Cat and I took to the Grands Montets glacier to practice rope work a few weeks ago. We were lucky enough to have some Alaskan-style weather too with the cold westerlies that day. We looked at Crevasse rescue and also spent some time analysing the snow pack. It's good to dig a snow pit whenever we have the chance to get an idea of what the snow's doing and keep learning how the snow transforms depending on the weather.

Although we will be travelling on snow shoes in Alaska, we plan to take skis in case of any spare days when we could put them to use. As well as snow shoeing up hills as part of our training programme, we're ski touring as much as possible at the moment. Even if it's just skinning up the home run when we get a couple of spare hours in the evening, it's a very enjoyable way to train!