Mont Blanc: Switzerland - Days 7 thru 9 (click once on any photo to display full image)
7/27/2009 thru 8/8/2009
Chamonix (Days 1 and 2) France (Days 3 and 4) Italy (Days 5 and 6) Switzerland (Days 7 thru 9) Chamonix (Days 10 and 11)

Day 7 - Into Switzerland

It was a chilly morning outside Lavachey while waiting for Bruno to shuttle us to the trailhead. Today we would be hiking into Switzerland where the scenery conjures up the infamous image of Julie Andrews singing "The hills are alive with the sound of music"!

As we started up the trail, we saw the mountain pass that we would be going over just under the clouds. Although the sun had come out, we soon reached the section of trail where the wind always gusted, which made for a cold and quick hike to the top!

The clearing skies afforded us a great view back into Italy, where just 2 days ago we had hiked down from Col de la Seigne, past the pyramid shaped mountain where the infamous dog attack occurred (the lowest and farthest point in the photo below).

Some portions of the trail were rocky, especially near the top, so we were surprised to see mountain bikers, and we wondered if they spent more time carrying their bikes (like the one in the photo on the right below) than they did riding them. The descent into Switzerland was pretty easy and we finished the hike early, so we just hung out on the mountain side waiting for our shuttle ride to Champex. When Bruno arrived and took the first van load into town, the rest of us walked to an outdoor cafe in nearby La Fouly, where we relaxed over beers and live polka music until Bruno returned.

Before dinner we took a short walk near our hotel around Lake Champex, and got a nice picture near this flowered trellis.

Day 8 - "The Window"

Out of all the hiking route choices we were given on this trip, today's was the most difficult decision to make. The normal itinerary would have us take the “Bovine route” through cow pastures with great views of the valley all the way to Lake Geneva. However, one of the hikers in our group (Rob) had been in this area before, and was lobbying Stéphane to take the Val d’Arpette (window) route. This was a more difficult hike involving a steep scramble over boulders to a small notch high on the mountain with great views of the Triente glacier. Although the valley views sounded intriguing, Li and I were not eager to dodge cow patties, and the weather report was calling for another sunny day, so we elected the Val d'Arpette route. 

Mike led the Bovine route group and Stéphane led the Val d’Arpette group. Ironically, the Val d'Arpette hike passed directly through a herd of dairy cows before heading up into the valley, which turned out to be a bit intimidating because these cows were loose (all of the cows we had seen previously were always behind electrical wire). These cows also had horns and didn’t mind butting heads with each other, but fortunately they didn’t seem to be bothered by us. Stéphane pointed out how our route would follow the valley to the right, then head up steeply to the notch. 

The way up was indeed steep. For those who have hiked Long’s Peak in Colorado, this reminded us of the area near the Keyhole. The picture on the left shows the "window" where we are headed (see the notch in the background), and the picture on the right shows the valley we were hiking up all morning.

We finally reached the notch with another great view of the valley below.

Although the views from the notch were spectacular, the narrow pass didn't provide much space to spread out for lunch. 

On the other side of the notch was the Triente glacier. In previous years, the trail down would have been right next to this glacier, but now that the glacier has retreated, it just follows the melt water.

The descent from the notch was a bear. Downhills don’t normally bother us, but this was really steep, and you had to be extremely careful to avoid dislodging rocks. In fact, someone above us did dislodge a big rock and it didn’t stop. It just kept picking up more speed as it rolled further downhill, intersecting the trail which switchbacked across the mountain. We were all a bit worried about the people below us, including Rob, who had taken off ahead of the group. Fortunately, no one was hit before the boulder finally came to rest.

At the end of the downhill, there was an outdoor bar serving up snacks and beer. Rob had already made some new friends by the time we arrived. Talk about a small world. One of the women he was talking with had just moved back to Switzerland from the United States, Montclair, NJ to be exact, and one of our group members (Julie) was also from Montclair!

After 8 days of hiking this was the first time our legs were tired. Although we were still about 3 miles from the hotel in Col de la Forclaz,  the trail was just a gentle downhill from here.

Day 9 - Back to France

What more could we expect as we approached the home stretch and headed back into France? Every day had been one beautiful scene after another. In the morning we were shuttled from Col de la Forclaz to the small hamlet in the photo below before reaching the trailhead.

About halfway up the trail, we had a somewhat hazy view of yesterday’s hike down along the Triente glacier. Also, even after a week of hiking, we were still finding wildflowers that we hadn't seen before.

The hike was fairly gentle going up, but got steeper as we approached the top. There were some amazing views of the Chamonix valley - it was hard to believe that's where we started just 9 days ago!

At the top of Tête de Balme was the border with France. We took another short break here, then continued past an old border maker from the 1700s before settling on a good lunch spot.

As the trail wound down to the little town of le Buet, we passed a herd of cows that belonged to Mike’s brother-in-law. In fact, some of the cheese we ate for lunch earlier in the trip came from this herd. Mike stopped to say hello to his in-laws while we continued on to Tres le Champ, where Bruno was waiting for us with cold drinks. The Hotel Buet was our final stay on this wonderful journey!