View of Mont Blanc from the Refuge de Bel Lachat

Do not ask (it is forbidden to know) what end the gods will grant to me or you, Leuconoe.
Do not play with Babylonian fortune-telling either.
It is better to endure whatever will be.
Whether Jupiter has allotted to you many more winters or this final one, which even now wears out the Tyrrhenian Sea on the rocks placed opposite.
 - Be wise, drink your wine, and scale back your long hopes to a short period.
While we speak, envious time will have already fled.
Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in the next.

From Odes by Horace


It took us three hours and 14 minutes to hike up to the Refuge de Bel Lachat from my flat. I can't admit to being an expertly fit hiker. We ate our sandwiches sheltered against the wind by a cairn which perched on the edge of the mountain - a more rustic setting we felt than the expansive deck of the refuge itself. We soaked up Mont Blanc as we ate. Then we made our way home.
I like to think we seized our day.