02-08-2016 Haute Route Day 9
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Cabane du Moirey to Zinal
11.6 Kilometers
Lodging: Hotel Auberge Alpina 120 Suisse Franc for the "Royal Suite" which slept all four of us comfortably.
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.
Cabane du Moirey to Zinal
Today we woke up early for breakfast in a restaurant with the best view ever! I ate my bread and jam while drinking coffee looking out the window at the giant ice fall. My legs were tired, but used to the pain, and the breakfast got my blood flowing for the massive descent that would be soon to come.
Our friend we saw on the way down.
Katherine and I left a little before Anne and Thomas, since we go quite a bit slower down the steeps. On the way down, we had stellar views of the valley all the way down to the lake. My favorite was this knife ridge walk that wasn’t really scary, but just felt really fun. It really forced you to feel where you were and how small we really are. Anne and Thomas soon caught up with us, and Thomas continued down the trail at break-neck speed. We wondered where he was going until we came to a little glacial lake and saw the crazy man going for a morning swim. The air temperature was nowhere near warm yet, probably in the upper 40s, but the lake must have been just above freezing. That will wake you up!
Little knife ridge.
We continued back along the path from yesterday until we almost arrived at the parking lot, where the trail split, and Anne and Thomas took the lower route. They decided to take the bus around to Zinal and meet us at the next location, while Katherine and I took the trail that paralleled the lake about a thousand feet above. We still had to cross another col, but it was supposed to be a light climb. To us, that wasn’t really the case. It was still a grind, but we took it slow and admired the views and pressed on.
Water troughs for the cattle.
Looking back towards Lac du Moiry.
After about 7 kilometers, we arrived at the trail down to the “barrage” or dam. We took the trail up to Col de Sorbois. On the top, it was a little windy and we pressed over into the ski resort. This is where we met up with day hikers and found a hidden area in the grass for our celebratory col crossing meal, or lunch as most call it.
Col de Sorbois
With our tired legs, we made it down to the top of a giant cable car that brings people up to the ski resort from the town of Zinal. We had a cold beverage and took the car down to save the weight on our legs. The attendant at Cabane de Moiry gave us a card for the area which had access to free rides. Since neither of us like the down hills the choice was a no brainer and we happily took the car down to Zinal.
Oh, the cable car ride!
The ride was quick and smooth offering views of the giant mountains. What would have taken us 2 hours to descend, now took 10 minutes in the cable car. That puts things into perspective. The marmots were in the grass of the steep hillside, so we could see them running around under our ride.
Little Village of Zinal, with Thomas representing!
Our Hobbit house.
At the bottom we were happily greeted by Thomas and Anne. He did his timing well and knew our pace, so he guessed correctly which car we would be on. He told us all about the “Hobbit” house we were staying in that night and wanted to do a grocery run for the next day.
The "Hiker Guy" sticker was everywhere, and that was one way to know you were on the correct trail.
Wazzup hiker dude!?!?
Our chalet was past the center of town in a quiet peaceful area. I hit my head a few times inside and had to stay hunched over for most of the time, but it was nice to have a private accommodation. The bathroom was interesting, and I will leave it at that.
We had dinner in the front building of the complex. No low ceiling here! We sat down with other hikers and had a feast. The owner was quite interesting with an entire rum display of homemade concoctions. It looked like a laboratory experiment with spices in clear jars and many various colors. Everything in the eating area was a little quirky. Maybe he has been cooped up for too long in his mountain hideout?
I laid down for bed under my drying laundry with the space heater on to dry out the air since it was very humid. As the night went on, it got warm, but our clothes were dry.
The store had an epic chocolate aisle.
Tomorrow, we will head to Gruben and say goodbye to our French hiking buddies. They have to get back for work, which is understandable, or is it the German speaking Switzerland that weirds them out? I don’t know. Their French has helped us along the trail for sure. The French-German speaking line in Switzerland is quite precise. Tomorrow’s hike, over the col, defines the language boundary. We will miss Anne and Thomas. Hiking together has been an absolute blast, and we can’t wait to plan another trip soon.
Charge 'em up!
The laboratory.
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