The last week of July was dedicated to mineral collecting trip to the Alps. Unlike the last year, we had pretty nice weather all the time in the Mont Blanc massif. Our base camp was significantly higher this time and we managed to make some long trips over the glacier to the peaks around. The irony is that the best crystal pocket was discovered just about 15 minutes from our base camp. However the last day was really nasty weather, lot of rain and cold wind. The weather forecast promised another 3 days of rain, so we had to cancel our planned visit to other alpine localities in Switzerland. Despite the shortened program, the hikes, collecting minerals and photography conditions were simply great.
You have to hike up the loooong glacier to get to some promising spots.
Awesome views but also hard work to carry all the stuff up to the base camp.
Camping on the upper part of the glacier.
Fresh snow covered the peaks during the night thunderstorm.
Climbing these steep and cracked glaciers is not that easy – you bet there is a reason why alpine minerals are so expensive!
Sunset in the cold base camp.
Some quartz crystals mined from the pockets called alpine clefts.
Sometimes you got lucky and find such nice cluster of smoky quartz just laying on the glacier.