Day 6
There were plenty of alternatives to choose from on our last day of fine weather. Myself and Alan wanted something low key-with minimal technical work. Imagine our surprise, then, when our guide, Thierry, sent us off down this incredibly narrow ridge to the valley below. It was frightening. Very, very frightening.
You can't see the 500m cliff to the left, or the wide open crevasse at the bottom of the slope to the right, but that's probably for the best.
Down in the valley, we relaxed in anticipation of a simple endurance trek. Thierry, on the other hand, had another plan. A plan he divulged to us in phases, with very short notice. Notice like 'hike up that sheer slope'. Or 'Jump off this cliff. Don't worry, I've got the rope'. Or 'climb up this snow-covered rock face'.
I would have been a lot more frightened during the latter had Alan not been whimpering like a little girl all the way up - I thought that at least one of us should attempt to show this bloody Frenchie that not all Irishmen were pathetic little scardeycats. As the laughing Thierry said at the top "I couldn't see you, but I knew you were safe because I could 'ear you". Enough said.
Despite the large amounts of fear that I had felt at various points in the day, it was really really fun. Managed to get terribly sunburned again. The snow doubled the effect of the beating sun and cut through my two layers of sunblock with consummate ease. My earlobe was the worst effected. And I have another helmet stripe. Sexy.
