Chamonix to Zermatt
The Haute Route
August 10th & 11th 1994 Trient to Champex and Verbiers.
Day three is from Trient to Champex and as I said earlier we had ruled out the route over the Fenetre D’arpette a ridge at 8,662 feet and a route just short of ten miles. The alternative is via the Bovine Route which only reaches a mere 5,961 feet but is a little longer at eleven miles. It is described by some as ‘A contouring walk and relatively undemanding’. Maybe so, but at some point you have to gain two and a half thousand feet in altitude and then take the path down to Champex and after the previous day’s walk the body can be forgiven for feeling a little tired.
Another early start and a pattern was forming already. Long days of energy consuming walks, early nights with long, deep sleeps, followed by another early start. There was one exception to the long, deep sleep, but the Hotel Schwarzhorn was still a long way from here.
We left Trient in the cool morning air and climbed up through the forest to the Col De Forclaz. The path continued to climb from the col until eventually it did contour, all be it a slightly uphill kind of contour! The views down into the Rhone valley were superb with the Bernese Alps to the left and the Valaisian giants to the right. The trees were dripping with the early dew of autumn and the distance was hazy, would the weather hold? The weather was all important for the completion of our journey. It was a hot and sticky day with flies buzzing around, especially where the Bovines were in evidence. We constantly filled our water bottles from the stand pipes that were frequent along the route. We met lot’s of people on the TMB, all coming towards us. This was the last day where the two treks overlap, tomorrow we break out on our own.
The weather was definitely deteriorating. The skies were getting greyer and the views were impaired. The thunder was still a few hours away, but the chance of reaching Champex before the rain started was looking unlikely. We were hot and sticky and the breeze changed to cool and damp, sending a chill through our bodies. After seven hours of walking we were tiring, our packs were feeling heavier and heavier. Then the path started to go uphill again, just when we thought we had no uphill left in us and just as we began to wonder if we were on the right path, it started to rain. It is at moments like this when you find out how strong you can be. We weren’t sure how much further it was to Champex, or how long it would take us. A quick look at the map gave us some reassurance, We knew that we just had to keep going, even though we had nothing left in the tank. Sometimes you just have to trust your plan and battle on.
It was only about ten minutes before we met the road and could see the village just a few minutes walk down the hill. Needless to say we jumped at the first hotel we came to. Chalet Plain Air was another hostel for walkers and seemed to be full of people from the TMB, it was a very friendly place. I would like to make special mention of David, the young man who was despatched with us to put the duvet covers on for us. I hope for his sake that he has mastered the technique by now, otherwise he will be a tortured wreck, living his life in fear of quilt covers. He never quite disappeared completely, but there were times when the duvet appeared to be fighting back. But he had obviously inherited a lot of determination and resolve from his mother, who he delighted in telling us came “from Nottingham Forest”! Well I could see the Brian Clough style in him too as he continually tried time and time again to ‘take it to the corners’. So David was half Swiss and half English, but his ambition was to live in Canada, I couldn’t help wondering how he could possibly contemplate leaving Switzerland, but he seemed very sure of his plans. As for our plans, tomorrow we would leave Champex and head for Le Chable, only eight miles away and even more importantly, almost all downhill.
Champex is a typical, Swiss mountain resort, albeit quite a small one. It sits at 1500 metres, in it’s lake side location, surrounded by forest and high mountains. There is a good choice of hotels, restaurants and bars, not that we had the time or the energy to explore them. We got a definite impression that it could be a very picturesque place. Even on a grey, cloudy and damp day it looked splendid in it’s lakeside setting. As we left, early the following morning, there were already fishermen along the shoreline. The calm waters were disturbed only by the drops of light rain, but the clouds were lifting and patches of sunshine began to appear. This was an easy day by the standards of The Haute Route and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The distances, the height gain and loss, the weight of the packs and probably the lack of preparation due to my bad knee, had all taken their toll. We could not have done another day like the previous two, we were very stiff from our exertions as our bodies strained to adjust to this new way of life. Remarkably the sore knee was performing better than expected and at this point it didn’t feel any worse than the rest of me. Something that we could not have known at this point was that after today, stiffness would no longer be a problem. This would be our physical low point, but from now on, we got fitter and fitter with each passing day. The difficulties with my knee faded into the past as we went from strength to strength and grew into fully fledged trekers.
So on the third day we rose again and ascended into the mountains. At the end of the lake our route turned northwards, around the shoulder of the mountain and contoured through the forest (nothing to do with Nottingham this time). We were entering the Val D’Entremonts, light, whispery clouds slowly drifted up and out of the valley as shafts of soft watery sunshine lit the valley floor far below. This was really a ‘linking’ day, we were leaving the Mont Blanc massif behind us and crossing over to the massif of Grand Combin. We were well and truly off the tourist trail and as we wandered along the high mountain path, from village to village and farm to farm, it felt like we were getting an honest glimpse of real life in the Swiss countryside. It was an attractive valley with no signs of tourism or commercialism.
