Hiking in Valley de Bagnes

On the weekend I went back with some friends to where we had hiked with the lab around Lourtier in the valley de Bagnes. This valley is in the same area as Verbier and also shares the start of the valley with the valley that goes to the famous Grand Saint Bernard pass (home of the dogs). I'm putting in the details as I try and learn my way around Swiss geography.

Anyway, we had brilliant weather and started the trip with a group photo (if a little out of focus).

That large snowy mountain is actually in the valley next to us. This picture is taken at the parking lot.

There were lots of sheep on the trails and they all wear bells so you can hear where they are as you hike.

Then the glacier comes into view. It's the end of the summer so all the crevasses are wide open. Our trail takes us along the right moraine and then we cross the glacier just where you can see it starts to go flat.

We hike along the moraine and past where we made it with the lab hike day.

At this point we are actually on the glacier. It is covered in debris and from the distance it looks like you are walking on rocks but they are embedded in solid ice and you can slip on it if you don't watch where you put your feet. We are following the markers put out on the glacier.

The consistency of the glacier changes once we head out onto the main body of it, the sun shining on it all day has made it soft and not very slippery but given our late start the shadows have started to creep out and will soon freeze the surface.

Group photo on the ice.

Here we are crossing the glacier and heading to the other moraine where the hut is located.

After melting all day there were rivers that ran across the glacier.

And plunge down deep holes in the glacier. We could hear water running all around but couldn't see it most of the time.

The hut that we stayed at was very luxurious, it had several upper floors and we slept in a large room that could sleep 60 people. There were mattresses provided as well as pillows and extra blankets. Very different compared to huts I've stayed at around Vancouver.

We were served dinner and breakfast and the common area was very warm and very nice. It was like a living room in a house (well, no couches but there were tables and chairs and bookshelves with really old National Geographic magazines... in English!). I taught these two British guys how to play Euchre. There was wine with dinner, it was all very civilized. And at night I went out to see the milky way, two shooting stars and a satellite.

The next morning was beautiful and still excellent weather.

And the glacier looked fantastic.

Another group photo.

And we headed back across the ice. It was much more slippery in the morning because the sun hadn't been shining on it and all the rivers on the surface were gone or frozen over.

I should add that Brammert took all these great photos.

Finally, here are some details for future reference.

The cabin stayed at is:
http://www.cabane-fxb-panossiere.ch/

Latitude/longitudes which you can enter into google maps:
Parking lot:46.030099926597934/7.273968458175659
end of road: 46.030099926597934/7.273968458175659