If you’ve been following our journey over the past 3 days, you may have noticed how the weather was beginning to deteriorate, especially at the end of Day 3.   It continued to rain overnight and for most of the next day.  So we cut short our proposed route via the Aiguilles Rouges hut and went directly down to Arolla, where Jude picked us up.

Pete was so thrilled with Day 4, he sent me this email afterwards to thank me:
“So then, Day 4. After an easy-peasy 3 days (especially Day 3 ha! ha! ha!) my pals decide to take pity on their mate who has wun lung, wonky eyes, VERTIGO and previous operations on both knees, one foot (in two places I may add), one wrist, both eyes and heart. Did I mention the VERTIGO? So, they say, as it’s raining it will make that nice glacier even more slippery than usual. Great! We’ll show him a nice pleasant crevasse in the glacier on the way that leads to oblivion with one slip. Then, when he’s nearly made it across we’ll make him cross the river and tell him a bloke died there just last year by falling in and being sucked under the glacier. He’ll love that!And then, when if he does make it safely across we’ll make him climb up loads of slippery boulders and, if he survives that,  he’ll face a lovely sheer drop, with a dinky-winky chain to hold on to, the wuss. I mean what’s his problem? (SORRY, DID I MENTION VERTIGO?) And then we’ll make him climb a series of perfectly-safe ladders up a sheer rock-face in the rain with oblivion below. Oh yes and one of us will casually mention that “it’s a long way down” from above just as he’s half way up one section (that, after all, is clearly what he’ll want to hear if he suffers from VERTIGO, the wuss!). And that same one of us will then say “blimey it’s slippery” when he’s a bit further up. That’ll cheer him up! ”

For pictures of what it should have looked like, see my post from last year (where you will also read that I acknowledge Pete’s vertigo, but still took no notice.  He wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