Previous
Friday July 4, 2014
Hiking from Champex to Trient
Saturday July 5, 2014
Hiking from Trient to
Le Tour, then bus & train to Zermatt
Next
Sunday July 6, 2014
Zermatt, Breithorn, and
Saas Fee
I rose early and it looked like rain. I was the first one up for
breakfast, which was a room full of buffet food. As soon as I
started hiking it started to rain gently. It rained hard enough
that I took shelter under an open garage and put on my full rain gear,
pants and jacket. Of course within minutes I was overheated and
the rain let up. I took the pants off after a few minutes.
I saw the 'dorm' in La Peuty. It looked like a second story loft up a
steep stair over a barn. It did not look at all inviting.
The TMB trail crossed through a few cow pastures.
7:11am
7:11am
Last look up at the Glacier du Trient before heading up the valley to
Col de Balme. I was glad I got to see the icefall in decent
weather the day before.
7:11am Looking up the valley toward France. I caught up to two
couples and kept pace with them pretty well up the hill.
8:10am Looking back toward Trient.
8:10am Looking up toward Col de Balme. A strong wind blows
the clouds over and down the pass towards me. This was the last
time I would see the sun for a few hours.
8:32am Les Herbageres. I hiked up in the clouds with very
limited visiblility from this point on.
10:05am Col de Balme on the unmarked French border.
I could smell the welcoming smoke of the fire for about 5-7 minutes
before I reached the refuge.
This was the 10th and final high pass on my modified Haute Route - I
made it!
Today's hike had been quite easy and somewhat anticlimatic. A
strong wind continued to blow the clouds in from France. I walked
inside the refuge hoping to escape the wind for a few minutes.
There were a few parties seated at tables inside. A very old
woman approached. I asked if she spoke English and she shook her
head. She asked me in French if I wanted tea, coffee, or
chocolate. I politely declined, and she shooed me
away. I completely understand the concept of 'customers only',
but her attitude was so completely over the top dismissive if not
downright rude I didn't need to spend a cent there. I wandered
back outside into the relatively warmth of the cold breeze.
I followed a party of four downhill. I had planned to take the
lift down, but the wind was blowing so strongly I decided that there
was no way they would be running a lift today. The lift itself
was about 5-10 minutes away in the clouds. We all decided to hike
down.
10:40am
The hike down from Col de Balme was a series of easy dirt switchbacks.
I made excellent time hiking downhill.
The clouds ended right at Charamillon. To my great surprise the
lift was indeed running up from Charamillon to near Col de Balme.
There were dozens of hikers and mountain bikers coming up the mountain
- it was Saturday, and it appeared that all of France was heading into
the mountains for a hike or bike ride.
I was a little disappointed to see so many people on the mountain.
I purchased a lift ticket and rode the lift down to Le Tour.
10:40am
11:00am Looking south toward Glacier du Tour from the lift.
11:21am
The lift at Le Tour.
I had finished the Haute Route!
I had to wait about 30 minutes for the bus. The first bus stop
was Montroc. I didn't realize that the train stopped in Montroc
or I would have gotten off the bus to catch the train. Instead I
continued on with my original plan to catch the train in
Argentière. I got to the Argentière train station at 11:50am and
tried to get in. As I was trying locked doors the ticket seller
left for lunch... 10 minutes early... and told me in French he would be
back at 2pm. I was not pleased, since I assumed this meant I
wouldn't be able to board the next train. When the train stopped
at 12:10 I asked the engineer if I could buy a ticket on board and she
said I could buy a ticket from the conductor when they came
around. I boarded the train, the conductor never came, so I rode
for free. I asked the same question once we got to Switzerland
and got the same answer.. and again the conductor was a no show.
12:57pm
A last look up at the Glacier du Trient from the Mont Blanc Express
In Martigny I retrieved the rest of my stuff from the locker and
boarded the train for Zermatt.
Kent had spent the day climbing
the
Riffelhorn and did not have a hotel room for the night. I arrived in
Zermatt to a mob scene. The Zermatt Marathon had just ended, and
everyone was either trying to get a room for the night or get on a
train to get out of town. Every hotel room
in Zermatt is available online... and more or less only online.. The
Zermatt TI has a number of iPads, and you get to try to book a room
yourself ousing Zermatt's public website with their iPads. This
doesn't work too well when the
zermatt.ch website is completely overloaded with hundreds of runners
and their familes trying to book rooms at the same time.
Eventually I was able to beg the workers at the TI to check the website
and they gave me a list of about 5 hotels that still had rooms.
We called the Hotel Alfa got one of them to keep a room for us, and
wandered over
to snag it. We then did some in room laundry, went to the
grocery store, and grabbed a sausage from the sausage dude.
The tent was for the marathon afterparty. A rock band was
playing 80s music. We entered the tent, but I couldn't stand the
smell of the cheese so we left.
Kent's pic
Previous
Friday July 4, 2014
Hiking from Champex to Trient
Saturday July 5, 2014
Hiking from Trient to
Le Tour, then bus & train to Zermatt
Next
Sunday July 6, 2014
Zermatt, Breithorn, and
Saas Fee
