La Sage to Cabane du Moiry


After breakfast, we got ready to leave for another long hike - we had to get ourselves mentally prepared knowing that today’s hike would include 5000 ft elevation gain. 

But first we stopped for a photo with the views from Hotel de la Sage in the background. 



After walking through the village of La Sage, we began our climb through a pretty forest. 




After we emerged from the forest, we came out onto a beautiful meadow for the next part of our ascent. 

We stopped for a snack underneath a large wooden cross and enjoyed views of the valley below. We’ve seen these wooden crosses on the mountainsides throughout Switzerland. 







After our short break, we continued climbing up to Col du Tsaté. Despite the steep climb, we were thankful for a path without a lot of rocks to navigate over!





At various points on the steep mountainsides, you see ancient buildings which we imagined belong to the herders who brought the cows up to the higher pastures in the summer. The scene reminded us of classic book from our childhoods, Heidi, where Heidi and the young goat herder, Peter, spent their summers high up on the mountain slopes. 



The final ascent to Col du Tsaté did involve, of course, a long trudge up a field of scree. 


We got to Col du Tsaté (9407 ft) at lunchtime. We were so ready!



This photo shows how narrow a col can be - at Col du Tsaté you can see the steep slope you just came up AND the steep slope you will be going down. 






After lunch and some time for photos, we started a steep descent down thru another scree field. 




After we got through the scree field, we followed a trail leading down to the valley floor.






We got to the valley floor and began our final 1500 ft ascent to the mountain hut. This was the point where we all had to really dig in to find our inner reserves. The path up starts out “fairly easy,” but then moves onto a steep pathway that passes through an area of cairns. 



Cairns are used throughout the world as a way to “mark the path.” The word cairn comes from the Gaelic term meaning heap of stones.




The last two hours were really hard! We basically went up and up over a series of tight switchbacks with lots of rocks. The final 45 minutes was climbing over huge boulders - very challenging when you are really tired!



We finally made it to the hut which is situated right on the side of the Moiry Glacier. 



A view down the valley and of Lac Moiry from outside the hut. So thankful to have made it to this point!



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