After our first night in a hut we were woken up at 4:00 a.m. by one of the hut staff opening the door and yelling "Quatre heures!!" Breakfast was continental, with some of us (including John) being a little quieter than the day before. Following our caffeine injections we put on harnesses and boots before following cairns from the hut to the edge of the Glacier du Tour. The sun was starting to rise as we stepped on to the glacier and we got excellent views across to the Aiguille du Chardonnet and to Table Rock on Aiguille du Tour. This was out first day of roped glacier crossing and John explained to us how to manage the rope and what to do in the event of someone falling in a crevasse.
We crossed the glacier at a steady pace with John at the front of the group. We had approximately 5 or 6 metres of rope between each of us and took care not to step on the rope since John had explained that the punishment for cramponing the rope was a bottle of wine for the rest of the group! On this day only Helen decided to oblige. We passed below Aiguille du Tour and had an excellent view of Table Rock in the sunshine before taking a short break prior to the final pull up to Col du Tour. At the top of the col we entered the sunshine and stopped to put on sunglasses and sun-cream. John explained the need for us to continue to wear gloves and long sleeves when crossing glaciers to help prevent injury if we slipped on the ice. At some stage he also introduced us to the song "All you need is gloves" which seemed to stick with our party for the rest of the trip.
The snow slope leading to Col du Tour
Crossing the Plateau du Trient
We continued across the Glacier du Trient towards the Cabane du Trient where we had been due to stay the night. It was still quite early in the day and John had decided that we would be better continuing down to Champex. This has the advantage of staying in a hotel for the night and although it makes the second day longer it makes the third quite a bit shorter. We reached the Cabane before 10:00 a.m. which we agreed would have been a bit early to stop for the day. Continuing down to the Cabane d' Orny, we stopped for an hour to have coke and cake. Andy McQue started to pick up some French from Duncan, Ian and Francoise and was able to proficiently order our drinks, a theme that continued for the rest of the holiday.
Whilst we sat at the hut we saw a number of rockfalls coming off La Portalet. This emphasises the importance of getting off the glaciers early in the day. We had also noticed how quickly the snow became soft whilst we were descending the glacier. After our break we followed a well-defined path around to La Breya, from where we were able to take a ski lift down to Champex. The path was quite long and by the time we reached Champex we were all ready for a pint and some traditional Swiss food at Au Club Alpin. Here the owner had been kind enough to find accommodation for us because he was full. After an afternoon nap and an evening meal we went for a short walk around the lake in Champex before an evening of poker and chess.
