A First Snowy Walk

Mont Collon in the background, looking up the Arolla Valley from Lac Bleu which was white, frozen and covered in snow. On the left is a picnic table!

My yearly pilgrimage to Arolla happened this morning. I go there to see Joan, now 85, almost blind, and still living in the highest permanent village in Switzerland. She went there to study glaciers and married the postman of Arolla. 44 years ago was my first Alpine season and trip abroad at the age of 19. Joan has been the warm welcome to Brits on climbing holidays for half a century. She still says, "Go and enjoy my mountains and glaciers." So I did, it was hard work in this deep new snow though!

Thanks so much, blip friends, for spotlighting yesterday's autumnal scene.