GEOLOGY students from Queen Elizabeth (QE) Sixth Form College, in Darlington, recently enjoyed a week-long trip to the Alps.

The main purpose of the trip was to study the landscape and geological evolution of the mountains.

Students participated in a number of adventure activities, including rock and ice climbing and trekking up a glacier.

The Alps were created by the collision of the European and African continental plates millions of years ago and are the highest mountains in Western Europe.

Such provinces are an integral part of the A Level geology course and students at QE have the opportunity to investigate these landscapes in person.

During the trip the students trekked 1,000m up a mountain to the famous icefall on Glacier d’ Argentiere in France, travelled on a cable car to the 3,842m summit of the Aiguille du Midi and explored the high mountainous terrain around Lac d’ Emosson in Switzerland.

The highlight of the excursion was trekking across the crevassed surface of Mer de Glace, Europe’s longest glacier.

Ed Anderson, head of geology at the college, said: "The visit not only provided a valuable learning opportunity to study mountains and glaciers at first hand but it was also great fun and created many lifelong memories.

"I am currently organising next year’s trip and will be speaking to prospective students about it at the forthcoming college open evenings."