Setting off in the early morning from Arolla aiming for the Éveque - I've been up to Col des Vignettes a few times recently and the snow isn't getting any softer - ski crampons are handy! A quick rattle down to the col de Chermontane and it's skins on again for the climb to the Éveque. The last steep bit is really windblown with patches of bare ice - you'd have to be very keen to want to ski down it, so we left our skis and cramponed up to the summit.
Top of the Éveque. No water bottle!
Best to keep the rope tight when belaying...
Then someone suggested going up the Pigne. It could have been an April Fool, but...sometime later we reached the top. More rattly skiing down the Dix side and a final hot slog up the Pas de Chevre finished the day off nicely.
Top of the Pigne. Hooray, water bottle is back! Where are my gloves?
Calf deep powder all the way
