Every sixth year professional mountain guides need to revalidate their diplomas -- a three day session of first aid, rope work, and everything legal and administrative relating to the profession... it's called "Recyclage".
I chose a workshop in Chamonix, along with 24 other peers. In the photo below we visited the mountain rescue team of Chamonix, the revered PGHM squad. These are the guys you don't want to have to call when out with a group...
Chamonix sits in a deeply encased valley just below the 4808m summit of Mont Blanc, pictured below.
Using three backpacks, two walking poles, and one jacket to make a makeshift gurney...
After a lesson about hypothermia...
Some rope-work...
The streets of Chamonix by night, completely deserted during this in-between season, after the summer hiking and before the winter skiing. On one evening I went to see a movie and was the only one in the theater...
Mont Blanc at dusk...
Looking through my photo archives I found some pictures from my initial training, which began in 2004. The coursework begins by a fairly selective entrance exam, involving a strenuous hike, obstacles course, orienteering race, and then an interview. The picture below was taken just after my entrance exam in 2004... Had I taken just 90 seconds longer for the orienteering race I would of had to return the following year...
The coursework takes about two years of intermittent workshops and other practical (and wtitten) components, and then a final exam before getting your national diploma.
The picture below was taken after a winter's orienteering race. It had snowed all night, and trying to descend a steep valley to reach my first marker I got stuck in the snow for quite some time...
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Snowshoeing on the freshly fallen snow...
My pal Gustav adding a bit of laughter to a fairly gruelling winter session:
A beautiful winter's scene:
Building an igloo with Audric, one of my classmates:
The most imposing part of our workshop was a two-day trek...
...complete with an overnight in a snowcave we built. It was -20°C outside but inside the cave the temperature always remains at 0°C...
The following morning at sunrise...
With my colleagues at the end of the trek:
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