On cue the next day was bright sun again, and we bought a ticket on the most expensive (per mile) railway in the world. We did the tourist thing all the way up, stopping and gazing out of the windows at the Nord wand and Icegletcher.
Little did we know at the time the next trip on this train would involve us leaving at Icegletcher and heading out thorough an escape door. We even spent time in the ice caves at the top looking at the carvings.
Exiting the underground system at the col we basked in the sun and took our bearings – the route was not a problem there was a well worn wide snowcat track to the Monchjoch hut, with hordes of people out for an afternoon stroll. This hut was new and did not appear in any of the guide books, and so we were not sure what to expect (it was a private hut as opposed to one run by a climbing organisation). We had both taken out membership of climbing organisations with affiliations to alpine clubs who ran the huts as this gave us discount. The hut was the first we had stayed at that did not have the usual "long drop" system several yards from the hut, but rather a more ecological "digester".