Hello

Hello, and welcome to a my new blog. A couple of weeks ago I was invited to head out to Chamonix with some of my girlfriend's family for a holiday and some walking. I've been out to Chamonix and done some walking before, I also generally do a small amount of hill walking here in Scotland (maybe 3 or 4 Munro's and a few other walks per year). What makes this holiday different is that I've been offered the chance to climb Mont Blanc: (western) Europe's highest mountain.

I'm not really what you'd call a fitness freak, but don't get me wrong I'm not a fat oaf either. Physically I'm probably not in too bad shape and the small amount of exercise that I do helps: cycling a couple of miles to work each day, going for the odd walk at weekends, some power kitting and generally walking about. The biggest problem probably is that I tend to eat a lot, and drink a fair amount of beer...

Mont Blanc's not too technical a mountain and the hill walking experience I have means that I have no problems with navigation, preparation for unexpected problems and combined with my experience working as a lifeguard while at school/university means I reckon that I cope well when problems do arise. I'm also a fairly keen skier with quite a bit of experience in the Alps and at altitude as well as in Scotland and in bad weather.

If I'm going to stand a chance of making it to the top of Mont Blanc then I'm going to have to get of my arse and get a bit fitter. Strength wise I'm okay but I really need to put some work in to build up stamina and improve my aerobic fitness. The purpose of this blog is as a kind of training diary for myself so that I can monitor how well I'm doing and help me plan out what I need to do.