MOUNTAINS

SWITZERLAND

Every summer, I like to climb some mountains in our nicest place in Switzerland, the Alpes, in Valais. I do it with friends who were my classmats at college. It's a nice way to meet old pals. One of them has a mobilhome in a camping, in the valley. We climbed the first year three montains, usually the alpine huts were our targets. But, this year, we decided the first day to climb the mountains which were more than 3'000 meters high.

The first time we did it was in 1995.

Then in summer 1997, I was not in a great shape. But we visited two nice huts.

Our first taget was a nice montain, but because it was our first ascent, we decided to choose an easy one.

So we left our mobilhome after a good night, at 7h30. It's cold even in summer at this time and our motivation was not as present as the evening before. But we arrived at Grimentz at 8h30 and we let our car at the dam of the Moiry lake, at 2249m high. You can see it at the background.

When you let the lake on your back, you see in front of you the glacier. It's really a wonderfull sight. You are close to forget that the way is still long...

Hour after hour, the glacier didn't change.

Finally, we reached it. It was around 10h30 and the sun didn't light the ice monster in its entirety. But the contrast was impressive.

At 11h30, after a walk of 3 hours, we discovered the heart of the giant. A mix of ice and rocks moving on since millions of years.

Now I regret : I didn't take a picture of the hute, but I confirm that it was a tyical nice and organise swiss hute. Sleeping in the altitude, the coloss just next to you, it's something that everyone has to do in his life.

The day after, we were ready for THE great exploit. But the waking wasn't easier. We arrived at Zinal (you can see it at the bottom of the valley), a famous village, well-known for the Sierre-Zinal running, at 8h30. From the place where we let the car, it wasn't possible to know where the hute was. Now, I'm convinced it was better ...

At this point, you'll agree with me, we thought that our target was close. We were wrong ...

Fortunately, we met a resident of these mountains : an ibex. It's rare : usually, they are coward and disappear before you can see them.

You cannot appreciate on this picture how close it was. I took a picture at around 7 meters of it. Unbelievable.

Miracle ? Allucination ? No, simply our hute, in the middle of the panorama.

Finally, we arrived at the bottom of the valley, like in an amphitheater.

Magestic.

We reachted the hute at 12h40, after a hard 4 hours climb.

The last part is awfull : you never see the end. You're walking through huge rocks, seeing the hute but not approaching it.

But the point of view is unique.

	Our first taget was a nice montain, but because it was our first ascent, we decided to choose an easy one. So we left our mobilhome after a good night, at 7h30. It's cold even in summer at this time and our motivation was not as present as the evening before. But we arrived at Grimentz at 8h30 and we let our car at the dam of the Moiry lake, at 2249m high. You can see it at the background.
When you let the lake on your back, you see in front of you the glacier. It's really a wonderfull sight. You are close to forget that the way is still long...
	Hour after hour, the glacier didn't change. Finally, we reached it. It was around 10h30 and the sun didn't light the ice monster in its entirety. But the contrast was impressive.
At 11h30, after a walk of 3 hours, we discovered the heart of the giant. A mix of ice and rocks moving on since millions of years. Now I regret : I didn't take a picture of the hute, but I confirm that it was a tyical nice and organise swiss hute. Sleeping in the altitude, the coloss just next to you, it's something that everyone has to do in his life.