Days 5 and 6 comprised 2 day tours to break us in. The first left from the Orri car park, near Beret, with our all too shiny blue ‘seal’ skins attached (gone are the days of real seal skin) we headed off complete with avalanche transceivers to traverse the Circ De Baciver at 2337m. In true confident British Army style, we thought we were covering the ground well. Stark realisation that technique counts greatly hit home as a local in the 50-60 age bracket overtook us with consummate ease. However, once our pride was back intact having dismissed it all as an illusion brought on by altitude sickness, we continued up to the peak. The sight of closing weather at the top meant alpine sandwiches were soon consumed before we beat a hasty retreat.

Day 8 heralded the start of our main 4 day tour and the meat of the exercise. Having discarded all but the bare essentials in the interests of travelling light we set off to Hut Restanca, 2010m. After further instructions from our guide en route we soon realised our ‘kit-cull’ had been too severe and we returned to the hotel to collect amongst other things, loo roll!

We were not the only residents in Hut Restanca, with 2 civilian groups sharing the accommodation. Thus it was that on the morning of Day 9, prior to their departure, we were witness to the most almighty kit explosion. This prevented us from getting anywhere near our own kit, hence had to sit and wait while others prepped and departed. This did of course mean that when we eventually proceeded towards our target of the day, Col de Crestada, 2475m, we had nice freshly broken tracks to follow. En route we were witness to 2 avalanches and this somewhat affected our plans to top out on a nearby peak. Instead, we pressed on to Hut Ventosa, 2215m, via 3 lake crossings the first of which, despite visible ice and more alarmingly visible crack lines, we were assured by our guide was safe.