We had been worried about the snow cover for our planned traverse but with some slight changes and a little walking it was fine. There was enough snow, but it wasn’t snow or skiing as one imagines. Old, crusty, bumpy, and rutted, it was at least consistent in its teeth chattering challenge.
On 16 March we awoke to an ominous, orange sky with the brightness turned to low. Large plumes of sand rising over the deserts of Algeria were being blown to Europe by strong northerly winds. The eerie light stayed with us as this exceptional dust episode lasted the whole week.
Whilst we didn’t have the best of conditions, we were all so happy to be back in the mountains, hut to hut touring on skis after Covid.