Haute Route Day 2

26-07-2016  Haute Route Day 2

      
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2: Trient to Champex Lac, Col de la Forclaz, Through Bovine for apricot tart

Lodging: Plein Air Hostel/Hotel

Haute Route Day 2 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.

Trient to Champex-Lac

Today we woke up before our dorm mates at 6:00am and tossed our gear into the hallway to pack it quietly.  Since breakfast was not served until 7:00am and we wanted to begin hiking earlier we decided to buy a hotel sandwich for the trek.  Trient has no markets or any other services like ATMs, so we had to rely on the hotel sandwiches and extra grub we had in the packs to get us up the mountain to the mini col Forclaz.  

On the hike out of Trient, we saw this... yes, it was that beautiful.

On the way, I saw a Swiss bunker which was overgrown and perfectly camouflaged.  It was made out of poured concrete and had an interesting door and window.  The window would allow you to shoot out and protect the valley below.  I guess it’s there if they ever need it.  I began to wonder what else is hiding in the surrounding mountains.

These snails were pretty common in the morning.

These strange looking pine trees had interesting clumps of needles. 

The weather was cloudy and humid, but no rain was falling on us.  After a few hours, we arrived in the establishment of Bovine.  We were some of the first guests and the apricot tart we heard about the night before was not ready yet.  While we waited we went for the omelette (cheese and mushrooms) and potatoes (Suisse Rostti with bacon and cheese).  The food was amazing, and tasted even better will all the miles under our feet.  The operation is run by a family with several children.  In the hills surrounding the house we saw some fine looking horses, and could hear the bells of goats and cattle.  As we were eating our fare, many more hikers showed up to get the yummy food.  I guess missing the route along the Fenetre d’Arpette was worth it.

Bovine in the distance.

We found out this is a hybrid edelweiss that is meant to grow at lower altitudes.  This version is more lush and hearty than the high mountain type, which we later found. 

The infamous apricot tart. 

On the way out of the Bovine area we witnessed one of the young girls, probably about 8 years old, track down the goats.  She made a call to the lead goat with her voice and it responded bringing the entire herd with them.  Amazing!  The Suisse can even talk to goats!

The route led us over a few washed out avalanche chutes with beautiful waterfalls residing in the middle.  The trekking was not too difficult, but the mountains were steep!  As we traversed along a wooded section of mountain with a pitch of 50 degrees I heard the sound of something moving through the thick cover.  As I turned, I glimpsed an animal running full speed down the steep hill.  As Katherine turned, the animal stopped briefly on the trail and then continued to dart down the steep slope. We realized from the dark line under the animal’s eye and it’s small horns that we had just seen the elusive chamois!  We heard that they are shy and hard to find, so we were really excited.

I did not take this picture, since it passed by so fast, but this is what the animal looked like.

Soon we came to a small hamlet near Champex-Lac, and across another Suisse bunker. It looked like this is the place they keep the village firearms.  It was a room covered with dirt that looked similar to US army depot storage facilities.  

Once arriving in Champex-Lac we found an ATM and looked at Suisse Francs for the first time.  Of course the machine spit out perfect bills that I unfortunately had to fold into my wallet.  I had a feeling that all Suisse money might be this nice.  That was true!

Our accommodation was once again a dorm, but this time we had a 6 person dorm to ourselves on the upper floor.  We did some laundry in the shower and hung it up on lines in the room.  Thomas and Anne decided to mail a box back to Paris with camping gear that they did not need, since wild camping is apparently illegal in Switzerland, to lighten things up.  The small grocery store had a little post area which made this really easy.

The best box available was this beauty!

Trail food.

Tomorrow’s hike should be a little easier since it is a valley walk with no cols, but very beautiful.  We are headed to Le Chable, just below the Verbier ski resort.

The dorm food was pretty good I must say!

Haute Route Day 1

25-07-2016  Haute Route Day 1

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

1: Chamonix to Trient, 2 Stages together, with venture over over Col de Balme, side trip to Trient Glacier

Lodging: Hotel Le Grande Ourse, Trient

Haute Route Day 1 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.

Our walk along the river leaving Chamonix.

