March 20th, 2010: Piz Terza

Another day, another peak in the Swiss Alps. Today's adventure would be a little shorter than yesterday's, with only 1100 meters of vertical climbing. Our new guides for the day were the father/son team of Giuseppe and Fredrik (again, I've surely arranged the vowels and consonants incorrectly). They did a marvelous job of leading us up the rolling faces of Piz Terza, rising above the town of Lu.

On day two in the backcountry, Elena made sure to practice proper temperature control from head to toe, which can make all the difference in one's enjoyment of the adventure. Here she has clearly shed her hat in favor of the always-versatile Buff (I believe it is actually pronounced "boof").

Terza's summit monument confirmed the peak's elevation of 2907 meters, which was a bit lower than Cotschen but well above the valley clouds. The view was nice, but the wind was strong so we dialed in our gear and started to descend.

I had been optimistic about the quality of the snow on the way up and was excited to get some good turns. Sure enough I got some good turns. But not many. The warm weather was baking the snow through and through and we were hitting many hollow patches or breaking through thick crust. I became rather adept at rolling my way out of such holes.

Though there were no afternoon beers today, but Fredrik's mother (Giuseppe's wife) prepared us an incredible feast of penne arrabbiata at their nearby home. Another fine day in the Swiss Alps.