GN Walkers Haute Route Day 9-10 Cabane Moiry - Hotel Weisshorn - Hotel Schwarzhorn (4K)

Prelude: I make my videos for my family. For my treks, it is for my children to follow the steps of their old man, and maybe one day they will plan for their own adventures and I hope this video will offer them some insights. WHR Day 9 - SV is unwell. We had to make a difficult decision for a few things. 1. We are not going to rush, and let him sleep as late as possible. 2. We will not do the balcony walk parallel to Moiry barrange. 3. We will skip passing Col Sorebois. 4. We will take a bus from Moiry Barrage to Zinal instead. When we reached Zinal, Zinal Sierre was on. We confirmed with officials that the trails are opened to all, so we just need to do our best to co-exist. We made it a point to lean or step to one side since even in basic trail etiquette, runners get priority. It slows us down by easily 2x. We made a decision to take an alternate trail to avoid the runners while we are ascending. This is going to cause extra EG and time, and SV was not in good shape. By the time we reached the highest point we needed to get to, before starting a long (and supposedly one of the nicest balcony walk), SV was exhausted and was on low water level. We plotted a few points that we can resup from stream and given his condition, the preference was to seek help and resup from a rest point for the race. When we got there, there was a good water point that we could filter water from. The balcony walk was unpleasant. There are many parts of this long balcony that it is only wide enough for one person. As such, there are times that I have to lean to the slope so as to let runners pass. Sometimes there are so many of them that I have to wait for a while, and when I see an opening that was closing, I have to run with my 11-12kg pack too. There were 2 runners who gestured and yelled at me to get out of their way (nope, they are not the elites category). One of them even shoved me while I had already made way, and that made me lose my footing and I rolled over my weak left ankle again. I sat there for a good 5-10 mins for the pain to pass.. What further broke my heart was - when I pass the sweepers, I continue to see many energy sachets on the floor.. There is also a small team of about 4 aged people whom I came across, picking up the rubbish that was left behind. Isn't the intent of such race to promote the appreciation and care of our mountains and environment? Due to the encounters with these black sheeps, I did not observe the typical good spirits of trail running at Sierre Zinal. We ended our day in Hotel Weisshorn. SV was in a bad shape - it was a great thing that the hotel has its own filtration system from a good reservoir source. Both of us made sure we water-paraded ourselves to keep well hydrated. Distance: 14km EG: 894m EL: 706m Col/ Pass: none WHR Day 10 - in the morning, SV decided to drop out for 2 days and reconnect with me at Klein Matterhorn. I would back to my solo-hiking. I was ok with it as I typically go solo. Also, I feel my form's uptrend. Also, the balance route is less risky. Lastly, I am back on-grid. I made it a point to assure my family and I started my 2-days solo. After leaving Hotel Weisshorn, there were nice segments of balcony walk too. The ascend was gradual towards Medipass. It was not difficult. It was finally peaceful and less crowded. I met this German couple whom I would keep lapping across over the next 2 days. I also pre-identify water resup points, and carried more sensible water level to balance load and hydration needs. Hotel Schwarzhorn was nice except the walls were plaster boards. The room next to me was talking at the top of their voices and that woke me up 30mins after I fell asleep, and kept me awake for an hour. I decided to go over and request nicely for them to keep their volume down as while the walls exist, it is very much still a dorm. They nicely obliged, probably unaware of how thin the walls are as they were the last to get in. Distance: 11km EG: 596m EL: 1,117m Col/ Pass: Medipass