Ice climbing and ski touring at La Gouille

Eventually, we managed to get a trip together with Frenchy and Oliver. We've been talking a lot about week end trips, but actually never managed to have one with the 3 of us. Every time, one had a bad excuse to not join...

We went to the remote valley of Arolla, and stayed in the small hamlet La Gouille. First day, ice climbing... Good conditions. Second day, we went for a ski tour. We didn't do what we wanted, and messed a bit around... At one stage, I've heard a bit crack in the snow, which made us turning back... I hate these scary sounds... But the snow on the way down was excellent, which made a very good day at the end!

Oh yeah, and we stayed in a nice "Belgian" B&B. We had the classic mussels&fries for dinner, accompanied by a pint of Chimay beer... not very fine food, but perfect after a day in the cold! Just before we left, there was a small social event, the aim being to burn the Xmas trees... As the tree were wet and snowy, the fire managed to smoke in all the valley! You can see on the last pic how much smoke it was producing.