After the long Night of the Sardines (see yesterday), the 4:20am alarm was a welcome relief. However, breakfast consisted of muesli which had the exact appearance and texture of tuna mayonnaise.
By 5 am, we were crossing the glacier with headtorches, under the giant slag heap of Mont Blanc de Cheinon, our objective. Unfortunately this particular Mont Blanc no longer looks white, the way it does in the guide books, due to global warming.
After various trials with ice, rock and numerous taking on and off of crampons, the four of us roped together approached the 3850 meter summit up an endless slope of mushy snow swept by sleet. Due to the thin air and the impossibility of stopping, this gave the closest approximation to pure toil in my experience to date. I didn't want to be the one to say "I can't go on anymore."
3 comments:
Sounds like you were eating the true original 'wet' muesli, which predates our modern dry breakfast cereal by many decades. It was an invention of a Swiss doctor called Bircher-Benner, I believe. I first encountered it at boarding school during World War II. Would you say it contained oats, nuts and dried fruit, sugar or honey, milk, and possibly some fresh fruit as well?
I should have explained that the original 'wet' muesli would have been soaking overnight so that it all had the consistency of a fruit and nut porridge by morning. Very health-giving, I assure you.
yes it later transpired that other huts specialise in dry muesli more akin to the array of products in Tesco.
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