Ski touring the Haute Route - Day 8
Cabane des Vignettes - Col de l'Évèque - Col du Mont Brûlé - Col de Valpelline - Zermatt
The top of Col de l'Évèque, visibility is not improving
The last leg, the final stretch, the homecoming (well for Rob only) , the conclusion, the closure, the final countdown, the apogee, basically, the end of the tour.
And what an end, The hut is bigger than the previous ones, meaning there are more people in it, but at least it does not feel as crowded as the previous ones.
After a healthy, early (but not early enough for some who wanted to leave at 03h00) breakfast we set off in the dark, into a Foehn out to unhorn a steer (bad translation from a frenchsaying).
We ski down back to the Glacier d'Otemma plateau and head on straight towards the first of three cols, the Col de l'Évèque, as dawn gradualy lights up our path. Unfortunately, we are in a Foehn situation, meaning one side of the range has nice (if windy) weather, whereas the other has ugly stormy weather.
I will let you guess in which direction we are headed. Halfway up the col, we are passed by some french guides and their scandinavian skiers (don't remember any telemarkers funnily enough) , a few words are exchanged with Philippe as the guides know each other.
Looking back, there is an escape route
is almost non existant, my camera len is frozen, so no more pictures from my side, though we are not missing anything as there isn't much to see...
Our group thins and we break once to make sure that the others have time to catch up, but they have to hurry, it is now snowing and the tracks are disapearing in the snow.
we head on the final strech, the group splits up, we try to remain within visual distance of each other, but it does not happen. At one point some slow down and wait for the others, heartheirvoicesbutitturnsouttobe some italians.
We finally all make it to the top, from there we can actually see a bit further than 10m, we are on the good side of the Foehn. the wind though is still strong and we do not waste too much time, a drink, a bit of energy for the downhill and off we go, the last descent of the tour....
First part is not fast, hard to see and we are on a quite open glacier, Philippe is very careful about where to go, so we ski slowly down a flatish part in not so great conditions, until we reach the steeper section, where the visibility improves
The weather is getting worse, we need to hurry. Top of the col is finally reached, we barely see anything, we ski down more or less also with the scandinavian group and with some germans, who are unsure of where to go.
We reach the flat, the scandinavians distance us, we head across towards the steep Col du Mont Brûlé The last section of the col is steep, we decide to bootpack it, though some people decide to skin up.
Once on top, the weather is worsening, actually not so bad, but visivility is awful. A few americans that passed us on the way up are awaiting their friends just a bit below us.
we start off from the col down an nice gentle slope, and as we get to the flat past and put on the skins, some of us needing extra glue as they were too stupid to take care of them properly.
Visibility worsens, we do not see far in front of us, really happy to have a guide, who has never done this part of the route, but who knows excactly where to go. We start skinning up, our last time of this trip, towards our last col, Col de Valpellin, visibility
Skiining up to col du Mont Brûlé