For the last few years Reuben Berg and I have done just that . This mid summers day might have been the best so far. We drove round to Gressoney , rode the lift to Punta Indren put the skis on and skinned up to the Mantova Hut. some times when we have taken skis out in the summer we have had some strange looks, but not this time. The majority of parties were on skis and it was impossible to distinguish the scene from mid ski touring season. Conditions were perfect.
The next day we climbed Vincent Pyramid.
The forecast for the next day was poor. We went to bed thinking that it would not be possible to do much the next day. Our goal had been to climb up to the Margherita Hut and spend the night. This is the highest building in Western Europe at a lung busting 4554meters.
However at day break the weather was not too bad so we thought we should go and have a "look" knowing that if the weather deteriorated we could retreat very quickly on skis. We were bolstered by the site of a helicopter delivering beer to the Margherita Hut reasoning that if the heli could fly then we should be able to make it . We did make it but the weather was decidedly sketchy as we finally made it and yes the beer was there:
The Hut was not busy that evening. 6 guests. Next morning getting out of the hut was a challenge- strong wind and zero visibility. We teamed up with a Swiss Guide and his client and navigated through a classic white out. Eventually we got below the cloud at the col Lys. From there we could really enjoy our selves with a fantastic powder descent followed by spring snow all the way to the Punta Indren cable car
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