Montet Hut, switzerland

The skies cleared up, and we made a break for the Montets hut.. so we could be in a position to go for the Zinal Rothorn if the weather continued to improve.

This was exactly the same route as four years before, and the memories came flooding back.

Rain Day, Switzerland

Rain, and more drizzle, stuck in our tents

Bishorn, Switzerland

The next morning the cloud was down on the glacier ...  about half way up. but being a simple glacier walk, with few complications we chose to go for it.

The start was OK and we made good progress to the cloud.  from here visiility was minimal and we blindly followed the trail in the snow.

Breaking through a small conice  (that was not there when we came back in later years, so we were not on the simplest route.

A quick pause for photos with another party who emerged out of the gloom, and we set off back

From the hut in daylight it was easy to see where the cloud reached ... it had not moved all day so we continued straight on back to the valley. However we had attained our first peak of the year.

Tracuit Hut, Switzerland

The day awoke with clear skies so we went straight on with plan A.

One of the problems with only using 1:50000 maps is that the  distances look shorter than they really are. No although we were relatively fit, nothing prepared us for the distance and hight gain to the hut. However this was also the case later on when I came back to do the traverse of the Weisshorn.

Leaving the valley on the path we climbed up the side on a gradual gradient
Working our way up through the trees.

It was hot and humid as I remember and we all lost a lot of fluids.

At around the half way point you escape pout on the upper plateau, and meadows ...  from here you can just make out the hut sitting on the outcrop at the end of the glacier. There is little understanding of how far it still remains to go!

1985 Summer Mountaineering Tour, Switzerland

This year we (Jim, Ken and I) decided to go back to Zinal ... there was a 4000m peak called the Bishorn that was a very simple route and was suggested as a good warm up day. I also wanted to have a go at the Zinal Rothorn, after looking at it from the hut several years ago.

We followed the same route as we had for the first two years through France, and then headed around the Swiss roads to the Rhone valley.

Zinal was growing and many new buildings had been added, but the camp-site was still there and we settle in almost as if we had not left.

Trip Time Line

	|
	|	Arrive Zinal
Tracuit Hut	|
	|	Bishorn
Rain Day	|
	|	Montet Hut
Retreat	|
	|	Lake Como
Cortina	|
	|	Monte Cristallo
Rain Day	|
	|	Kleiner Lagazuoi
Punta Sud	|
	|	Rain Day
Go Home	|