Ski touring the Haute Route - Day 8
Cabane des Vignettes - Col de l'Évèque - Col du Mont Brûlé - Col de Valpelline - Zermatt
looking up the steep part of col du Mont Brûlé
The sky opening itself in front of us is just simply outstanding, after the claustrophobic feeling of the last few hours, the view is immense, the world suddenly offers itself to us, the valley is wide, surrounded by glaciers, lots of glaciers, all of them racing down in an effort to be the first to reach the floor, most, including one to our right on which we were skiing earlier, end up in a big cliff, good thing we stuck to the left on the ski down....
Unfortunately, the sky is still covered and we now have to negociate some frozen moguls and bobsleigh tracks, not easy on the tired legs, we are not going down fast. The many breaks have the advantage of letting us enjoy the scenery, we just need to concentrate on the skiing, but basically we made it.
We finally get out of the bobsleigh run and onto the last flattish part of the descent, everybody is now relaxed and smiling, we end the skiing part arriving at a dirt road at the edge of a very thin forest, from there a mere 10 minute walk takes us to an onslope restaurant, we have reached the ski resort and the end of our trip, Zermatt.
Looking back, there is an escape route
We indulge ourselves, some in a final rösti, some in anything but a freaking rösti, and many beers. the restaurant is even awaiting us with an open air concert (ok, it is Easter saturday, so maybe not for us especially) , and we listen to the good music as we relax and replenish ourselves.
From there on, a small hike up and some long ski down in slushy snow takes us to the village itself, where we take the skis off for the last time and wander through the town to reach the minibus that will take us back to Chamonix.
The return way is surprisingly quiet, as we did not have time to get some beer on the walk through town and we wind up in chamonix tired, but happy. It turns out we were lucky to have left so early, as from the people who started from Vignettes after us , except for the ones who were faster and passed us, none made it pass the Col du Mont Brûlé due to the bad visibility.
From what Philippe tells, us, only about 50% of tours actually manage to make it to Zermatt, so we can consider ourselves lucky to have had such good conditions and a great guide to take us on the tour.
Col du Mont Brûlé, the weather is not improving... we need to hurry up!!!
Looking down the steep part of Col du Mont Brûlé. The tiny lines behind are people tht left later.. they willl not make it to Zermatt