Arolla, Switzerland

The prospect of another long day and loads of warnings in the books about avalanches... especially along the side of the Dix reservoir. Luckily the sky had been clear overnight and we had a good frost.

We had given the col a good looking over as we passed the day before so we knew it was not too much of a problem ... just very icy at this stage of the day.

As we hit the sun on the col we could feel the heat coming through and we started to warm up.

On the other side we could see where we needed to end up, and also the distances involved.

The descent contours around the right hand side keeping as high as possible. and curves around one of the valleys

Coming around the part above the huts of La Barma ... this involved side-stepping up wards for around 30m height gain .. trying to stay as high as possible.

Back towards the barrage .... note the level of the water .. about 100m lower than normal.


Keeping high also involved the odd grassy patch as well ... it did break up the poleing.

As we got to the end of the lake, it became clear that to get up to the pas du chat , we would need to drop down to the water level and then work back up again.

So now the traversing section is over, and we needed to climb up to get to the upper glacier that feeds the lac du Dixance.

Going up the Pas du Chat .... not even at the normal water level. Struggling up we focused on the col.

Reaching the col on the end of the glacier du Cheilon, we could see some ominous clouds building up.

The next section worked its way upwards slowly through the moraine, following the motorway like track, to start with.

Then once we could see the ladders on the pas de chevre (above the snow under the notch), we cut over the glacier to the other side







Approaching the ladders...



Now on them







At the top, stepping gently on the hard packed snow careful not to slip..


Looking back the way we had come



Before departing down the other side for the ski slopes.

We followed the ski trails down to almost the village, where we eventually ran out of snow.

From here we had to walk the final zigzags on the road.

Until we ended up in the village. From our previous visits we knew where the bis would arrive, we just had to wait until it arrived. the sign on the Post office says it all about this sleepy town as we wait for the bus.

We caught the bus down to Sierre, then the train to Martigny, then changed for the one to Chable (below Verbier) and back to the van.

Loading everything into the van we cut back to Bourg St. Pierre, and the same gite as we had used a few days before - Auberge les Charmettes. We stayed in the same dortoir, and were well looked after in the restaurant.