Glacier Haute Route Hike: from Chamonix to Zermatt

7/7 Stage 9: Cabane Vignettes – Cabane de Bertol

7/7 After a very restful night in a private room we were ready for a big day ahead. While the distance is not too great between the Vignettes and Bertol huts the elevation changes are significant (-3582ft and then +4428ft). With this in mind everyone at the hut wanted an early start to ensure firm snow for as much of their routes as possible. Good weather in the mountains is a two edged sword. If it’s stormy then visibility will be poor and route finding difficult. If it’s too warm then the snow softens by early afternoon and glacier travel, through crevasses becomes more dangerous and steep snow slopes become a mushy slog. With this in mind we got up at 5:30a and had breakfast.

After donning our crampons and roping up we set off from the hut (6:10a). In order to avoid the airy rock scramble back to the Col des Vignettes we climbed the snow slope below the ridge and after about a hundred yards we arrived at the col. From here we retraced our approach from the day before and crossed the snowfield below the Pigne d’Arolla and then descended the rocky slope to return to the Col de Chermotane.

Now we continued south crossing beneath the east face of the Petit Mont Collon then ascended easy moderate slopes up to the Col de l’Eveque (3392m – 11,129ft) (8:00a). From the col we began our descent down the upper arm of the Haute Glacier d’Arolla passing under the southeast face of the L’Eveque and then past the Col Collon (3087m – 10,128ft) which leads south into Italy and is part of the route Katherine and I took in 2009 on our Tour de Matterhorn. From here we retraced our 2009 route down to the edge of the main body of the Haute Glacier d’Arolla and then crossed the glacier to the lateral moraine running down its east side. Once on the moraine we took off our crampons and continued descending to the trail junction of the route leading up to the Plans de Bertol (2300m – 7546ft) (11:15a).

We then began our climb. First to the stone hut at the Plans de Bertol (2864m – 9396ft) and then up a series of soft snow slopes up to the col just south the Cabane de Bertol. The Cabane is perched on a rocky outcropping above the col and required some modest roped climbing on snow and then a big step across to the ladders that lead up to the hut (3311m – 10,863ft) (3:30p).