Breakfast was a busy affair
on the 5th morning due to a large influx of Swiss army soldiers the night
before. They were up in the mountains to supervise the running of the annual
Patrouille des Glaciers - a ski-mountaineering race between Zermatt and Verbier
(a journey that will take us 4 days to complete - the race record time is just
under 6 hours!). After jostling with a number of hungover Swiss soldiers for
our daily intake of stale bread and weak coffee, we let a couple of other
groups leave before us so Mark didn't have to break trail for the 5th
straight day (something that I think he'd had about enough of!).
Once out of
the door we skied down 100m and cross the Glacier de Cheilon. Soon the slope flattened
out and it was time to put our skins on (something that we are now near-pros at
doing in a speed that Mark is satisfied with!). With skins on we started the
long climb, zigzagging our way up to the Col de Serpentine in the tracks left
by the earlier groups. The views as we made this climb were truly breathtaking.
To our right was a hanging glacier (serac) that looked like it is defying the
laws of gravity!
We got up the steep section
of the climb in around 2 hours. This is followed by a high plateau directly
under a 100m wall of ice known as La Serpentine.
Standing underneath this
imposing wall we felt the wind, which had been quiet for the last two days;
decide that it felt like blowing at gale-force for the foreseeable future. The
groups ahead of us were gamely skinning up this exposed slab of hard-pack snow
and ice. We, on the other hand, were all silently willing Mark to tell us to
put our crampons on and complete the climb on foot. As if he was reading our
minds, moments later Mark shouts through the screeching blizzard that we should
take off our skis and put on our crampons! Never have I been happier to take a
pair of skis off! The consequences of a mistake while skinning up this ascent
would be to fall off the mountain all the way down to the village of Arolla,
some 1,700m below!
Following this climb, we
put our skis back on and completed the skin up to the highest point of the
Haute Route - the Pigne d’Arolla (3,796m). The views from the top were
completely ruined by the wind that was blowing at a blizzard-like strength,
obliterating all visibility further than 10m away!
Clambering down off the
summit, we took off our skins as quickly as we could and skied the short
distance down to where we left our rucksacks. After being reunited with our
25kg friends, we began the descent down to the Vignettes Hut, far below. By
this time the wind had made skiing downhill extremely difficult as well so we
stayed in Mark’s tracks as he picked his way down bowls and over ice ridges.
There was a pretty scary moment near the bottom when I set off a medium-sized
sluff that took me 50m down the slope a little quicker than I had anticipated!
No harm was done though and by the time I’d picked myself up, the hut was in
sight, perched on a high cliff. Truly a James Bond location if ever there was
one!
Once out of
the door we skied down 100m and cross the Glacier de Cheilon. Soon the slope flattened
out and it was time to put our skins on (something that we are now near-pros at
doing in a speed that Mark is satisfied with!). With skins on we started the
long climb, zigzagging our way up to the Col de Serpentine in the tracks left
by the earlier groups. The views as we made this climb were truly breathtaking.
To our right was a hanging glacier (serac) that looked like it is defying the
laws of gravity!
After a fitful night’s sleep in the hut
due to the volume of snores coming from our room, we woke early again to be
greeted by another foot of snow that had fallen overnight. Mark was unsure of
the conditions but his trusty philosophy off getting out there to see for
ourselves held firm and we were soon out of the door and on our way. We began
the day with a short climb from the hut over the Col de Roux (2,940m). The
climb is a short one of around 180m, but it is steep in places. The fact that
we were tackling it at the beginning of the day allowed us to negotiate it
quickly however and with a minimum of hassle we reached the top. 
