Arc'teryx Alpine Academy

The Beginning

It all started with a pleasant walk on a Friday afternoon. My wife and I were looking for a pair of hiking shoes and went for the Transa Flagshipstore in Zürich (see http://www.transa.ch). At the entrance we were greeted by a "light a gasoline cooker in under 2min" challenge. Of course we took the challange. Four days later, on tuesday I got the "Congratulations! You won the participation at the Arc'teryx Alpine Academy" eMail. What a pleasant surprise.

What followed was an exiting time up to and during the Academy Weekend (see http://arcteryxacademy.com) with a lot of new experiences and encounters.


The Preparation

As a non-alpinist I had to get in shape and train for the event. Hiking on a glacier in 3800m altitude is nothing you do every day. Therefore a little extra effort was needed. Luckily I had just bought new hiking shoes for out winter snow-shoeing. They are "Crampon"-ready would do for the weekend.

We started with some easy hikes on and over the Uetliberg to get comfortable with the shoes. For the training I always took my complete photo equipment with me. Highly exaggerated but good for the weight. We also did a early morning hike over the Lägeren (see http://braindew.postach.io/a-short-hike-lageren). The last preparation hike was a 2.5 day hike from the "Murgsee" to the "Spitzmeilenhütte" with a beautifull sunrise. After these hikes I felt ready for Chamonix.


Ready for the Academy


In the meantime I chose my clinics for the weekend: Alpine Photography on Friday evening and Saturday and Introduction to technical mountaineering (Part 1) on Sunday. We were also introduced by email to the other winners, and were informed about our location in Chamonix and other details needed. Communication and information during prepartion was perfect. A good omen for the weekend.


Arriving in Chamonix

Matthias, the other winner from Switzerland and I got to Chamonix by car. We could also have taken the train to Geneva Airport and a shuttle from there but this would have taken us of an hour longer and with all that equipment a train-ride is not funny.

Finding the Arcteryx Campus was easy, as it was right in front of the Aiguillle du Midi base station. There we met with Sonja from Arctery and the other winners from Germany and proceeded to registration. Sonja did a great job in taking care of us and making sure that we would always feel "looked after". Thank you Sonja for your effort.

Arc'teryx, together with its partners Petzl, Scarpa, Suunto and Hilleberg also had a lot of testing material. I needed some to fill the gaps in my equipment. I borrowed a pair of crampons, a helmet and a standard ice axe. There were also shoes, jackets and many other equipment to try. The whole process from registration to test material took around 15min. Not long, considering the 300+ participants.

We were hosted in the Chalet Chintalaya just 5min walk from the campus. The chalet has two parking spaces, rooms with en suite bathrooms (cool), a fridge that is filled up every morning (excellent) and a hot tub in the garden (even more excellent)! And France wouldn't be France if there were not two bottles of wine for our welcome. But there was more! Every participant got a brand new backpack from Arcteryx. Enough to make us feel spoiled.

And yes, we did try the Hot Tub:


Relaxing in the hot tub


Welcome to the Academy

My Friday started slowly. As my clinic started in the late afternoon, I had almost all day to explore the campus and Chamonix. The campus was a little tent village, with all the partners and supporters of the Academy. There was even a radio station. One could also take a challenge tour with six "stations". One of them being "knots", another was "pitching a tent". Luckily my life this weekend would not depend on knot I had to tie. I managed to pitch the tent in a little over 5min. Wich was not bad, according to the lady at the Hilleberg booth, but my roommate Matthias did in 2:50min and the record of the event was less than half of my time. So much for 5min is not bad. But it's nice to be treated nicely.

For those who brought their own crampons, Petzl offered the opportunity to sharpen them at their booth. Of course they gave advice on how to do it right:


Sharpening the crampons


Another interesting activity took place at the Gore-Tex-Booth. One could sew a small bag out of Gore-Tex. In less than 15min I had a very versatile, orange and simple bag that I used for food storage in my backpack.

