Haute Route 2013 - Day 3

The days were starting to follow a pattern: heading out at first light while the temperatures were below freezing;  touring for as long as possible while the temperatures were pleasant; then slogging it out for the last couple hours in temperatures way too hot for skiing. We would get to the next hut around 2pm. This left a long afternoon for sun bathing, beer drinking and cheese eating while soaking up the phenomenal mountain scenery.

At "only" 2400m Chanrian Hut is actually quite low and is totally surrounded by towering peaks.  At first glance it seemed like a difficult place to ski out of.   But following the drainage below the hut lead to a narrow canyon.  This is exactly the type of land form that you would be a fool to enter in New Zealand but on the Haute Route things always seem to work out.  The narrow walls of the canyon corkscrewed along with ice walls looming overhead.

Suddenly the canyon opened out onto the toe of an enormous glacier.  The glacier was smooth and slowly rising and disappeared into the distance.  Baptist had a look of dismay when he muttered the mysterious word " Otemma".  As I was to soon learn this was the name of the glacier we were ascending.  To the other guides dismay it is the longest and flattest glacier of La Crete principal des Alpes (Principal Ridge of the Alps) and they find a drudge.  It was like someone had ironed the Tasman Glacier into a smooth carpet of snow, no moraine, no white ice.  Unlike my mates I found this to be one of the most pleasurable parts of the whole trip. The temperatures were cool, the snow was perfect and the terrain just melted away behind us as we made fast progress up the glacier.  I quiety thought that if these guys did a bash up the moraine to Gardner Hut the Otemma would look a lot different to them.  This was ski touring as it should always be.

Eventually we took our exit from the main trunk of the glacier and approached a high pass under a couple of beautiful peaks.  The highest peak was L'Eveque (The Bishop) and the pass that it hovers over had some of the best snow of the whole trip.

Dropping over the pass we entered Italy and could see Nacamuli Hut on the ridge below us.  This hut is one of several in the area and is used less that some others making it attractive for a large group such as ours. It was an unusual treat to ski down to the hut rather than climb up to it.

I learned that the Italians had a different view on waste disposal and the reason the toilet was located so far below the hut was evident as soon as I opened the door. I will spare you the photo.

 At dinner that night the place mats had a map of the huts in the Aosta Valley.  There are over 50 huts listed - this is just one valley!    The people of this area have an amazing relationship with the mountains (despite mediaeval toilets)