Sunday morning, 6:30am, dry mouth, boiling hot, a strong smell of cheese in the air and a phone alarm going off. This is how the day started. Ollie and I were staying in quite a nice, (and very hot) little hotel just down the road from Cogne, 24 euros a night, cant go wrong. 

We checked out and drove up to Lillaz where we planed to climb Lillaz Gully. You can straight away see the route from the village. We parked in some car park that had confusing signs, a clearway sign, and a parking sign... So we just parked there. The route looked so close, but the guide suggested just over an hours approach. It was a total slog up the hill. It just kept on coming, relentless uphill. By the top, in our car park, there were loads of cars arriving on mass, and orange tables getting set up everywhere. We guessed it must be a market square, and we were parked right in the middle.... But there was no way we were going to walk down after that epic climb.

Ollie on the first pitch, with newly bad eye

So we reached the first ice pitch. I led up, the ice was prety fragile, and I smashed a chunk off into my eye almost immediately. It got better though and was a great pitch. As Ollie seconded, I asked him to smile as he came round the corner, he didnt. He was not a happy bunny. He had somehow managed to smash off a shard of ice into his eye in about the same place as I did. Only it had cut his eyeball ever so slightly, right over his iris. So he was seeing things slightly blurred, and he was convinced he had something in his eye, driving him mad. Despite this he continued up for 2 pitches of easy ground. 

Next there was the best pitch of the day, really nice ice, every placement a sinker. When Ollie reached me he was actually enjoying it! Car related stresses were in our minds still, with the car park completely full, and definately something going on down there. 

Ollie finishing the really good pitch

A couple of pitches later, including quite a nice little mixed move, and then some horrible climbing of mud right at the top and we were done. We walked down following a friends advice, it was a long way down, but better then absailing the route. When we got back to the car there was some sort of ceremony going on, a kids cross country skiing race or something, but they were all inthe same clothing and there was a podium. Thinking we were hated for being there, we kept a low profile, and then once all the celebrations finished we made a move. Ollie really showed off his amazing awareness of his cars dimensions in getting us out of the tightest parking spot ever. Funnily though the italians there were cheering him on and getting him within milimeters of the other cars to get out! Really friendly folk. Rather a different experience to firdays run in with the locals. 

Can you get through all those trees? Ollie wonders

We tried to find a doctor for Ollie to see about his eye, but the hospital was closed on sunday... And stuck for a plan we chilled out in Cogne for a bit, ate a massice ice cream that was like eating pure nuttella, and hot chocolate, all really cheap too. Italy is an awesome place, and I will definately go back to Cogne again. We decided in the end to go visit the guys in Chamonix whcih was really nice.