May 14, 2009, Piz Palu (SE Switzerland)

Going for the highest altitude tour possible in the area in the hope of finding consolidated snow, we started from Diavolezzahuette at 9700' and skied down some rutted frozen crust about 700' to the start of the skin up Piz Palu.  Last night's precipitation provided a couple inches of fresh powder for the top 1500' of our tour, then sadly slush below 10000'.  We opted out of skiing down the Swiss version of the Valle Blanche due to poor visibility and the likelyhood of poling in deep slush and possible moraine hiking as well.  The 700' skin up back to the ridge provided character building 2' deep slush, a reasonable price to pay for our good fortune in the sunny weather window for our ascent.  Back at the cafe, we tried a new dessert, Swiss National Park torte.