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Brief
summary and Photos of:
The Ambleside Old Boy’s Tour of Mounte Rosa
PHOTOS
Only four of
us this year Brian Martin couldn’t make it so it was
Dave Holcroft, Roger Bell, John Taylor and Ray Grey. No
diary this year either much to Roger’s relief.
Good bits’
of which there were many but here’s a few:
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The 4
hour train journey from Geneva to Zermatt. Never
thought I’d enjoy this but it was great, stunning
views of the length of Lake Geneva then up to
Zermatt on the mountain train from Visp
-
7 days
of glorious sunshine
-
Stage 1,
First day The Matterhorn in your face all day, while
climbing up to Theodulpass 3317 metres, stunning
-
Great
walking with glorious views everyday, see photo’s
-
Hardly
any other walkers about
-
Fine
hospitality where ever we went
-
Stage 6,
brilliant view of the Monte Rosa Massif from Monte
Moro
-
Stage 7,
The High balcony path between Saas Fee and Grachen,
superb
-
Local
Red wine ☺
Bad Bit’s or
should I say if anyone is going to do the walk here’s a
few don’ts
Don’t, if
your trying to do the first 2 stages in one day follow
the ski lift to the top when crossing the glacier, this
brings you to the Refugio del Cervinos 600ft higher and
1 kilometre away from the Theodulpass (where you want to
be) A lot of wasted energy and time especially at over
11,000 ft on your first day.
Then after
making our first cock up we descended from Theodulpass
into barren bulldozed ski pistes (the worst bit of the
walk). Here the path and signs completely disappeared
and you’ve guessed it we descended 500 metre’s down the
wrong path, by this time there was no chance of
completing stage 2 so we had to descend another
500metres to Breuil-Cervinia an Italian ski resort in
the next valley to spend the night (knackered). It cost
us about ¾ day to make it up.
Don’t, when
setting of from the Refugio Pastore (stage 5) at 9am in
the morning, miss the unmarked turn to the Colle del
Turlo and go ambling up the wrong path for 1 3/4hrs
climbing 600 metres before you realize you’ve gone the
wrong way (I blame the Red wine and Roger)
Don’t
concentrate so much on not falling of the high balcony
path on stage six that you walk into a low hanging rock
cutting your head open like John did (blood everywhere).
Fortunately high quality first aid was administered
straight away (we bunged a hanky under his hat) so he
was able to carry on.
Don’t loose
your boarding pass between the security section and the
boarding gate at the airport (all of 40 metres) like
John did.
and 10
minutes later
Don’t loose
your boarding pass between the boarding gate and the
plane (all of 50metres) like Roger did. This is true
believe me
Don’t rely
on one person (John) to take all the great views with
his super modern digital camera, he managed to delete
all the pictures by mistake. Age and modern technology
not a good mix in John’s case. Fortunately Roger took
some with his old faithful, see Photo’s
Last but not
least don’t take an Ambleside Old Boy with you as a
navigator
Conclusion
A great
holiday, well recommended
Cheers
PHOTOS
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