Haute Route Report
7 Day Ski Tour from Chamonix to Zermatt

Approximatively 900m uphill, 250m downhill

Morning comes and we decide to take the easy route in order to rest for the final day. We take our time eating breakfast as the day ahead will not be strenuous, but when time to gear up arises, one member of our group realises that someone stole the sole inside the liner of their boots....not very nice... we look everywhere and cannot find it... so much for staying longer in the hut.....

After creating a makeshift sole (soul(?) ;o)) from a cardboad box, we are ready to leave, we ski down the we way came up on the previous day, but once at the bottom, theeffluent of glacier d'Otemma, we head off up the river (frozen and covered in snow) into a small canyon which bring us to the glacier itself.

We skin progressively up along the glacier, the only other soul we meet is a lone skier coming down, after all the crowded huts of the last few days, the emptiness is very soothing. We take our time, enjoying the scenery and the full blue bird day, a vacation within a vacation.

The glacier flattens out and we head off to our left at the level of the col de Charmotane and catch a glimpse of the cabane des Vignettes. Interesting location for a hut (it is very big), right on a cliff, better be careful after having had a few drinks.

Making our way to the hut, on the final stretch, we reach skiers coming down from Pigne d'Arolla, which would have been our other route, the snow is hard, icy, not worth the ski down, our decision to take it easy was the right one... even more so, as we have the last day coming and it is a hard one. The afternoon is spent playing monopoly, outside the wind rears up its screaming head and will go on through the night

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