Up and out early this morning to make the most of the cool mountain air and quiet trail for a hike up to the Glacier Blanc.

An absolute stunner of a morning and a real joy to be out, soaking up the views and taking in the details. Within the first half an hour I had a close encounter with a big marmot. It was on the path about a metre away from me when I came around a corner. We looked at each other for a bit, then I stayed quiet and still as it carried on sniffing the flowers before eventually wandering off in to the rocks.

The trail gains height quickly after crossing the low plateau – an outward zone of deposition that’s now home to a small braided river. The views continued to brighten as the sun got higher.

I reached the Refuge du Glacier Blanc at around 9am. The whole morning so far had been a been a bit of a trip ‘up’ memory lane, as this was the first Alpine Hut that I’d ever stayed in during my first alpine summer in 1998. A woman offered to take my photo to mark the occasion – ha ha! Here is the result!

When I was last here, the Glacier Blanc, reached almost to the hut (I’m going to check my photo albums to clarify this when I get home!), but today, some 27 years on, it’s a decent hike further up the valley to reach the ice.

Continuing above the the hut, I followed one of the many small paths across an area of scree and glacial debris that’s littered with trails and cairns. I hiked up to around 2900m, to where the glacier rounds the bend in the valley. The ice is bare, with plenty of crevasses on show, but higher up there was still some snow cover. The ridge line opposite that leads to the Barre des Ecrins looked superb.

Without crampons, glacier gear (and a partner), I called this my high point and sat enjoying the views, and with my guidebook out, spent some time identifying potential climbs on the ridges and peaks that surrounded me.

The ice has cracked and calved into all sorts of shapes, allowing for my eyes to wander indefinitely. On the surface though there were rivers of water flowing across and through the glacier and waterfalls poured off the snout. I suspect it’s losing more mass than it’s gaining.

When I pulled out a bit of food, three Alpine Chuffs landed down next to me – close enough to touch!

A wonderful morning of exercise, reminiscing and reconnaissance. Just before 11am I began my descent so that I’d make it back to the Goldcrest Alpine Office in time to meet Clare for lunch. On the way down a French alpinist, pointed out a good looking route that follows the striking left hand ridge of the peak below. Something to come back for perhaps?…

I was back home by 13:00, and found Clare just sitting down for lunch on the terrace, having just completed her mornings work. With her laptop closed for the day, we went up to Ailefroide and sat in the meadows soaking up the air and catching up on each others’ morning.

To celebrate the end of a big week of work, we had a superb meal of galettes and frites, before heading back to the pad for a glass of ice cold prosecco on the terrace.