We woke up really early today, since we were combining two stages from Kev Reynold’s guide book.  Out the door by 6:30!  Leaving Chamonix, we headed up the valley on the main road and found a trail that followed the river and headed towards the golf course.  Since this was out first section of the trail, I heavily studied Google Earth just to be sure we were going the right direction.  It worked.  We found a more direct route along the river and hit the golf course smack on!  

Katherine breaking through the morning clouds.

After the golf course, we stayed to the left of the river and had the trail to ourselves.  The hike was mostly flat, and then we hit some minor ups and downs to the village of Argentiere.  Argentiere was our first village we dropped into, and it was a fancy surprise after leaving Chamonix.  We saw tour groups leaving the train to begin the trek and trail runners.

Our first glimpse of Le Tour and the sound of cowbells in the distance.

Out of the town, we headed past the church and up, up, and up to Le Tour.  On the trail we ran into an older lady.  By older lady, I mean a woman hiking like a champ in her 80’s.  She was with her son and some trail runners passed.  A funny thing happened when the trail runners blasted by the group.  The son said that they need to slow down and take in the beauty of the trail and smell the flowers.  Then the lady mentioned that her son used to hike like that when he was younger, but just forgot.  Maybe old age gives you the need to go slowly and take it all in.  We would see many more trail runners along the trail and I am sure they are getting their fill of views, just at a faster pace.

Before getting to Le Tour, we had our first encounter with cows.  From a distance, I thought I heard some weird Swiss wind chimes.  Nope.  The music I heard from far away was the clanging of the infamous Swiss cows.  These might be dairy cows, or “fighting” cows, but whatever they are, they wear HUGE bells around their necks and just ding away with them.  No need to ask for “more cowbell,” they have it taken care of.  

We arrived at Le Tour and sat for a moment to eat some nuts, cheese, and eggs in the much needed shade.  We were now at the bottom of the ski resort.  Would we take the lift up?  No way!  It would shave time off the trek of course, but we are here to hike.  The sun was beating down on us and we were in for a trek up the mountain.

One of the many beautifully decorated houses along the way.

Katherine and the Col de Balme.

Our mission was the Col de Balme.  This col was the separation point between France and the Swiss Land.  We made it!  On the top, the clouds looked like they were forming into a rainstorm, but we got lucky and they dissipated. 

Now for the interesting part…. After crossing the Col, we headed straight right.  There were three trails to follow and we witnessed the guided group take the center one and we went right.  Later we would find this was a little “oops.”  We skirted the counter line up the valley towards Fenetre d’Arpette, which we knew was a little off target.  We were heading towards Trient, the city below, and now we were rocking it back up the valley.  Anne and Thomas were a bit ahead of us.  After an hour in which we found out to be the wrong direction, we saw them coming back down the trail.  Thomas said he saw the big glacier and we needed to turn around.  So, we did.  I took a compass heading off the church in Trient and saw where we were on the map.  We needed to backtrack a bit and take the “hunting” trail back down to that center trail. 

Me at the French-Swiss border.

Thomas and Anne crossing the snow to the glacier of Trient.

We caught a glimpse of a special game bird on this hunting trail on the way down.  As Katherine was crossing the switchbacks, there was a bit of heavy brush we had to pass through.  As she did this, she “kicked” up a partridge like bird that looked fat and tasty.  It flew low like game birds do, and found more cover never to be seen again.  

After what seemed like 1,000 switchbacks we made it to Trient.  We had to don our rain gear and march through 2 little villages to our hotel/hostel.  This was our first dorm and it was a requirement to take off your shoes in the basement and deposit them in the cubbies, for good reason.  They stank like high priced French cheese!

We found our room and talked with a USA dude named Mike from Cincinnati.  He spoke of a route the next day that would take us through a valley called Bovine which hosted a delicious apricot tart.  Once this intel was mentioned to Thomas, the mission of obtaining the apricot tart was top priority.  We would dodge the scary col tomorrow and go for the town of Bovine to conquer the tart.  

We had a hearty 3 course dinner in a hall with all the backpackers and happily conversed about our travels and then went immediately to bed.  We were wiped, and tomorrow would pose a new set of challenges which we had no idea about; the tart. 

This was our very nice 8 person dorm room.  After showers, everyone was doing well. 

I slept like a champ with the laundry line assembled provided cover to my bed, oh sweet security!  My tired legs twitched in the night and as soon as I knew it, it was time to tackle another day on the Haute Route.