The Eagle Ski Club Winter Room Haute Route usually involves plenty of shivering and trail-breaking. (Here's last years blog) This year was different - with very warm weather it felt more like April than February. The missing Grands Montets lift adds some uphill to day 1, so we stayed at the Dorées bivvy instead of Trient. This left us with some catching up to do so we skipped the Prafleuri and made the long stage to the Dix in 1 day. The Pigne d'Arolla was icy and windblown, but the Col de l'Éveque put things into perspective with huge sastrugi and lots of bare glacier ice! Sadly the weather didn't hold for the final day so we ended up in Arolla after a great week of touring in surprisingly quiet mountains. The "world's most famous ski tour" is still deserted out of season.
.jpg "The steep lower slopes of the Col du Chardonnet")
.jpg "High on the Col du Chardonnet")
.jpg "Envers des Dorées bivvy with the Aiguille d'Argentiere and Col du Chardonnet")
.jpg "Up the Col des Plines")
.jpg "In front of the Aiguilles Dorées")
.jpg "Fine skiing on the Trient glacier")
.jpg "Climbing the Col des Écandies")
.jpg "Excellent snow below the Col de Severeu")
.jpg "Pondering ice thickness on the Lac des Dix")
.jpg "Just before the Cabane des Dix")
.jpg "Roped up on the Pigne d'Arolla")
.jpg "A good ski down the south side of the Pigne")
.jpg "Col de l'Éveque best described as \"challenging\"")
.jpg "Zooming down the upper Arolla glacier")
