Training in the Alps

This was meant to be a week of snow and ice training and an ascent of Mt Blanc. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible with virtually no visibility and a huge amount of snow.
This is one of the main webcams in the area:

This meant that it was dangerous to be up in the mountains and at the same time not possible to practice any skills.

We tried to get to one of the lower ridges but after wading through waist deep snow on the way up to the nearby hut, found that it was just going to be too dangerous to continue on the next day given the now very high risk of an avalanche. To make the week productive, we spent most of the time down in the valley working on climbing and rope skills.