Tour of Mount Blanc

 

 

 

We had a bit of time out from life on the road in the form of the Isle of Wight Festival and then a trip back to Cairo for Chris and Rania's wedding (possibly an indicator of how good a time we had is the distinct lack of photos that we took.....we were having too much fun to bother with photos so had to pinch some from facebook! ) Thanks to Chris and Rania and all the Cairo crowd for a fabulous time, albeit slightly 'La-baroned!'

 

Festivals have gone up-market since the old day- no longer cider and chips and gravy, but champagne and crab on chips

 

It's tiny, but the caption on the cider says 'Pace yourself'

 

Ahhhhh- the Bride and Groom

Reunited with the girls

We flew into Geneva. We were lucky to have our friend Jacqui in Montreux, so we headed there and had a great time catching up, drinking beer beside the lovely lake and indulging in that very Swiss dish, fondue. Thanks so much for having us Jax.

 

Jax- fondue chef extraordinaire

Our knees and ankles have been starting to feel the effects of so much use of late, and as we are no longer spring chickens, conventional wisdom and research into the subject suggested that it was time to give hiking poles a go. I have used the single pole from time to time on steep mountains (generally when I am not using one it means I have inadvertently left it somewhere-I may have left a Hansel and Gretel trail of them throughout the Himalayas), but have always been quite cynical about duel pole hikers- from my observation, pole holders generally seem quite aggressive out there on the trails, swinging their poles like weapons, and I have also doubted my ability to co-ordinate my own pole usage without tripping over or impaling myself or someone else.

But with a bit of trial and error and quick tutorial on you-tube, we were swinging our poles enthusiastically, if not professionally, and they definitely do decrease the impact on your knees on steep descents. There was still a lot of snow and ice on the Tour of Mount Blanc and I definitely would have found some of the passes much trickier without the reassurance of the poles so I think we are definite converts.

Getting into the swing of things

Poles- good on the ice!

 

We had decided to do the trail the 'untraditional' clockwise direction, the reasoning being the start point- close to Montreux, and that we felt that it would be quieter this way round. It worked pretty well as we would often meet larger groups of people coming towards us at lunch times, and then we would see very little traffic on the track the rest of the day.

 

So we set out from Champex, and the first day is a  great introduction to the rest of the trip; a spectacular valley walk, and the snowy peaks towering above. The Tour of Mount Blanc is said to be one of the world's great 'classic' walks, and certainly we were straight into the good stuff; mountain wild flowers, glaciers and dramatic peaks. The first challenge of the trek is a couple of days in, with the pass over Col de Ferret, passing from Switzerland into Italy in what could be one of the most spectacular border crossings ever (well until the next one into France and then back again into Switzerland.) As usual the pics tell the story best.

Amazing wild camp spot overlooking the Dent de Geant



Beautiful valley

A cheeky marmot- they kind of chuckle and reminded me of the evil  gopher in those 'Caddy Shack' movies

 



Up the valley to the Col de la Seigne and to the French border



At the top of Col de Seigne - Mount Blanc in the background



Panorama from one of our wild camps

Ice!

 



And more ice- long climb up to Col des Fours

 



Are we there yet??????

 



Spectacular wild camp at Lake Jovet

 



Views of glacier de Bionnassay

 

Dome du Gouter

On the decent from Lac Blanc

A friendly chamois

We had contemplated following on from the Tour of Mount Blanc with  further 10 days of the Walkers Haute Route from Champex to Zermat, but we were starting to feel a bit travel weary and the idea of more unrelentling up and down, lugging our packs did not appeal (I was seriously envious seeing hikers who were using a luggage transfer service even though 'that's not real hiking!.). So we headed back to the UK for some rest and relaxation- and to spend a bit of time on the South West Coast Path (which is more like an energetic pub crawl with yummy food than a strenuous trek) before we head to Hong Kong and begin 'real life' again.