Chamonix to Zermatt, Final Days of Our Randonnée Adventure

From Post Card Weather to White Out.

The day we arrived at one of the most spectacular huts in the alps, the Bertol Refuge it was magnificent weather. The skiing down was very good with fresh tracks to be had from the Col de l’Eveque and we all found our rhythm uphill. We arrived before lunch and I spotted a nice line to ski with fresh snow. The boys - Janne, Pär, Stefan and I dumped our backpacks and set out on another randonnée climb. At the top the snow was a glittering, velvet carpet. Skiing down we all found nice smooth lines on rolling glacier terrain. A great day of skiing over, we headed for our spectacular après ski bar, perched at the top of a series of ladders in the heart of the alps.

Descent to Zermatt or . . . Forclaz!

Friday morning 6am, the last day of the trip. Clouds were building quickly over Italy from the föehn effect and we knew that it might be hard to reach Zermatt. The guides all agreed to go as far as possible and try. At 3400m, 100m from the col which leads down to the cracked up Stockli glacier the white out and the wind was too harsh to push on. We got a taste of what the weather can be in the high mountains - not always post card conditions. Our escape route led us down the Ferpècle glacier where it was still clear. Soon the wind died down and we were cruising the glacier on a carpet of fine spring snow. An adventurous route took us through icicle covered tunnels and down to flowering meadows around the village of Forclaz.

Final Haute Route Thoughts

Sitting in the sun and thinking of how harsh the weather had been on the col made us appreciate the sun and where we’d come from even more.

It was an adventurous Haute Route with a great bunch of people and lots of laughs and talk about how to build skis since Janne is a ski builder. As mentioned before, I think everyone had pushed their “just around the corner view” and realized that corners can vary a lot in size.