8813 A boot full of snow and two butterflies

Spent yesterday struggling up an iced over mountain to reach the first rifugi on the Gran Sasso (2400m). The weather was perfect and we even gained our first of this years tan! The path was treacherous but the views were fantastic...Sat on numb bums and watched the skiing, seems to be nine pistes, all open, two blue and seven red.
Half way up a butterfly passed in front of me and I told Pilchard, he gave me a withering look and mumbled how lack of oxygen can cause you to see things that were not really there. Cheek! We munched on hastily thrown together pecorino and chilli seed sarnis (need something to keep you warm) and hot coffee from a minute flask. The sun was beating down and had to remove one of the many layers. It was -3 at the top of the funavia station God only knows what it was at the rifugi. The rifugi is owned and run by the Italian Alpine Club and they leave part of it open in case your caught out, there's light and a seat but very little else, except, just to maybe lull you into feeling warmer a heater case with no gubbins. (That high altitude can really play tricks on your senses and sometimes comes in useful). Our descent was terrifying as coming down on ice is no joke and took us some time and we kept kicking ourselves for forgetting to bring our crampons and ice axes back from the U.K, they would have made our ascent and descent so much easier.
At the bottom of the path and stumbling wearily back to the car another butterfly shot by, unbelievable and Pilchard missed it again. A great day with lots of memories and a bootful of snow!
Sprat