The Gerrard Chronicles 2005 - Traveller's Tales

We had planned to ski in Alp d'Huez, one of the harder destinations of the Tour de France, which we follow avidly. However, the hotel would not be finished in time & Ken lead the Inghams man round to letting us have the very luxurious Hotel Mirabeau in Zermatt instead at the same price. This is the one our friends Michey & Alan were married in in 1994. We did the usual rounds & made a trip into Italy down the Ventina run. Avis, at 69, decided it was our last ski trip, so Ken made his last run, the fearsome Aroleid, despite a somewhat gammy leg from last year's alpine trip. Fortunately, this cleared up later. Zermatt ski info to our Alpine web site.

Last year left just one stage to do of the Chamonix-Zermatt Walk, the hardest, so Ken flew to Geneva (Easyjet) in September, trained to Le Chable & walked up to Verbier, ending the day in the Mont Fort Hut. The next day, while a stiff walk, only took 8 1/4 hours & is fully reported & illustrated on this link. There was thus time to get to Montana (village link) across the Rhone in the Bernese Oberland for the night before picking up an old trail at the Violettes Hut & going over by the Plaine Morte Glacier to Iffigenalp above Lenk.