This trip somewhat evokes the Homeric image of the serpent biting the eagle that holds it in its talons… We are among the first at the ticket office in Alagna to buy our lift passes (only up to Salati; the ticket for Punta Indren has to be bought higher up), but in the meantime everyone with a season pass creates an enormous queue in front of the gates. We arrive at Salati at 9 a.m. on the dot, where, at the start of the ascent to Punta Indren, there is no ticket office at all. Stefano goes to ask for information and is sent back. A man in black steps out of the booth and sells us three tickets at 9:45 a.m., not without a thinly veiled mockery. It’s after 10 a.m. when we finally put our skis on, but from there everything finally starts to run smoothly. The climb becomes quite tiring after the Balmenhorn, probably due to the altitude. The wind gradually gets stronger. A quick photo at the Margherita Hut from the final slope, and then we head down, with freezing hands and feet, a little unsettled by the dark omen of a sea of clouds rising from the valleys.