September 28 - 29, I was supposed to fly in Zermatt. However, the wind forecast was not favorable, so the plans were postponed. I did not like the change of plans, as it gave me one free weekend and collision of plans next weekend, especially when the forecast did not look that bad. But when I experienced the wind from tropical storm hitting Europe, I was glad not to fly.

Les Haudères

I started quite late, leaving Zurich at 8:30 resulted in getting to Les Haudères after 12:30. Anyway, I had big dreams, hiking the whole way to Zinal in one day, and sleeping above Zinal

Map of my naive plan.

The dry meadows have an interesting color..

..in contrast to glaciers.

The view from Col du Torernt. These peaks are Dents du Midi..

..and the furthest at the horizon is Mont Blanc, places that I saw two years ago when I was living in Geneva.

The views to the other side were no less interesting.

Somehow, my pace was horrible, so I had no chance to make it. I ended after 10 km with 1500 m of altitude gain, by Lac des Autannes. It was a shallow, thus warm lake in 2650 masl, so I swam a bit before the sunset, that was way too early also due to the west slope. But given the winds, the lake was perfectly sheltered, and I could bivouac just under the starts. I was not feeling right, so I spend half of the night watching the stars, not being able to fall asleep.

I hurried down to swim before the sun sets.

Sunrise was a reason why I was willing to get up at 7. Watching four 4k peaks - Weisshorn, Zinalhorn, Det Blanche and Ober Gabelhorn changing from pink, over golded to bright white was worthy.

Sunrise over Grand Cornier and Dent Blanche. I had to wait for the sun much longer.

Most of my views on Sunday were around Lac de Moiry, who could not be fascinated by the turquoise blue water in the middle of the dry red-ish meadows. Crossing the dam was interesting not only because of the views but also due to info panels. The fascinating fact I learned was about ancient Europe to Africa border, which was just about the lake length, so I was standing in Europy, and the glaciers were Africa.

Lac de Moiry, now I stand in the ocean.

Sad history of the glacier.

Hiking on Sunday was much more relaxed, 650 m up was no problem.

New views

Blueberries were mainly sour but still nice to have some. Yet the color was fascinating.

The Weisshorn [4506] is considered by many mountaineers to be the most beautiful mountain in the Alps and Switzerland for its pyramidal shape and pure white slopes [from the other side]. – wiki

Zinalhorn

On the way home, I watched altocumulus lenticularis, clouds that signalize strong winds in the atmosphere. They were everywhere. Probably it was a right decision not to go flying :D.