Eva Eskilsson

Did you ever experience standing on a mountain summit? You wish to be on that mountain peak looking down instead of the other way around. You want to experience those remote places where you are exposed to the laws of nature. You want to feel the joy and satisfaction of reaching higher than you thought you could. Here are a few tips on how to get started.

Coming to the Chamonix valley for a ski holiday can be the best experience of your life, but you can also end up frustrated in enormous lift queues, off-piste terrain turned into mogul fields or lost in confusion not knowing where to go. Most people coming to Chamonix without knowing the area never experience the true beauty of the high mountains or the amazing ski runs to the remote parts of the Mt Blanc mountain range.

When climbing mountains you want your back pack to be light and organized. If you are new to mountaineering it is good to have a check list of what to bring and what to wear. I suggest the following items to for a summer ascent of Mt Blanc. The equipment list applies quite well to most alpine one-day summit climbs, although the actual climbing gear varies.

To climb the relatively easy 4000m peaks of the Alps you still need to be an accomplished mountaineer, or a good winter mountain walker climbing together with a mountain guide. However, some of these summits are accessible to mountaineers without much technical climbing skill via their normal routes. Once properly acclimatized several spectacular 4000m summits are achievable for most mountaineers with basic skills.

Lofoten is a long rock chain of islands in northern Norway, know as one of the most spectacular and beautiful destinations in Europe. Among climbers it is famous for having great trad climbing. In early summer the sun never disappears behind the horizon and there is no need to bring your head torch when going for the big walls. Bring your rain pants though!

On Lofoten the nature is wild with granite walls and green hills surrounded by the cool, Atlantic sea.

As the difficulty increases, the rock becomes less forgiving and one must find an exact sequence of movements in order to reach the top. Climbing vertical rock is like performing a carefully choreographed dance. But how do you obtain that fluid, seemingly effortless dancing up the rock? You know it is not only about the size of your biceps. So before getting on the campus board doing pull-ups, take a serious look at your other limiting factors.