The following day, we woke up, made and ate breakfast, and set off towards Cabane du Grand Mountet. We thought we had planned a hut-to-hut loop, but it was more like two out-and-back hikes. Oh well! More training time! #fitness

The sun behind the western face of the Weisshorn made for some interesting light

Morning light hitting Besso…

Blanc de Moming, Besso, and the Glacier de Moming

We all proceeded back towards Lac d’Arpitetta. Clouds started moving in along the way.

Sara in a Sara-esque pose

The trail markers said it’d take X-hrs to descend… it took us like 1.5X-hrs to descend. WTF switzerland. Anyways, we eventually made it to the junction to the Grand Mountet hut!

…and we started regaining all the elevation we lost, plus some!

Rando cave.

The valley back to Zinal! Daniel says he could spot our cars with his lens. Not gonna lie, woulda liked a beer and ice cream at that point!

The skies slowly filled in. Things reminded me of Dr. Mann’s planet from Interstellar…

…filled with greys, greens, and glaciers…

Past the midway point, the trail started climbing… the Club Alpin Suisse installed chains and steps in really steep sections

We were then greeted by fields and fields of rocks on rocks on rocks! on rocks!

Them views though… and those glaciers, look how they’ve receded… 🙁

Boulders for scale. Also, a hut sighting!!!

The trail markers said it’d take 3-hrs. It took us 4.5-hrs? The Swiss really are machines…

Mary casually mentioned how casual the hike was. Thus, she was casually Iced.

I think this was the toughest day physically for the group, but everyone pulled through, and with good spirits! As Fred Becky said, “Loveliness is paid for partly in the currency of suffering!”

On the neater side of things, we got to share our bunk room with other travelers and climbers. It was fun hearing all of their stories, and random peoples’ disdain of Mitch McConnell!