Ski touring the Haute Route - Day 1
Grand Montets - Glacier d'Argentière - Col du Passon - Col de Trient - Cabane du Trient
Mike heading to Col du Passon
The day began early, with Gordon arriving to pick Rob, Mike, Andrew and Guy up, and reakising that they were all still sleeping. A frantic rush to pack and get ready ensued. The swearwords and curses proceeded to improve the vocabulary of the guests still trying to sleep off their long overnight drive from Vienna.
Of course, all this mad chaos turned out to be for nothing, as, upon reaching the summit of the Grand Montets cable car, Philippe, our Guide, going through his mental checklist, finds out that he has forgotten his skins at home.
Being the playfull, joking person that he is, everybody smiles, until he breaks out the portable phone and asks his wife to bring them to the lift attendants, and have them deliver them up with the cable car. Needless to say that some smiles faded a little.
Plenty of photo opportunities and a good excuse to get acclimatised to the altitude,
Bootpacking Col du Passon, Gordon & Rob
and getting rid of some extra weight.
On top, the heavy backpacks come down, a nice break is apreciated by all before a small descent and beginning the long slow ascent of the Galcier du Tour.
The sun is not relenting and by the time the col de Trient is reached, water bottles and reservoirs are empty, heat stroke sets in and dizziness makes the ascent of the steep, though shorter, last couloir dangerous and a tricky management situation for our esteemed guide.
The col de Trient passed, now only a gentle uphill, lies between our heros and their first cold fresh beer of the trip. Will they make it, survive the treaturous glacier, the last slope to the cabane de Trient and the rush to be the first to get the beer?
After a small internal debate, a decision is reached to give Philippe his bottle of scotch, nobody feels like carrying it around for the whole trip?
and time for the guide to explain that this little trick was to make sure that nobody else has forgotten anything.
Once everybody is fully equiped, the descent to the glacier posed no problems, and, during the traverse, Rob even organised a few pictures, risking life and limb, not his own, of course, for posterity.
The traverse was rather smooth. After traversing the glacier, comes the long steep uphill to the base of the Col du Passon. Our boys are getting thirsty.
Then, skis on the rucksacks, crampons on the boots as it is time to ascend the steep slope to the summit of the col itself. Due to the skin delay, the sun has now well risen and the temperature is rising.
Our boys are sweating hard on the uphill. Some are even regretting carrying a full bottle of scotch without being able to drink any. Some are considering emptying the backpacks from the alcohol
the beginning of Col du Passon