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Ghiacciaio del Rutor near the Rifugio A. Deffeyes above La Thuile, Italy. The Deffeyes hut keeper congratulated David Panofsky, his wife, Pat Smith and I for being the first party that season to venture up the Glacier du Planaval from the Val Grisanche in Italy to get to where I took this picture and eventually to the Refugio. A short section of the actual trek (Via Alta #4) we completed runs along the French Border in this area on the other side of Rutor Glacier. We had to make a detour and ascend up to the Rutor Glacier from Italy because the French huts had closed for the season a day early. It had been and continued to be a very bad season for climbing in the Alps due to warmer than normal conditions. We had only brought trekking poles and in-step crampons and experienced a number of close calls crossing the Glacier du Planaval and then ascending its steep lateral moraine on its northern boundary in the heat of the day (9/98).

Photo by Paul Huebner