cabane Prafleuri to Arolla... ahhhh...

We hightailed it out of Prafleuri early and were treated to a lovely morning hike along the Dixence reservoir (after climbing up to Col des Roux). This milky-green lake is part of an amazing hydro project capturing water from 35 glaciers across the Valais region (including from below the Matterhorn), all pumped underground to this reservoir, where the large drop in elevation is used to generate electricity.

A nice long climb up the Pas du Chat was rewarded with the incredible Mont Blanc de Cheilon with a graceful glacier curving down from its pyramidal peak. This is a very popular climbing mountain and there were quite a few climbers lunching at the very nice and remote Cabane des Dix (check out the view from the outdoor shower). We did a fun glacier crossing from there to Col de Riedmatten, and watched the helicopter resupply the hut…. those pilots are FAST and ACCURATE… the landing pad was about the size of a pancake 🙂

We had a great view of the Matterhorn on the other side of the pass and then made our way down, down, down until… finally… TREES again – whoop! We loved the Grandhotel Kurhaus, our home for the evening in Arolla, a family-run hotel started by the current owner’s great-grandmother.

Early morning view from cabane Prafleuri