Sadly, one person had car troubles in the morning and had to miss both the hike and the beautiful drive out with the sunrise colouring the mountains in shades of pink and orange. The weather forecast was about 1/3 right - the wind was as strong as predicted, but there was no sun and temperatures were cooler than expected. The trail was surprisingly slippery (due to rain two days ago) despite shallow snow coverage, so we wore spikes the whole time.

The climb up the slopes was very slippery and the last steep part before the rock step was completely covered with a thick wind slab on a rain crust on a convex slope... so, with the Considerable/Moderate avalanche forecast in mind, I called off the summit. Actually, no one seemed to mind because the ridge didn’t look very inviting in the cloud and wind. We carefully descended and found a sheltered spot in the trees for a leisurely lunch. Still a good soul-satisfying day out even though we were back at the cars by 1:30, and a reasonable workout of over 12 km and 650m.

Thanks to Jane and Cristina (photo) for 4.5 hours of walking and great conversation, from coordinator Ingrid.

Slippery descent

Happy to be out in November, despite the wind

Admiring the views