Another big day, with almost 1200 meters of climbing split between two sections. The first is on our climb up to the Col de l'Evêque, which we reach with a long but gentle glacier ascent. With an early start, we should arrive at the Col in time to greet the morning sun. We then have a moderately long descent of the Haute Glacier d'Arolla, mostly fairly easy but with one steeper step at about 3200 meters.

From the glacier terminus, we continue down another 2 kilometers of gentle but occasionally rocky trail to a fork at about 2510 meters. Our second climb of the day starts here, from the Plans de Bertol up to the hut. This is a big 800 meter climb, with little of it on glaciers. However it poses challenges of its own!

Looking up, we can now see our goal, the Bertol hut on its audacious perch high above. Our trail soon peters out among morainal boulders, glacier-polished slabs and half-buried ice remnants of the nearly extinct Bertol Glacier. The going gets tougher as we clamber up boulders and progressively steeper snow. One brief section of ladders helps us surmount a short section of rocky cliffs. A last push up fairly steep snow brings us at last to the Col de Bertol. Now its just a few short minutes of steep ladders to the hut.

This day's effort is rewarded by entirely new vistas. The Bertol hut overlooks an immense glacier plateau to the east feeding the Mont Miné and Ferpècle glaciers. Across this plateau the Dent Blanche dominates the view. The upper half of the Matterhorn peaks over the top of the snows, tantalizingly close now.