Into the Clouds

Stage 9 today after a rest day in La Sage yesterday. I'm not sure we could have picked a better place to spend our rest day. We spent most of the day just reading and relaxing in the hotel's library/games room/lounge. It was a lovely spot - windows all around with views out over a beautiful valley with mountains and glaciers in the distance. Our big outings for the day were: a stroll to the adjoining town of Villa, a leisurely lunch at the local dortoir, and a stroll up to a beautiful chapel on a hill. Although we bid farewell to most of our hiking companions in the morning, Jenn & Jason (from Calgary) arrived in La Sage after their rest day in Arolla.

Today dawned mostly sunny with some transient clouds. We started climbing right away, thankfully mostly in the shade. The route up was mostly on tracks and good footpaths. We are constantly amazed by how high the tracks go. Tracks are not really "roads" as we know them, but cars or trucks can travel on them although they can be quite steep. We passed through lots of grazing cattle adorned with their ubiquitous clanging cowbells. We also passed a very high altitude barn with a small house where the cow-tender resides for the summer. I sure hope he has lots of good reading material; seems like a very lonely existence. Up until this point the uphill was a pretty nice slope, although the great views gave us reason to stop and take pictures on a regular basis. As we carried on and approached the col (pass) the grade steepened and the last 200m was a bit of a grunt. Tami got there first and proceeded to get some food out of her pack. Unfortunately she lost her grip on her jacket and it rolled back down the slope quite a ways. She then had the opportunity to do some bonus climbing. We had some decent views at the top, but the clouds were more prevalent now, making for less interesting photographs. Then down 500m followed by another uphill of about 450m. The uphill was very interesting, though. We were heading directly to the Moiry Glacier and icefall. We walked for a while on top of a moraine and then zigzagged stiffly uphill on a good path to the spectacularly located Cabane de Moiry. We're in the clouds at the moment, but hopefully they will clear. We're right beside the glacier & icefall. What we can see is amazing; looking forward to seeing the full view. The Cabane is lovely. It has space for 96, and although it is past peak season there are a few Haute Route hikers and some mountaineers. They've built a lovely glass enclosed dining room which is where we're hanging out right now.

Totals for the day: 1675m up and 515m down.

Dinner time update: it's snowing!!