Vignamales, Friday 5th Sept.
A side trip today with the possibility of climbing Vignamales. The weather was good but it looked windy at the top.
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| A good morning |
Picked up an ice axe and crampons at the refuge and set off back down the way I came up yesterday to where the 'path' up to the glacier turns off.
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| Down to the glacier path |
A high cliffy path leads to a big scree chute that I had to cross before climbing up ice polished limestone that gave surprisingly good grip.
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| Way up |
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| The start of the glacier |
I avoided some snow patches and continued climbing until reaching the lip of the Corrie where Crampons were attached to boots to climb a snow chute leading to the glacier.
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| The glacier |
What can I say except AMAZING, a real glacier, not just an everlasting snow patch.
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| Glacier surface |
There was no snow cover so the couple of crevasses were easy to see as I crunched my way over the ice.
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| Looking down the Glacier |
The Glacier was the main reason for being there but I climbed a horrible scree slope towards the rock slabs leading to the top.
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| Looking down on the glacier |
I was looking at the next stage when another couple passed me and started roping up. That made the decision for me and I slithered back to the glacier. Not the top but still 3200 meters.
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| Ice Ice baby |
I spent a while wandering about the glacier which was getting wetter in the sunshine before retracing my steps and finding a sunny spot in the rocks that was sheltered from the icy wind coming down the glacier for a late picnic lunch admiring the view.
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| I'm not the only one |
There was a helicopter ferrying equipment up to the ridge which was interesting to watch particularly the skill of the pilot in the strong gusty wind.
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| The helicopter |
When I got back to the Refuge I found out that they were drilling for permafrost experiments.
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| Wow |
I found a slightly easier route down through the rock but still had to cross the scree and the nasty, high, cliffy path before rejoining yesterday's path to the refuge.
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| Back across the scree |
4 comments:
Amazing!!!!! The views 😍😍
It's an incredible area
First glacier? So memorable!
Any glacier noises/creaks?
Great pics of an amazing area. Thanks J
Fantastic pictures, althoughas a Wimp, a little frightening. All three of us werer impressed. Thanks for sharing. A
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