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ALPINE INSTRUCTION FOR BEGINNERS

Basic skills can be learned to an extent from various instruction manuals and DVDs, but mountaineering courses have a more immediate practical impact. Among those based in the Alps, the International School of Mountaineering (ISM) run alpine courses from their operations centre in Leysin (www.alpin-ism.com). Alpine instruction is also given by qualified British Mountain Guides (www.bmg.org.uk), and a number of commercial organisations run courses and mountaineering holidays in the Alps. Study advertisements in the outdoor press for details. For an entertaining primer, John Barry’s Alpine Climbing (Crowood Press, 1995) is highly recommended.

With their snow cover gone, ‘dry’ glaciers like this are safer to cross as crevasses should be clearly visible

Clothing and equipment for climbing/mountaineering

The list below is neither comprehensive nor prescriptive, but offered as a general guide for an alpine summer. If technical climbing is not on the agenda, a number of these items will not be required.