The footpaths and signs in Switzerland are truly second to none, so comprehensive, but things did appear to go a little awry on this particular morning. On entering the hamlet of La Garde we followed the sign for Sembrancher. The path wound it’s way up and around the outside of the village, around the fields only to re-enter the village just 100 metres from the original signpost. We must have walked about half a mile to get to that point. It didn’t look like La Garde needed a by-pass and sure enough, we were still on course for Sembrancher, but we hadn’t exactly taken the short route! Perhaps short cuts aren’t in the true spirit of the Haute Route, or perhaps an over proud farmer had reset the sign and sent us on a tour of his maize fields. Maybe it was a joke, Swiss humour, sending the tourists around the maize? Puzzled but not perplexed, we moved on and were soon at the small town of Sembrancher in the lower part of the valley.
Sembrancher is a very French looking town with stone buildings very reminiscent of towns we have visited over the border. Inevitably the French feel evoked some very French memories and my thoughts turned to patisserie and sure enough, we soon came across a small shop with a window full of delights that are just irresistible. A short while later and we could be found sitting on a wall
in the square enjoying one of my favourite indulgences. The gratuitous consumption of cakes, for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of it did seem wicked, but by now we were burning up huge amounts of calories on a daily basis. Sometimes when you are on holiday, out walking, everything just comes together…. perfection!
Sembrancher lies at the joining of the Val D’Entremont and the Val de Bagnes., our objective for the day was Le Chable, just a few miles further along this valley. Our path headed up the hillside and generally followed the river that flowed through the valley, but after twenty minutes or so our way was blocked by a recent landslide. There was no way across and we had to double back and pick up the forestry track that stayed alongside the river almost all the way to Le Chable. We strolled into Le Chable just as the church clock struck twelve and it had been a stroll, a stroll that we had needed so much, after the exertions of the previous two days. Le Chable is a combination of small resort and old farming village, with many local cheeses still made there.
Now our thoughts turned to ‘what do we do with a free afternoon?’. Le Chable is only a very small village and the only amenities there had just closed for the afternoon with the striking of the church clock. The thought of sitting around on the benches in the square for several hours didn’t hold much appeal, so other plans started to come to mind.
Into The Unknown
The next three days of our trek had always given me the most concern when we were planning the trip and my apprehension grew as those three days got nearer and I tried to judge the extent of what lay ahead. There’s a very fine line between making the walk safe and manageable and charging ahead in the spirit of adventure. Without enough planning and understanding of the effort required, we could easily misunderstand where any possible risks might lie. The task in front of us was growing in my mind as the balance of possibilities and probabilities shifted around in my head. I had to be sure that safety was always paramount. So as we sat outside a cafe in Le Chable, looking at the maps, weighing up the days ahead and we came to a decision. Tomorrow’s walk starts with a steep walk up through the forest from Le Chable to Verbier and then onto the Cabane du Montfort. It was a big day and we decided that we could help ourselves a little if we took the cable car up to Verbier now and stayed the night in what is quite a lively ski resort. This would give us a good start in the morning and help us to reach Cabane du Montfort a little earlier. The guide book said that pre-booking at the cabane was not possible and that it operated on a first come first served basis. It was a priority that we should get booked in as the Cabane du Montfort is at over 8,000 feet and has a limited number of overnight places, so I was anxious to get there in time to secure a bed for the night. I am told that they wouldn’t turn anyone away, but I didn’t fancy the night sleeping under the kitchen table. Actually, under the table has a certain attraction about it in hindsight. It will all become clear later…
We stepped out of the cable car station and onto the streets of Verbier. It was both different and livelier than anywhere we had seen for several days. As we crossed the road to the Tourist Information Office a few drops of rain began to fall. Verbier is a larger village with a permanent population of 2,700 but it’s numbers can swell to as much as 35,000 in the winter ski season. It is very clearly a ski resort and recognised as one of the premiere off piste resorts in the world. Many top skiers have settled here, with royalty and celebrities being amongst the many owners of chalets in the Verbiers area, taking advantage of the excellent facilities and conditions. All that we required was a room for the night and a meal, which should not be hard to find in the middle of August.
There seems to be a very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere about the Swiss resorts, Verbier felt very comfortable to us. We checked into the Hotel Rosa Blanche, which was a bit like a theme park in a chalet. The owner, who liked to be known as Mad Max, was obsessed by flight, he makes crazy movies about his alter ego, a fictitious flight pioneer called Max. He also runs the local paragliding school, but I think you would have to be mad to fly with Mad Max. The whole of the hotel, bar and restaurant was full of pictures and memorabilia about the early days of flying.
After dinner that evening I decided to ring the Cabane du Montfort, just to ease my concerns about having somewhere to sleep tomorrow night, after all, we didn’t want to be stranded, over eight thousand feet up a mountain. The guardian of the Cabane was very helpful, reassuring and contrary to previous information, he took a booking for two people for one night. All doubt and risk around tomorrow was now eliminated, or at least minimised…… And relax!!!
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