Another perfect day at the high altitude; we have been so spoiled with this dry, powdery snow these last weeks. Just more days like this please! The week was a bit tense and I was ready for that mountain and got up easily with a roaring energy. The Palanche de la Cretta (2,926 m) is a mountain of the Swiss Pennine Alps in the canton of Valais. From Sion we drove into beautiful alpine valley Val d'Hérens and passed the villages of Evolène and Les Haudères towards Arolla. The starting point of this ski tour is a few kilometres after Les Haudères at the bus stop “La Coutaz”.
This was an eventful ski tour; we witnessed and heard an avalanche shoot far away on the other side of the valley (the cloud on the photo above). A few years ago Evolène suffered a huge avalanche when twelve people died while staying in their chalets. Due to its mountain terrain the villages are subjected to avalanches and aggressive erosion of its main river due to the recession of three surrounding glaciers.
As we climbed up I separated from the group to take a bit more time with the camera and as I passed a tiny chalet I was invited by a group of skiers from the valley to taste Absinthe. That surely warmed me up. Up to the summit and my body tired in a good way and my mind eased and shut down in this open space. As one mountaineer put it: “I go to the mountains to escape the clutter of daily life”.
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