Tour du Mont Blanc Day 7: Champex to Col de la Forclaz via Fenêtre d’Arpette - 10 Miles
Somebody once said, “Your body can stand almost
anything. It’s your mind that you have
to convince.”
Jamie, owner and head chef of Ptarmigan, prepared a
delicious breakfast for us at 7:00 a.m., despite his lack of sleep due to his
new baby in the back apartment. Jamie
is a native Scotsman who seemed very happy to have landed in this idyllic Swiss
community. His fruit coffee cake was especially tasty. We made our takeaway lunch from the remaining
breakfast cheeses, meats and breads and were on our way by 7:45 a.m.
From the Tour of Mont Blanc guidebook: “A note of warning before setting out: the
crossing [of Fenêtre d’Arpette] should not be attempted other than in good
conditions and a forecast of settled weather.”
Now, where have we heard that before?
“Like Col des Fours” – OH, YEAH – “which shares the same
altitude, the Fenêtre d’Arpette is the highest point reached on the Tour of
Mont Blanc and its crossing from Champex is the toughest of the whole route.”
The conditions were fine and the forecast was calm, so Jim
and I and most of our TMB friends (Amy, Cassie, Niki, the British family and
other familiar faces) were going through the fenêtre (“window”). John and Graham, however, chose the low
valley Alp Bovine route; consequently, we would not see them again.
Clear, crisp, chill morning air invigorated our road
walk out of town, leaving Champex behind (we’ll be back someday, right?)
After a brief climb through a forested hillside, we passed
the Relais d’Arpette (a nice place to stay but this time we had no regrets)
where sleepy-eyed TMB trekkers were hoisting their packs. The road became a dirt track as it rose
gently through the Val d’Arpette, bursting with wildflowers and ringed by
mountain peaks.
Val d’Arpette
We are committed now
Friends began catching up and then passing us tortoises,
including some Irish brothers we’d heard about who looked a bit hung over this
morning (I’ve omitted their photos to protect the innocent.)
The British family (we probably learned their names at
one point but…)
Cassie and Niki
Rising out of the valley – see that low notch in the
peaks? Well, that’s not our final destination,
but we are going past the notch as we circle to the right.
A last look down into the valley we’re leaving behind
Through the notch into a higher section of the valley
Jim took most of the photos on this section as we
leapfrogged, me gasping for breath, climbing very slowly but steadily. (Okay,
the only way I passed him was when he was standing still.) Photos are looking
ahead as well as back. We’re talking one
mile per hour from here to the “window.”
Colors in the rocks
Looking backwards down the trail
Looking to our left, Aiguilles d’Arpette in full display. Imagine everything covered in snow. There are ski huts up in there!
The fenétre is the lowest notch on the left
So close yet..not really…the bouldering has begun,
slowing us down even more
And closer…still aiming for the lowest notch on the
left
A quick look back to see where Jim is
Yes, there are snow fields, my least favorite thing next to
bouldering. We didn’t have crampons on
our boot soles because we didn’t feel we needed them – except when we did need
them. Why was the snow so scary? It may look like just a couple of inches, but
the depth varied, deeper between the rocks (which were not always visible), and
there was water melting beneath the snow in places. Jim punched through one leg up to mid-thigh,
stomping down into a flowing stream.
And closer…
Final stretch?
Well….
Jim
But I heard cheering!
Cassie and Niki were applauding, whistling and yelling encouragement,
making us feel like winners at the finish line.
This is my most prominent memory of the Tour du Mont Blanc: reaching the
Fenétre d’Arpette, Switzerland, at 8,000 feet.
The ever-present wind was not as chilling as at other cols
we had crossed so far, inviting all hikers to sit in the window for a while,
because what else is better than this?! Don’t you want to be there?
Jim took the following two panoramas without taking a step, just pivoting front to back:
Jim took the following two panoramas without taking a step, just pivoting front to back:
Looking back: Val d’Arpette
Looking forward: Vallée du Trient
Amy with her walking stick, ready for the downhill
The real reward for taking this TMB high route: Trient Glacier is visible for the entire
(very steep and sometimes painful) descent.
It felt close enough to touch. I
would forget about it as I concentrated on my steps, and then look up to see it
again from a slightly different vantage point, still magnificent. I’ve read that during the 19th century ice
blocks were blasted from the glacier and transported by rail to major French
cities. Sadly but not surprisingly, Trient
Glacier is rapidly shrinking and now terminates at its icefall over steep slabs
of bedrock. Its light blue iceberg-y
tint is hard to discern in the photos but was quite distinct in real life.
