Tim and the Team :)

Memories about climbing with Tim? “It was a real experience!”…. seriously: for me it was a real honour to climb with somebody like Tim Emmett on such a nice icefall. Before the climb he gave us some useful tips and it was quite impressive how precise he uses his ice axes…every strike was solid! The location was just next to the bridge “Pont d’Intro” in the valley next to Cogne, and the 100 metre icefall itself is called “Happy Christmas” – (apparently, this name comes from the fact that people committed suicide from the bridge around the holy period of Christmas). We really lived life to its full on that wall! [by Denise]

Cogne : David’s pictures

See beautiful pictures about stage 3 in Cogne on David Ravanel’s gallery.

Goodbye Cogne!

The third stage of Mountain Academy is over We’re back at our homes, immersing into everyday duties… But it doesn’t mean we forgot about you, oh no! We’ve still got a plenty of content coming – pictures, reports and videos. All of that just needs a bit of editing So stay with us and visit the blog soon as we’re gonna post them on a regular basis.

Denise, Milos, Florian, Klemen, Isabel, Clarence, Luka and Bojan saying goodbye to Cogne

A very busy rest day…

Wednesday, rest day. With 3 climbing days in the bag and still 2 climbing days to go, it’s perhaps not such a bad idea to have a rest day. It turns out to be a windy, rather cold day. Some of the mountain guides go out, though, for a reconnaissance of the ice lines for the next days. All of the young participants stay inside to dedicate time to the communication part of the programme. Also, there is a small workshop about how to sharpen your ice axes and crampons. But in the late afternoon we really need to get out, get some fresh air; we go for a walk around the village or a run in the snow. After all, we don’t feel that tired yet…  When we get back to the albergo, it’s pretty busy with MHW staff and athletes, and journalists. What’s our pick for tomorrow? [by Sang]

I love climbing ;)

One more gift for you. Short & funny video the Mountain Academy team shot for St. Valentine’s Day last Tuesday. Enjoy!

Day 3 in a nutshell – video

Yesterday we hit over 500 viewers on the blog! Thank you guys In return we prepared a day-3-video for you. Despite constant power cuts in the hut, the edit is now ready – hope you’ll enjoy it!

Day 3 – (n)ice learning and development

On day 3 we focused on learning good techniques, so we split up the group a bit… one team went to some ice crags close to Lillaz, with shorter routes practicing techniques like how to properly position the crampons; good resting techniques on vertical walls; straight arms with bent knees and ankles to avoid the arms to get too pumped, to improve placing the ice-screws correctly, increase the precision with the ice-axes etc. It’s all elementary stuff that’s key to move onwards and upwards!