And then there was the Peak Design tent (see https://peakdesignltd.com). As an amateur photographer I use to carry my camera with me. And I know that if it not within my reach, I will not take any pictures. Peak Design developed a whole ecosystem of straps and plates that allows you to fix your camera on your backpack, your hip or anywhere around your shoulder. Really ingenious stuff. And, they are very nice and competent people.

Even better, as a participant of the Alpine Photography Clinic I got to choose from their products. Now I have a plate on my Canon EOS 6D that allows me to attach it to my rucksack-strap and that also serves as the fixation for my Manfrotto RC2 tripod head. Thank you Peak Design.


Alpine Photography Clinic

Finally, it was time to meet with Peter Mathis (see http://www.mathis-photographs.at) and the other participants of the Alpine Photography Clinic. As we got up to Aiguille du Midi the weather had turned from sunshine to clouds and rain'n'snow. Not the best weather but maybe good for some misty shots. Once at the top of the cable-car at 3842m Peter made a first introduction about alpine photography and the group stated to get ready and to take photos.



Not the best weather



Impressive clouds


After this photo session we started our tour to the Refuge des Cosmiques. With 14 participants we had three guides. That made us too big for every individual wish, but small enough for ad-hoc changes in plan. And because of the weather they were necessary. The initial plan was to go to the refuge, have supper and then go to the Hilleberg Bivy for sunset. But with the conditions changing from just clouds to medium snowfall, we skipped that and stayed in and around the refuge.


Hiking up to the refuge



The shoe room



One of our guides



Moving in



Checking the weather outside



Looking for signal


The sunrise

The next morning we got up at 4am with perfect weather. Everyone went out to try to get that "magical moment":


Sunrise



Le refuge des Cosmiques



Moonset in the sunrise



L'Aiguille du Midi



What a beautiful morning



Everyone was looking for a good shot



What an impressive landscape



Our guide waiting for breakfast



The Hilleberg Bivy-Clinic

Our breakfast was served at 7am. At the Cosmiques they serve breakfast at 1am, 3am, 5am and 7am. With a rather strict policy: Not on time is not on time. Means, if you are not in the breakfast room at the time of breakfast, they wait for 5min you have to wait another 2h. A little strange and maybe a litte french but a rule is a rule. And it's the only refuge I know that serves breakfast this early.

After breakfast we went back to the Aiguille the Midi and to Chamonix for the second part of the clinic: the discussion with Peter about our photos.



Just happy being there



Everything for a good photo



Climbers climbing



Everyone is happy

At the end everyone was a litte tired but happy over an excellent day with new friends, mountains, sun and pictures.


Technical Mountaineering Part 1.

Sunday started with a beautiful clear sky that slowly started to become cloudy. Just enough time for some other shots of the spectacular scenery:


Just plain impressive



Clouds are coming


I chose technical mountaineering, so that I would get a small insight into what I did and why the day before. And it was very worth it. Our guide Jacky introduced us into the techniques of rope handling, securing a small group while walking over a glacier and basic rescue if someone falls into a crevasse. Simulating the fall was one of most funny parts of the whole weekend.


Two are running, one is trying to stop them.


We attached two people onto a third one. The two started to run in one direction and the third had to stop them. Normally this would end with him being dragged over the snow and laughing loud. But once you had learned the right technique, even the smallest and lightest participants could stop two big men from running.


Preparing the next exercise



With the belay ready, try making a pulley



Checking the belay


Conclusion

After three interesting days there is only one possible conclusion: it was a great weekend. I met a lot of interesting people, made new friends and I did things I wouldn't have done otherwise.

Things I liked:
  • My chalet-mates
  • Making new friends
  • Our "self filling" fridge in the chalet
  • The way Sonja cared about us
  • The hot tub
  • The sunrise
  • Discussing photos with Peter Mathis
  • The Peak Design System
Thinks I didn't like:
  • Leaving on Sunday
  • The crowded refuge des Cosmiques
  • French queuing
  • Bad weather


The winning team


I will plan for return next year.

cu there,
Georg.