According to the guidebook, the descent takes 2 hours, but
for us it was closer to 3 hours, at first negotiating boulders similar to the
climb, and then just plain old steep switchbacks requiring small careful steps.
Amy was long gone past us.
I grew bored and irritated with the slow progress;
consequently, I lost focus, tripping and falling four times. In the most spectacular event, I took my eyes
off my feet for a quick second, slipped on a rock, and fell sideways off the
trail. I rolled over once and began
sliding down the mountainside! I grabbed
for grass, flowers, whatever I could touch – and then Jim came around the
bend. He began to laugh, and laughed
some more, and laughed some more. Okay,
I wasn’t actually sliding down the mountainside, but for that moment of panic
it sure felt like it. I struggled to unclip
my backpack, shrugged out of the harness, and stood up. Jim was still laughing. (It took me a while to see the humor.) I’m sure he loves me.
A reenactment, but you get the idea
Vésevey ruins
Hikers standing still and looking off trail means a wildlife
sighting. This ibex must have been getting paid by the hour to put on his
show.
Trient Glacier and trees!
Jim coming down the mountain
Jim and Trient Glacier
Last look over Jim’s shoulder: Pointe d’Orney in the center and Trient
Glacier on the right.
At the time I was making reservations a couple of months
prior to our hike, the only accommodations I could find were at Hotel du Col de
la Forclaz. In hindsight now, I know
there are more choices and recommend Trient as the best location so try hard to
find options there. [FYI don’t be
fooled, the Hotel’s address is Trient but the physical location is not in
Trient.]
Jim and I marched on to Col de la Forclaz, a level walk but
still 45 minutes tacked onto the end of a demanding day (and well aware that
this was a detour off the TMB). The
hotel sits in a deep oxbow curve in the road which appeared very busy with people,
cars, motorcycles everywhere. The
check-in process was chaotic as well, as though the staff was overwhelmed – and
indeed they were, for tomorrow a stage of the Tour de France bike race would
pass through! The roadway looked freshly
paved and barricades were in place. Media and cycling enthusiasts added to the
hikers and plain old tourists for an apocalyptic mix of patrons. Poor Jim was almost sick with regret that we
didn’t know this beforehand, as we might have planned an off day to stay and
watch.
Hotel du Col de la Forclaz
Barricade fences for the Tour du France
We found our reserved bunks in the dormitory (bathrooms and
showers elsewhere in the building) but after a short while of trying to
assimilate into the ridiculously cramped space, I marched back to the front desk
and asked if there were any private rooms available. Yes!
There was one room with a sink (showers and bathrooms down the hall but
on the same floor) for 160CHF half-board.
For comparison, two people in bunk beds half-board was 130CHF. The best part: our room was a second floor
corner with windows on both sides. Yes, we hung laundry out the windows again.
(Side note once again, and not for the last time: Europe is
mostly unisex bathrooms and showers. I
waited patiently for my turn while a couple took showers side by side, chatting
away. The underwear-is-cool-in-the-hallway rule still applied.)
The previous night in Champex (was that really less than 24
hours ago??) Jim and I had blown nearly all our Euros on that elaborate meal
with John and Graham. I paid for today’s
hotel room with a credit card. There would be no ATM’s on tomorrow’s hike and
we would be crossing the border back into France, where no one cares for Swiss
francs, which was all the cash I had. Back
to the chaotic front desk: would the nice lady possibly exchange my 140 Swiss
francs for Euros? At first she shook her
head, no way, but I waited until everyone else transacted their business, and
when we were alone the clerk looked left, looked right, raised a finger to her
lips – sshhh – and swapped currencies for me.
You didn’t hear this from me.
Clean body and clothes, money issues resolved, a private
room with clean sheets – what we need now is an adult beverage! The hotel patio was the place to be, watching
race preparations and hikers coming in from the trail. Debbie and Claire, our Charleston, South
Carolina mother-daughter friends, invited us to join their table, and Amy
appeared fresh from the showers too. After
a couple of beers the day’s stresses were just a good survival story to tell. Cheers!
Dinner assigned seating as usual, but this time Jim and I
had a table for two with soup from a huge copper tureen, chicken ratatouille, cauliflower
with cheese sauce, shoestring French fries, and two dishes of ice cream. We talked about tomorrow’s hike (easier, we
think…) (nope…)
Miles: 10 Elevation gain: 3,999 feet
Elevation loss: 3,993 feet
“The body achieves what the mind believes.” ~Unknown
No comments:
Post a Comment