The Team Sherpa Blog

    After Monte Rosa and Gressoney, we spent the night in the town of Aosta. It is a rather large industrial type of town and even though there is quite nice old town centre at the end of a busy walking street, we couldn’t wait to have a change to continue our trip to more tranquil surroundings.

The next morning it was raining and the clouds were hanging low as we put our sporty Lancia Ypsilon to the test by driving upwards the next valley towards the starting point of the hike to Dent d’Heréns.

   Heréns is somewhat remote mountain on the border between Italy and Switzerland. The summit reaches 4171m from where one can have really spectacular view to majestic sphinx of the Matterhorn to the east. It also is less climbed than the other 4thousenders in the region and therefore there is possibility to enjoy genuine feeling of solitude in a stupendous landscape of ice, snow and steep rock.

The turquoise lake with Dent d’Hérens on the back. (photo courtesy of Samu)   

    The road from the Aosta follows the valley of Valpelline through little sleepy villages higher towards the huge dam by the lake called Lac de Place Moulin. At the times it was raining really hard and we couldn’t help wondering why almost all the farms by the road had the sprinklers on their fields spraying water on the full blast to already soppy grass . Also as we were getting higher on that ever tightening switch-back road, the visibility was getting bad to worse. Getting closer to the altitude of 2000hm the clouds and the fog reduced the visibility to nil and I gotta say that not sitting behind the wheel (Samu is most cautious driver by the way) I was more afraid in those hair pin turns than ever climbing in the mountains.

   After about an hour of driving we reached the dam, even though we couldn’t see anything because of the dense fog. There is a very nice alpine style hotel underneath the dam where we booked a room for one night. The next day we would start our hut climb to Rifugio Aosta . The route first follows the perfect turquoise lake for about six kilometres to the north end and to a place called Prarayer. From the other hotel at Prarayer the path starts to climb up by the river bank first quite steeply and then little more gently in a beautiful high alpine pasture. On the both sides of the river there are high mountains rising steeply with white and blue glaciers giving great contrast to a green and flowery meadows by the fast flowing ice water stream at the bottom.

    We also encountered the local fauna of marmots, herds of sheep and cows grazing along the river sides and upper parts of giant moraine debris which the receding glacier has left behind. I still don’t understand how the farmers have managed to get their herd up to those high meadows and how they will be able to bring them back down again in the fall. The hike is rather long and strenuous to the hut when you cover some 12 km of distance and 800hm of altitude. The Aosta hut at the hight of 2781m is right next to a huge sérac area of vast high glacier of Tsa de Tsan. Last part of the hike to the hut is pretty impressive, when you climb up along a polished rock admiring these roaring waterfalls coming from the inside of the Ice masses. Good thing is that there is a via ferrata of fixed ropes, chains and steel steps to help a weary climber to reach his or her goal of the day.

    I have to say that this hut climb is probably the most breathtaking I’ve ever done in the mountains. First you follow that turquoise lake and scramble in a pictoresc ‘Sound of the Music’ type of landscape in a coarse pine tree forest. Then as getting higher everything slowly turns more austere and secluded. All the time when you’re climbing upwards, you can see the high glaciers and the summit of Dent de Heréns. Everything around you is just too grand to be captured by the camera and the true feel for the place can only be experienced personally on the spot. Even standing at the front of the hut watching down at the valley to south makes you feel that you’re in this remote little fortress which is trying to stand against the forces of nature. But to stand there after good four hour hike enjoying a cold beer admiring incredible panorama of high peaks and hanging glaciers, ice water streams with lush alpine pastures on the sides basking in the afternoon sun is worth of all the flying, driving and walking.

    We had an excellent purpose build meal and a very good rest in that cosy little hut and were more than ready at three in the morning, when the wake up alarm rang. Cup of tea and few dry crackers, back packs on and we were heading towards the steep moraine leading up to the Grand Murailles Glacier at 3000m. Two hours of climbing and we reached more flatter part of the ice. It was getting little lighter and we took a little pause to switch of the head torches and adjust the gear a bit. It was then when it hit me…. a mountain climber’s curse (if you don’t know what that is, you can try to google it). Well, a little delay and we continued towards the steeper part of the glacier and the first bergschund crevasse which was in between the first real climbing section.

    Samu front pointing above the bergschrund.

    From the altitude of 3780m we started the rock section after front pointing the crevasse and a short icy slope, and it really was a commitment requiring bit. The snow cover was thin and route finding wasn’t obvious in that steep maze of polished rock and loose gravel. The face strangely took me back to the south face of Vincent Piramide. Also the wind was very strong and the temperature dropped by that to a finger freezing point. We climbed alpine style in two man rope shouting instructions through the howling wind to each other. Last ten meters was quite delicate since there was absolutely no place to make any kind of a belay. I guess that silently our mind was set by the time we reached the icy ridge leading to the final steep rock to the summit. The wind really was furious and at times it felt like it would try to blow us of the mountain. It would have taken us another two hours to the top and the down climb needed all the strength and focus we had so we made a decision to turn down from that point. One would think that it is a huge disappointment and feeling of defeat, when you don’t reach the summit after such a long effort. Truthfully I have to say that even now after two months I still remember that hike as one of the most beautiful and fulfilling I have ever done in the mountains.

    We too the last look at the panorama around us and then started to rappel down with the howl of the wind in our ears. Because of the thin layer of the snow, the loose rocks were flying down the face constantly and we had to be very careful about that as well. The inevitable happened when we were just about to reach the ice wall under the rock face. A climbing couple that were little higher from us were also making their decent and this ‘ass’ dislodged a rock which started a shooting gallery of stones flying down the face. With no warning shouts from above, we flattened ourselves against the face and tried to find some shelter from a couple of larger boulders. We were lucky and only got hit to the arms and legs by smaller rocks, which never the less hurt like hell. Just below us were two Swiss dudes and fortunately they were wearing helmets, as little lower down one of them told us that the rock had cracked his helmet useless. There were no comments, nor apologies by the climbing couple as they reached us on the glacier.

    Back to the starting point of Lac de Place Moulin, after pretty long and weary day. Started at 03:30, covered close to 20 km of lateral distance, 1300hm up, 2000hm down and 14 hour hike, so once again the salvation came in a form of chilled can of lager at this little cafe by the dam. Then the Ypsilon took us along this curly road down to the Aosta freeway and then to the town of Courmayer for a deserved relaxation.