Mountaineering: Rock climb

The next morning the alarms went off at 4.30am and Andrew's words of advice going around in my head helped me worm myself out of my cosy cocoon. "Nothing guarantees success in the mountains like a pre-dawn start."

The stars were beautiful, the whole milky way on display in the absence of the moon. We forced down some breakfast then set off up the boulders, headlamp lights bobbing along in the darkness.

It was cold but we were warm by the time we'd hiked up to the col and turned to see an orange glow building in the sky to the east as some birds filled the valley with their echoing squalks. Now light enough to see without our torches, we went down the ominously named Body Bag Bowl, over more boulders with rocky slopes to either side and a dim view of the mountains ahead. The glow of sunrise was behind us, so we watched the world be lit up from behind. The sky above the mountains turned pinky red in a long band on the horizon, making it look as though the whole world had a halo. Then the sunlight spilled over onto the mountain tops, bathing rock and ice in pink-golden light. Long shadows appeared and moved over the landscape as the sun rose quickly in the sky. We were in the cool shadow of Blackcomb peak all morning but the views of the sun drenched world were spectacular! 

Once we had hiked down into the valley and around the side of the mountain, we were at the base of Blackcomb peak and started making our way up its talus slopes (that's more boulders) to get to the base of the rock climb, where we stopped for second breakfast. The buttress we were going up looked cool from the bottom and we set off with Andrew in front, stopping on ledges on the way up. The rock was really solid and nice to climb and you could see down on either side to the couloirs below - enough of a view to make your heart flutter but not enough to be terrifying! 

The buttress brought us onto a beautiful sunny ledge near the top and we stopped for a snack and a rest in the sunshine, oggling the incredible views and feeling very lucky indeed for the fabulous weather! Two blokes passed us here on a trail run / rock climb, the only other people we saw in the area the whole time.

Then we had to shimmy up through a little chimney and walk out onto the summit for a full 360 view in the hot sun and not a breath of wind! It was only 10am, so we hung out at the top for a while, reluctant to leave the views behind. 

The walk from the summit back to camp was only an hour over boulders and we had lunch and then napped for a few hours before an afternoon session of rock skills, where I learned how to ascend a rope using two smaller ropes (prussiks) and descend safely by repelling. 

Another sunset dinner and a cup of tea as the moon got brighter, then it was bedtime. 

(See if you can spot the Black Tusk in the panorama - looks pretty gnarly, can't believe Dave and I went up it!)