The weather looked good and promised to remain so for the rest of the week, the first route on our list was the Dom, picked because it meant we could leave the van at the campsite, but I suspect the fact it is the highest wholly within Switzerland had more to do with it.
This was the fittest I had been for a long time; Dave and I had been out at every opportunity moving together on scrambles and simple rock climbs. Learning from past experiences I was determined that we would make the most of any good weather we got, so we set off early after breakfast heading through the pastures and lower slopes for the rock band that defined the end of the festi glacier.
As we approached the rock band searching for the thin spider line of a path up it, I was drawn to the view on the other side of the valley. The view up to the Weisshorn was absolutely stunning - we were to see this up close and personal several years later when we successfully traversed the Weisshorn on the classic route. The hut is fantastic, perched on the moraine at the end of the glacier with magnificent views of the chain of 4000m peaks up the other side of the valley and round past the Matterhorn. We spent a long time sitting on the balcony just soaking in the atmosphere, until the sun went down.