Le Passage du Dérochoir

It's hard to put into words just how good today was.
We'd a plan to rise early and have a big day, but it was Mrs IttH's turn for a bad night, and at 7am it was clear she needed more sleep.
By 10am she was, her words, "ready to dig deep and get this done" -a good attitude is always the most important tool in the bag.
We drove up to Plaine Joux and by 11 were on our way - the days objective - to breach the mighty cliff of the Rochers des Fiz that we've looked at from our apartment since we bought it.
This 1000m high wall of rock (see extras) looks impenetrable - but it's breached in two places - and these would be our ascent and descent. It's a long steep climb to lé Passage - and the last 200m involve ladders, fixed equipment and ropes -   but finally we were there - into the Desert du Plate, one of the Alps really remote places, a Reserve for flora and fauna. And wow did it not disappoint! The collage in extras is just a fraction of what we saw - ibex, marmots, orchids, gentians, golden eagles and flutterbys galore - as well as the most impressive karst landscape I've ever seen.
But breaching le Passage was only half the battle - we contoured a gently rising line to the Col du Portette and then descended to the Refuge du Plate, before a long and improbable descent down les Egratz to Charbonnière, during which the main blip was taken.

The evening was finished in style with a late meal with good new friends at our favourite restaurant - one IttH is blipping now and one is sensibly snoozing.