Friday 17 May 2013

Jewel in the Imperial Crown

As in previous years we ended the season by joining a Mountain Tracks group and some clients for a ski tour.  This April we decided to tour above Zinal on what's known as the Imperial Haute Route, as it takes you past the 5 peaks making up the Imperial Crown. Two years ago we did a varient but so so different (you can see pictures from that tour here).

This time we started off in Zermatt and took a route heading back to Zinal (the high way). It was to be a week of some real gems - we summited two peaks over 4000m, with climbs of up to 1600m in a day, skied though some of the most spectacular glaciated terrain and traversed the knife edge ridge line of the Moming... Staying in a range of huts from the 'self-catered' Arpitetta, to the comfy Grand Mountet and the soon to be replace (thank-goodness) Tracuit.

A real gem of a tour... it'll be hard to top this one

Stunning views above Zermatt

Some spectacular glaciers

Traversing the Moming Arete - heart stopping to say the least