The day dawned bright ... we were up early and as we had our own breakfast, it was off early up the road.
We had chosen to aim for a top called Cavradi ... from the end of the valley to Operalp, turn left passed the refuge da maighels. the advantage this gave was that we could use the track back from the cabina if the snow was not good. Overnight it had frozen quite hard .. there was some new snow on the higher ground (fallen after the freeze) so the omens were good, and we had contingency plans (or so we thought!).
From the road head we headed down to the stream (the guide book indicated to go this way out and back down the road .. we guess for avalanche danger from the slopes to the South.. but still), it meant loosing 100 Hm.
So ski down to the stream, and put on skins before crossing the small bridge and following the bank up river.
the overnight snow had covered the tracks, but we could see faint traces to follow.
The track gradually gained height as we worked into the bowl at the end of the valley, working around the lumps and bumps.
back at the height of the track, we continued to follow the left bank.
At the end of the valley the bowl opened out and we would head off left and up the valley leading that way ... to the right was the way up to the Operalp Pass, and the ski lifts of Sedrun.
We contoured around the bowl gaining height to meet the track from the huts and valley cutting across the face at the point the slope angle changed. we would continue contouring to the right to come over the shoulder into the valley leading to the refuge. Meeting the a second road to the refuge.
As we climbed up this final slope to join the track, Bryon mentioned he had a problem with his binding and we should stop as soon as we found a relatively safe place.
Not knowing the issue and how serious it was I continued slowly and with a gentle angle until I got to the ridge of the should with minimum exposure.
Taking his foot out of the binding, it was all soon apparent the Titinal bar had failed under the heal piece .. As the failure was in the tunnel attaching it to the heal piece it was hard to apply any fix. What we discovered was that we needed to jury rig a way that the heal piece could move as the foot came up in walk mode. .. So a spare boot lace was used to lash the heal binding release around the boot.
This gave us enough purchase to move safely to the road and then discuss what next.
On the way around the shoulder and down to the road it was apparent that this was only an emergency fix and we should not go further. Bryon did offer to wait whilst I went on .. but this never occurred to me and we chose to make a descent by whatever means we could .. as we were on the roadwe could at least walk if necessary, however it was expedient to try and ski.
In downhill mode the binding changes .. the heal locks in place, so we juts needed to stop it wobbling around ... so changing the lashing so that it pulled the heal attachment to the toe one, did this, and also provided a neater solution which would not get in the way of the skis or feet.
The jury rig held up really well, and either because of the freeze or the early hour of the descent, or both .. the snow was the best of the trip. We had a great ski down to the valley head, only joining the track for the last few metres.
On the track back to the road head we could see our tracks both up and down ... there were also more people now on the route both following our trails up and also the road route, but we seemed to have the best of the snow.
The road back to the van was one long schuss.
Back at the van we pondered what to do next ..
We had chosen to aim for a top called Cavradi ... from the end of the valley to Operalp, turn left passed the refuge da maighels. the advantage this gave was that we could use the track back from the cabina if the snow was not good. Overnight it had frozen quite hard .. there was some new snow on the higher ground (fallen after the freeze) so the omens were good, and we had contingency plans (or so we thought!).
So ski down to the stream, and put on skins before crossing the small bridge and following the bank up river.
the overnight snow had covered the tracks, but we could see faint traces to follow.
We contoured around the bowl gaining height to meet the track from the huts and valley cutting across the face at the point the slope angle changed. we would continue contouring to the right to come over the shoulder into the valley leading to the refuge. Meeting the a second road to the refuge.
Not knowing the issue and how serious it was I continued slowly and with a gentle angle until I got to the ridge of the should with minimum exposure.
This gave us enough purchase to move safely to the road and then discuss what next.
The road back to the van was one long schuss.
Back at the van we pondered what to do next ..
Just outside Disentis we had seen someone advertising Othovox .. so seemed like a good place to start. We dropped in there on the ways back (after checking the railway at Sedrun to see how often car trains run ... not very - definitely no as often as the other routes we have used, and seemed to be only 3 time per daylight day.). Unfortunately the shop was shut, but re opened after lunch.
Back at the shop (Skigarage) we found a very talkative guy with excellent English who set about helping us. He had some skis to hire and also some end of season bargains to buy... after much thought Bryon opted to remain with Fritschi style bindings on head skis to rent for a couple of days and see how it went. I am sure we could have spend days there just talking..
That night we went to Stiva Grischuna restaurant ... this had an elaborately carved wooden ceiling, and the food was just what we needed to revive the day.
