Yep. That's the Matterhorn.I had another early morning rendezvous with my French friends and headed back to Italy for a traverse of Becca d'Epicoune. It's a popular peak on the other side of the valley from my first Italian objective last week. We were able to drive and then skin past some dairy farms on a nice road until we were in the alpine and headed straight for the peak.
The skin felt long and I wasn't moving that well. Not sure why. Just an off day, I guess. But we skinned for a few hours on a hard spring crust. Some of us used ski crampons, some didn't but we all made steady progress on the 4.5 hour approach and about 2,000 meters of climbing.
Christophe leading the way
The final few hundred feet of the climb involved actual 4th and 5th class rock climbing which was sweet.
The summit was sweet with perfect views again. We had a nice view of Becca d' Luseney from last week. I marked out our route below.
Becca d' Luseney
The ski down involved some crappy downclimbing on loose rock and some decent skiing below that. We cliffed out before the glacier and did a short half rope rappel. Following that we had a nice gentle skin back to a col and then the full g-ride to the car. Great day.
Spying the way down
Fred enjoying some "almost" powder
Jean negotiating the cliff band
Looking back. Our summit just right of center
After a couple of days up high in the Vallee Blanche getting some acclimatization, Nate is here and we're off to Areches-Beaufort and the start of the Pierra Menta. Get ready for the beat down!