A crux grows complicated

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On the go in big country. swissinfo.ch

We roped up to cross glaciers on the way to a base camp near the Col du Tour Noir. The good weather would soon change. swissinfo.ch

The hot day made the going pretty tough, with each step sinking into the soft snow. It got pretty dangerous so we decided to camp in order to tackle the big climb ahead at 3am when the snow is frozen. At least, that's the plan. Then it started to rain. swissinfo.ch

Cam shows John the freeze-dried menu for the evening. swissinfo.ch

John lets the secret to youthfulness out of the bag. swissinfo.ch

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I’m typing this in a tent well above 3,000 meters in the rain, having watched all the cliffs and slopes above avalanche with water-logged snow.

Today was short but hard and given the weather we sure feel lucky. The snow was soft on the glaciers, so our feet would sink in and even going across flats felt like going uphill. And it was hot, too, which feels ironic now with thunderstorms and rain. After watching so much snow on the cliffs and slopes slide, we decided to camp early and climb up to the Col du Tour Noir at 3am when the snow is relatively frozen. It would have been much too dangerous in the heat of the afternoon. And that was before we had any idea it would rain. So while we may have made a lucky call, we won‘t be so lucky if the rain doesn‘t stop soon. Tomorrow has by far the most technical climbing, perhaps of the whole trip, and we really need good weather–that lasts.