Boondock Puffins

Our flat in Tignes looks out over a very distinctive mountain. It is a view that we’ve become very accustomed too (in truth, it’s a view that we have definitely grown to take for granted). Something that we definitely don’t take for granted, however, is the sheer size of the mountain that gives us the backdrop to our morning coffee, afternoon snack or Saturday evening glass of wine. Standing at 3,700m, Sassiere is quite an impressive sight.

Having tackled this mountain nearly a year ago, when one of our friends mentioned he was heading out to climb it, we agreed with enthusiasm to tag along.

We set off at 2.30am… I’d set the alarm and we’d agreed with our friend to meet at 3am. As the alarm went, I checked my messages and saw that he’d actually set off already at midnight. Bouncing out of bed (and throwing Tom out too), we got dressed, chucked on our rucksacks and headed out.

In the car, we drove out into fairly dense cloud (living at 2100m already, this isn’t too rare, but always a bit rubbish when you can’t see more than a few metres in front of you). Our friend had left a voice message for me saying that it was a clear night and he had a beautiful view of the super moon…

An hour into our hike and we were both losing positivity rapidly as we continued to trek on in the soup of cloud. I’d just sent a (minorly abusive) voice note back to our friend saying that we had no sign of the impressive moon and the climb sucked. Minutes later, we popped out of the thick cloud back to an epic sight.

I’ve only seen one cloud inversion before, and it was at sunrise in Madeira. It was one of the most beautiful sights of nature I’d ever encountered. Well, a super moon coupled with snow-capped mountains all around and a cloud inversion so thick it looked like you should be able to run and jump off the mountain and be caught in the bed of fluffy cotton wool – that was an entirely unforgettable sight.

Within half an hour, we met up with our friend who’d been waiting for us at the point where we couldn’t go any further (none of us were prepared to go ice climbing without ropes or proper gear and with a very real risk of injury and/or death). We all sat on the ridge, sharing our flask of coffee and enjoying a cereal bar each, staring out at the majestic display of nature in front of us. Eventually, as our friend was still only wearing his shorts (insanity!) and had set off a long time before us, he headed back down to the warmth of his car.

Tom and I waited for sunrise (which was deceptively late as the summit of the mountain blocks out the sun for a good half hour after the sun would otherwise have risen) before hiking down to the car.

Getting into bed at 9am to go back to sleep felt very odd, but so satisfying. This was definitely one of the coolest experiences and one that we will certainly never forget.