Day 2 - Gandegg Hut to Ayas Hut

This was the first day we spent entirely above the snow line, and our first experience of glacier travel.

We left the Gandegg hut at 0535, and followed the well-bashed ski piste up the Oberer Theodulgletscher to the Theoduljoch and the Plateau Rosa, as far as the col at 3826m. The first skiers descending from the Klein Matterhorn station passed us around 0900.

We stopped before the col for more crevasse rescue practice, this time taking it in turns to jump off a 5 metre ice shelf to be caught by the others and hauled out - except for Udai, who seemed to think the aim was to stay down there and dig in.

Now my day was plunged into misery. I realised I had lost a small piece of plastic and rubber - the nose-piece on my sunglasses. Failing to find it after a full search, I spent the rest of the day with my glasses resting so close to my face that they were constantly smeared by suncream and sweat. I travelled the remaining distance in a foggy blur.

We moved onto the Breithorn plateau and debated whether to climb Breithorn. The consensus was "no", so we continued across the plateau in bright, hot sunshine with the snow getting increasingly soft, and finally descended the Grande Ghiacciaio di Verra to the Ayas hut (3394m), arriving at about 1400.

The Ayas is a nice friendly hut, with a real washroom and a Gaggia coffee machine. Alan was tempted to get us prussiking up a rope off the balcony, but decided in the end the hut guardians might not approve, so we passed the afternoon drinking tea and coffee in the comfort of the hut. I spent a useful half hour making a new nosepiece for my sunglasses out of small bits of sticking plaster, a repair which served well for the rest of the trip, and which added further style to the cool and fashionable look for which our group was already establishing a reputation.