Full day climbing up the Glacier du Lys - no time for lunch!!

We left Champoluc at 9am this morning under a blazing sun, and had to cross to Punta Indren, which took us much more time than planned (we lost about 1 hour due to Italian lift organisation...). We then skied to the foot of the Montova Refuge. We put the skins on at alt 3180m and started our long climb which took us past the Montova Refuge, then on the Garstelet Glacier (at the foot of the Pyramide Vincent) past the Gnifetti Refuge where we had some tea. Then we joined the Lys Glacier and went up for another 2 hours, past amazing seracs where we really had to speed as they are so dangerous especially in this sunny weather.
On glacier, the progression is much slower as we have to put blades on the skis so that they don't slide on the ice. We also have to take on much more material in our backpacks (crampons, harness, rope, ice pick) in order to be ready for any emergency, which makes them really heavy. We finished our climb at altitude 4257m at the Col des Lys and I must admit that I had not much energy left in my body with the altitude and extra weight, so much so that the last 100 meters were a real mental fight! 

Punta Dufour

Lyskamm and Matterhorn

We had to go back down to Greyssoney (Staffal) in order to catch the last cable car and chairlift home, so had no time for lunch. We had to ski down 2500 meters in just 1 hour after such a long climb. My legs were killing me on the way down and I still don't know how I managed to ski so fast, but here we are safe in the hotel.