Change In Plans

Greetings from the Montfort Hut, near Verbier, Switzerland.

Day Two of the Haute Route was nowhere near as difficult or dramatic as Day One We started by skiing out the hut door, and down a glacier, descending about 1,500 feet. The snow was a little crusty, and difficult to turn in, but the sunrise over the high mountains was spectacular. We were a little worried about falling in crevasses, but Rinaldo skied in front of us, and pointed them out. The blue ice of the glacier was beautiful and slightly menacing.

We took off our skis at the base of a steep, short pitch, and scrambled up in our ski boots. From the other side of the couloir, Col des Ecandis, we could see about 6 linear kilometers down a valley called Val d’Arpette. The valley dropped 4,500 feet vertically into a small town called Champex.

The descent took about 90 minutes. For some shady parts, the snow was powdery, and the skiing was out of this world. Most of the way, though, the powder had frozen into a little crust, and it was difficult for me to make turns. With my pack and skis, I weigh about 260 pounds, so it was hard to not break through the crust and catch a ski edge. The better skiers in our group still made it look easy. Mike and Jonathan, carving turns gracefully on their telemark skis, were a skiing vision from a bygone era.

Once we got down below about 7,000 feet, the snow got slushy, and it was fun to ski. We schussed through a pine forest, listening to the birdsong. Finally we made it to the village of Champex, and met up with our taxi.

It was definitely strange to have part of our high mountain adventure assisted by automobile. This is why the Verbier Route is considered “more skier friendly” than the traditional Haute Route.

We drove about 25 minutes, down, down, down to the valley floor. From there, we took a gondola up to the village of Verbier. We had a weird lunch at a surf-themed restaurant, and then rode two gondolas to the top of Montfort Glacier. We skied down a long way on groomed trails in the afternoon sun. We took yet another lift, and then had a final downhill run to the Montfort Hut.

This hut is a considerably more luxurious than last night’s: six bunks per room instead of 26, running water, a nice terrace. Right now, Drew, Jonathan and I are having a three-way backgammon tournament in the early-evening sun.

So today, we had no climbing skins, no crampons, no kick turns, and no rappelling. Rinaldo has assured us that tomorrow will be a much harder day. We will start with a two-hour climb right out the hut door. Not dangerous or steep, but the beginning of a long and interesting day.