Hi,
my name is Paddy and I'm 19 years old with quite a bit of hiking, backpacking and skiing experience. Now I'm really interested in trying some proper mountaineering (I've been up to 4400 at Whitney which was great fun but still just a long hike). I'm planning on going to the Alps for up to two weeks sometime in July. Initially I can hire/buy the kit I need and do an alpineering course for probably 5-7 days, that's assuming nobody would volunteer to tag along with a newbie and show me how it's done. In any case after the course/teaching is when I'd be interested in finding a climbing partner and trying out what I've learnt in some climbs around the Chamonix area. Well I'll make sure to update with more details once I have dates and such but it's just to have an idea of how easy it would be to find climbing partners around that time period. Hoping things can work out : )

PF

Hope Im not too late Paddy

I would be up for that, my names Lewis, 23, bit of climbing experience, good fitness and I'm also a bit of a newbie to mountaineering. I really want to learn the theory so that I can do it myself eventually. The guides take 2 people to 1 so we can half the cost and do an alpineering course run by a local guide company (which is so much cheaper than the online ones!) Would you want to do the Mont Blanc 5-7 day expedition because thats what I'm looking at. July 2015 is my time frame as well, plus I want to do climbing in Poland or even Chamonix after as you said. Not too late to plan it I hope, send me back a message if your interested.

Hi Lewis,
well I still haven't got anything booked. I was about to book a 7 day course today or tomorrow. My time schedule in the area is around the 17th to 29th July. Well I am interested in what you're offering and I'd like to know more about it. So it's a 2:1 course which teaches you all you need to know in the first probably 4 days or so (I don't know you tell me xD) and then after that the last 3 days are for summiting Mont Blanc. Is that more or less it? So how much does that cost? The course I'm currently looking at is 7 days for 1700E incluiding accomodation, food, lift and hut fees. Pretty expensive but it's all incluided. I must admit the summiting Mont Blanc does sound nice but equally I'd rather maximize the learning first and then attempt the summit afterwards or some other time. I have no rush to climb it. Now equally I'm completely open to hearing what you've got to offer so if you can let me know the details of the course (price, dates, overview, etc) I'll consider changing plans. And in any case if I stick to the one I've already found 18-25 July, I'll still have 3 days or so more left in the Alps to consider doing some climbs around the area. Please let me know as soon as you can because I need to book this in the next couple of days max.
PS; sorry for not answering in such a while. It seems that if you post in the forum I don't get an email notice (unless you send it by private message) so make sure to write a message too.