg of extra snacks....





Laura forgot everything.... Including her hat! So got to take one of these attactive ones...

Faye and Laura's love affair was cemented further as they shared desert!




The gold team ready to go.


Ben loves Dartmoor! But will he love the alps more?!


An excellent make shift washing line... if you don't mind the gorse prickles getting stuck in your socks...

And any guesses as to who feels the need to dry their hair bow out!?



Ben's jet boil love continues!

Congratulations to Laura, Faye and Ben for completing their Gold DOE with huge ease despite the evil weather!

Congratulations to Jack and Adam for completing their Silver DOE with some cool kit!

And to Chris for putting up with Mel for a whole week and sacrificing a week to help out with the gold supervision...