With plans rearranged we hired some climbing boots and headed we the valley for some via-ferrta and climbing. The via-ferrta were quite exposed with copious use of rickety wooden planks and ladders to spice things up but we soon got to the top only to discover an abseil point over a huge drop. Our 60m rope wasn't long to reach the bottom with was a good talking point for a while. Undeterred Steve swung off the platform and found a small ledge with a fixed point some 40m below our platform. Andy was as nervous as I have ever seen him going over the edge, probably quite reasonably since we had only just taught him how to abseil - we clearly believe in the efficiency of just in time knowledge transfer. We went onto some multi-pitch climbing which ended with some light rain and a stern march back to Zermatt. Steve and Andy raced for a while but this was only going to end one way - with Steve throwing stones at Andy to slow him down. We stopped off in a bar for a beer and it turned out for some a power nap. 'Just how powerful is this power nap going to be?' Andy after dozing for an hour and a half!
Day elevel - Haute route |
11Ayg 2008