Chilling at the Lac des Isclots

Mountain lakes can be a little chilly at times. Klaas and I are currently paused by one called Lac des Isclots, which is fed by a glacier and a large number of snowfields. When we decided to camp here we’d wondered about being able to wash or swim in the lake, but I’d only walked out far enough to cover my knees before my feet were so painfully cold that I had to go back to the shore. I tried swimming in a similar lake once and took one stroke away from the shore before realising I might just freeze solid and die - I’m not making that mistake again.

Luckily there’s a stream by our bivouac site (1st photo), so we’ve washed ourselves and our clothes in that. We’ve also eaten the sandwiches we got from the refuge and done some maintenance - waxing boots, sewing up holes in sleeping bags etc. People often asked what I’d do in the evenings, especially when I was on my own, but there’s loads to do: pitch tent, wash, cook, eat, wash clothes, plan route, get kit ready for next day, write diary, write blog, etc. The last few days we don’t seem to have had any time to relax, so it’s nice to have an afternoon off.

We’re so remote up here that we’ve stopped bothering to purify or filter the water. We passed some snow-sheep (a strange breed of sheep that appears to live on snow, rather than grass) on the way up but the only thing we’ve seen at this altitude is a marmot, so hopefully he hasn’t polluted our stream too much.

Just beyond the sheep was yet another swollen river that we had to cross. Time and again we’ve come to stepping stones which are totally submerged and useless due to the amount of snow melting. Sometimes we’ve managed to find an alternative crossing, but occasionally there’s no choice but to wade. Klaas takes a different approach than me - he went through a river the other day in his boots, while I prefer to keep everything as dry as possible. This particular river was up to our thighs and flowing pretty quickly, so it was a good thing we had the poles for balance - the power of the river could easily have knocked us over, which would have been bad news for the rucksacks!

While the lake here is barely above freezing (and I mean that literally - the second photo shows ice floating in it), the temperature in the sun is ridiculous. Finding shade is very difficult too - the sun is almost directly overhead, so I’m currently curled up in a little hole in a north-facing cliff!