Rain over Chamonix

Still raining! Mont Blanc is hidden by cloud when looking from the office. Thinking to finish up here and head home for a bit in a few minutes and see what's happening in the Delice in Les Houches before tootling off home for a spot of dinner. There's a few rumbles of thunder in the heavens too - might even get a evening show of electricity over the evening meal.

Raining over the Bossons Glacier


More rain up on the Aiguille du Midi (peak far right) and the Mont Blanc Massif.

Stormy Weekend

Woke up this morning and there was absolutely no hot water - not even lukewarm. Had a dig around with Andy's missus - Bex - amongst all the workings of the house to try and sort out the problem but no chance. Looks like the continual, massive thunderstorm last night at some stage knocked all the power out to the farm and reset a load of the electrics - including the water pumps.

By continual, I mean continual. It's been raining solidly for the past day and a bit (aside from a brief 1 hour window yesterday when I managed to get out for a quick run). Torrential rain, thick cloud, misty forests, the rumbles and growls of angry thunder echoing around the valley bouncing of the mountains, flashes of lightning - it's just been non-stop.

After having spoken to Bex, it seems that those downstairs were awoken at around 4.30am by the same really long, loud peal of thunder that shook the farmhouse and rattled the windows. Apparently Crampons thought it was an avalanche it was so loud! Anyways, looks like we all had an interrupted night's sleep so everyone's looking a little tired and bedraggled today. I feel resolutely fine though (aside from the current no-washing issue), and feel even more pleased to have gone further and higher up on my run without having to stop for a break yesterday. Must be getting fitter!

I'm not feeling the love for taking Merv out to Cham through the pouring rain, so might just carry on working from home today.

Where's the summer gone?

So it's been raining for the past couple of days. The forecast is that it's going to rain cats and dogs for the next two. Bah. I thought this was supposed to be summer!

Things I've done in the past 3 days:

1) Went climbing to Gaillands with Chris and did a multipitch to the very top of the Forestier crag. We had an adventure around the woods on the top of the cliffs then abseiled down a chimney after doing a rather cool little traverse on a rock knife edge ridge.
2) Went out for a beer into Cham with Chris and met up with Brian (just returning from spending the past couple of days climbing enormous routes high up in the mountains) and Emma and had an MBC burger.
3) Been strimming the grass and undergrowth around the farmhouse to make it look pretty and nice.
4) Worked from home.
5) Looked at clouds being pushed around the valley below.
6) Listened to the rain fall (a lot) and gotten woken up by storms regularly.

Standard stuff really - nothing terribly exciting to report unfortunately but next week looks awesome for the weather. Looking forward to getting out for a bit of monkey activity on the rock and this period of inactivity is pretty cool for going for runs in the breaks in the weather and letting the fingers and hands and rest of body heal up from small dinks and bruises.

Proof

I wasn't kidding yesterday about the weather raining and raining. I don't mind though, got lots of work to do.

Layered cloud outside the office.

Still raining!

Had a quick look at the weather forecast today on Cham valley and I've got to say, it's not terribly inspiring for outdoor pursuits. I don't mind at all - I've got loads of work to do, but it feels a bit claustrophobic in the valley with dense cloud half-way up the mountains above and the thick green vegetation growing up on each side. It feels a bit like living in the Eden Project!

The weather report:


Even the Arve river's got a brown tinge to it as the water endlessly runs off the mountain. The valley has it's own very unique weather patterns governed by the high peaks all around, and I've been reading quite a bit about meteorological conditions in mountains so I'm more informed for climbing, backcountry snowboarding, hiking or really in case anything should go wrong. Plus it's interesting. I've experienced many Föhn winds over the past months and seen some really whacky lenticular clouds around the various mountains but especially Mont Blanc.

Anyways back to work. Got SQL to write.