Haute Route Day 3

27-07-2016  Haute Route Day 3

      
    Haute Route 1 on Vimeo               Haute Route 2 on Vimeo          Haute Route 3 on Vimeo

15K

3: Champex Lac to Le Chable, valley walk

Lodging: Hotel de la Poste

Haute Route Day 3 Google Earth File

Click on the link above and download it to your computer.  Then, open Google Earth and manually open and you can see the trail in 3D.

Champex-Lac to Le Chable

Today we woke up and had breakfast in the front room of the hotel with lots of windows.  I talked to an Austrian woman that wanted to tell me how much she has been training to walk the Haute Route, and demanded that I check out her legs.  I kept eye contact and said that I was sure they were great, not giving in to her demands!  Ha!  

Champex Lac

The walk today was an active recovery day, with only a slight decent and no real elevation gain.  We passed through pastoral farming villages along the way.  We went slow and enjoyed the scenery, and that was the way to go.  No one was out in the little towns, which was weird.  It almost seemed that they were abandoned or that we were on a movie set.  I’m not sure if the people were out working somewhere else or if the houses were vacation homes, but in a farming community you would think there would be people out tending the land.  Maybe they only come out at night.  A vampire village perhaps?  

I think this guy is still used.

Thomas had a great description of this Swiss magician bird.

We arrived in Sembrancher around noon and set up camp at a local water fountain.  Lunch was a pate made out of elk, local sausage, bread and local cheese.  Then, Thomas had to make his banana, peanut butter, and chocolate concoction.  

Shade, eats, and water = Good Time

Hazelnuts - not quite ready to eat.

The outskirts of Le Chable

After lunch we walked through a quarry, passed a lake, and stomped some more trail to get to La Chable.  Katherine and I took a nap while Anne and Thomas took a walk through the town.  Once we woke up, we headed to buy lunch food and snacks, purchased micro-spikes for my shoes, and secured more money from an ATM to pay for the huts out in the wilderness and supplies along the way.  This would be our last day with an ATM until Zinal, which we would reach 6 days later.

Yes please!  What a hunting rig.

A Swiss bunker in the side of the mountain.

We ended up eating at the local bar/restaurant across the street from the hotel.  The “rare” beef burgers were amazing.  The waitress was from Crete and as the place filled up, no one came to help her, so it got kind of crazy in there.  On the way out, we ran into three British dudes on a motorcycle road trip, so of course we had to get pictures.  Well at least Anne and Thomas were not afraid to hop on cruisers for a photo op.  Anne is going to get her motorcycle license soon, so she wanted to get a feel for which new ride is in her future!

They'll take it!

Tomorrow’s hike will have a HUGE elevation gain, so sleep time came early.  We will be in our first hut above the Verbier ski resort tomorrow night.  Here we go!