SnowSlider - Blogging From the mountains by ise

We had a vague plan to go around to the barrage and scramble up on the ridges as a bit of practice for my mountain leader assessment which covers some basic rope-work, it’s worth practising as typically we’d probably use rather more technical equipment if we thought we’d be needing it.

It turns out the ridge I picked is the same rock as over on the Sassiniere and it’s terribly loose so I was pleased I’d given Julie a helmet! It was also about impossible to locate many good anchors so it was all a bit awkward.

But, it was worth doing although the descent was terrible as well. From there we had a late lunch at the little cafe near the barrage which turns out to be great serving the best Croûte au fromage I’ve ever had, served with rye bread and apples with some berries on the top. Highly recommended!

A few days joined together in Zinal. It’s a busy time here right now, the Swiss public holiday 1st August bought some more crowds and it’s high season for holidays generally. Among the people in town are a several other people from BAIML and MLTA some of whom are preparing for IML assessments in a few weeks held here in the Anniviers. One of them, Gerald Davidson, tayed with us for a few days with his wife and we did three of the valley classics in a spell of good weather.

First we did the high traverse from Zinal along to above the cabane Petit Mountet and back to Zinal. This is a great day out, not more than a couple of hundred meters of ascent as you can use the cablecar to gain the first 800m! It gives amazing views into the back of the valley and peaks including the Weisshorn, Dent Blanche and the Zinalrothhorn.


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This is basically a route in the new CAS guide for Jura-Fribourg-Vaud, the guide has it as a “T4″ which is supposed to be fairly serious.

But, I’d forgotten the detail of the write-up so after a couple of hours I was beginning to think they’d got it wrong and it was just a stroll. A nice stroll though, a few hundred metres climb into high alpine meadows and an enjoyable stop at a refuge for a drink followed by a picnic lunch in a small valley.

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I was on a deadline today, I wanted to make Malbun in Liechtenstein by around midday to catch a bus and get a connecting train home, also the forecast had suggested the weather would worsen during the day. So I was first out the hut and was walking by 0730. Even at this time it was surprisingly humid and quite unpleasant, the Schesaplana Hütte is down at 1908m and we’d had dinner outside the previous evening but this morning it all seemed lacking in altitude. Fortunately as I climbed up above 2100m the air freshened up and it became quite pleasant.


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