What a way to spend our third wedding anniversary! It's fair to say that conditions were sub-optimal when we set off from the hut. It was snowing, misty, but not too windy, and (believe it or not), no way near as cold as our wedding day!
Feeling optimistic, we set off up in search of the Col Blanche, high above the hut in the hope that the clouds might lift.
It didn't. In fact, the snow fell even harder and the viability got worse. We could still just about see around us to navigate, but with the flat light and increasing snowfall, we decided to return to the safety of the hut before our tracks got buried.
We had a little snack in a wind scoop behind a boulder before we descended. In the time it took to take off our skins and eat a snack, a centimetre of snow had fallen! It was time to descend.
The snow was good to ski, but bad light caught us both out a couple of times! At least it was a soft landing!
Back at the hut, we enjoyed eating a late lunch in the warm and a dry out.
In the afternoon we did some transceiver practice and emergency searching drills outside the hut.
Later, the visibility improved enough to convince us to make another short skin up to a smaller peak above the hut. Clare and I went up solo and had a little wedding reminisce together along the way.
The ski down to the hut was fabulous! Fresh tracks and much better conditions.
We skied straight to the hut and chinked a 'petite bierre' together by the fireside to celebrate.
Then (would you believe it Dad!), just to top things off, the hut guardian served up Lemon Meringue Pie after one of the finest hut meals that we've ever had!
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