We were blessed with fine weather for our last day so decided to take a cable car up to 3800m and then walk up the snowy Breithorn ridge. At the top of the cable car Duncan declared that this was the highest he had ever been but we soon set about pushing that a bit further and started towards the peak. There were a lot of skiers and snowboarders taking advantage of the weather also and we had some discussions about whether a scooter with studded tyres would be allowed on the slopes but we all agreed it would be fun finding out. The walk up to the too conveniently located peak was busy with a lot of walkers having the same idea and this just got worse when on the ridge itself as there was little room to step round people. With one party coming up we all stepped the same way off the ridge to let them past, something Steve pointed out isn't too sensible when you are all roped together, one slip and there's no one on the other side of the ridge to act as an anchor. Once down the other side the others decided to have a snow skills boot camp but being shattered I headed back to the cable car. At the cable car station there was a tunnel where you could walk into the bottom of a crevasse which confirmed my suspicions that these were not nice places to be. Once down I went for an irresistible power nap while waiting for the others and then we hit the town. Duncan and I surprisingly took the table football crown before we moved onto another bar where Steve got so animated about modern science he spilt beer in my lap while emphasizing his point. Being the last night we threw as much caution as we could muster to the wind before heavy eyelids persuaded us to call it a night on another trip and start dreaming about the next adventure.
Day fourteen - Haute route |
14Aug 2008