The La Gouille icefalls in the morning

Late in the morning actually. Yesterday had been a long day, and earlier this morning we took our time deciding what we would do next. Jan needed a rest day, and at first I thought about having one too, for my knees were still feeling yesterday's 1800m descent - on snowshoes. But then I realized that my knees wouldn't have any problems if I only went up, so I didn't really need a rest day. And so I ended up ascending to Cabane des Aiguilles Rouges, some 1000 m above La Gouille on the western side of the valley. And that brought us back to the icefalls where we had been climbing only a few days earlier. It had been well above freezing for several days now, yet they were still there. But with the high temperatures we wouldn't want to climb them anymore. 9 March 2014.