This is the big one. Two days of walking including a sleep over in a hut perched in a high alpine pass on the edge of a Glacier.  This would be our first contact with ice! This is the hike all the others have simply been a warm up for.  This time we would be going into remote and desolate locations.   But first the Scouts had to withdraw pocket money from the camp bank run by Jon and Chez.

Once again we hiked in four small groups.  After a week we had worked out who walked at what pace and the groups were very much created with that in mind.

 Girls from the Network and one of the girls from the Scouts set off first with Mark.  They were followed shortly by most of the Scouts led by Jon and Chez.  Next came the younger explorers and the fastest Scout along with Geoff and finally the fit group who spent most of the morning ferrying the slower walkers up the remote Gasternal Valley. 

 We started from the village of Selden some 15 minutes drive along a dirt track and cliff edge roads that passed through tunnels hewn from solid rock.  From the village we crossed the raging river Kander on a wobbly bridge before starting the first stage of our climb.  This path would take us to the top of the tree line.  Due to the heat we were glad to be in the shade of the forest although we did pop out into the sun occasionally to catch the spray from the impressive waterfalls.  At the top of the forest was a hut that each group paused at to get Hutten test cards stamped and to obtain ice creams.