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content/post/2024-07-07-ChamonixtoZermatt.md

@@ -24,3 +24,38 @@ On 21st June 2024, I set off hoping to run/hike the "Walkers Haute Route". It di
 | 6   | Cabane de Moiry     | Gruben              | 36.5 | 22.81 | 1900  |
 | 7   | Gruben              | Grachen             | 23   | 14.38 | 1750  |
 | 8   | Grachen             | Zermatt             | 39   | 24.38 | 2050  |
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+Setting the alarm for 4am is never nice, though Rebecca was kind enough to give me a lift to the airport at 4:30am so I didn’t have to worry about a taxi not turning up. I found a housing estate with a footpath to the airport to avoid driving right in. I wasn’t late but I felt rushed and like I wasn’t going to make the flight and ran the path to the airport. I made it to Geneva at 9:30 Swiss time. With hours before my transfer to Chamonix I killed time by going to Decathlon and panicking about what supplies I might have forgotten. 
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+The transfer was a shared minibus with one other person, Logan from Florida, who had come out to run the Tour of Mont Blanc. I couldn’t imagine coming from the flattest state in the USA to run in the Alps. The driver, a Brit called Roy, clearly knew the area well and paid an interest in all things mountain, he had skied the Haute Route years before and told us all about it. He then told us about people slipping on snow and getting into trouble, and threw in a story about a group doing the Haute Route who gave up and just waited to die – this was the winter ski-touring version rather than hikers but not exactly helpful stories.
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+In Chamonix I went for a beer with Logan, surprisingly it was green and contained genepy, we decided not to eat there as pizza was about €35 and added each other on Strava and said goodbye. The weather has been shite and I’m feeling some anxiety about spending the next few days in the mountains.
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+![Start - Chamonix](/img/chamonix_to_zermatt/start.webp)
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+## Day 1 – Chamonix to Le Peuty – 24km – 1370m climb
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+The rain looks like it will pour all day, not too heavy but it’s a miserable day. I leave the hotel before 7am, on a banana and protein shake figuring I’ll find something to eat soon enough. I can’t see any mountains. The first day in the guidebook is a boring route to Argentière, it’s pretty short though and without much climb so I have it done by 9am without much effort. It rained all the way and my jacket leaked, pooling water in the sleeves and leaving me feeling pretty cold, I’m anxious that in the next few days I’ll be properly cold. Luckily there’s an outdoor shop in Argentière so I bought a replacement which clearly felt a lot warmer.
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+Leaving Argentière I passed under a railway bridge with the Mont Blanc Express train passing over it, through the bridge the trail heads uphill and starts to look like an alpine forest, my mood lifts and the rain calms down on the way up the hill. I hear birdsong I don’t recognise and some blue sky appears. My hydration bladder seems to be empty, which seemed unlikely, I figured it must be squashed in my pack and blew into the tube thinking it might get the shape back and I’d be able to pull water from it again. This was a stupid idea, the pressure pushed water out the top and loads of cold water poured out my bag and over my shorts! This was just before arriving at an amazing view of Glacier du Tour at the village of Le Tour, which I didn’t stop to look at as I was worried I looked like I’d pissed myself.
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+![Le Tour to Col de Balme](/img/chamonix_to_zermatt/col_de_balme.jpg)
+_The climb from Le Tour to Col de Balme at the Swiss/French border - not looking as big as it was!_
+
+From Le Tour, the big climb of the day takes my up through a ski resort to the Col du Balme on the Swiss border. It’s steep, about 750m climb in a little under 5km but the path pretty easy underfoot and the views are opening up, the sky clearing too. I finally get a glimpse of Mont Blanc peeking out of the clouds before stopping for lunch at Refuge Col de Balme just before midday. Looking back into France there is a storm building, in Switzerland it looks like there is quite a lot of snow, but I can’t tell what the trail is like coming down from the Col, I’m only about 2200m up so I hadn’t expected to see much snow on 21st June! I had courgette soup, Coke and an espresso before running the day’s final descent. The trail is fine, a few short snow crossings and not too much mud. I start getting a little urgent for a toilet and within minutes a branded “Toilet with a view” appeared, with windows to look at the mountains while you sit! The door opened to the best view, directly down the valley to a vast view of beautiful snowy mountains in the distance.
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+A few more minutes and I arrived in Le Peuty, where I’m staying, just before a storm broke and the heavy rain came. Good timing. The refuge is a low level on by the road and they have a yurt to eat and drink in where I take shelter from the storm. Basic lager tastes amazing after a day out in the hills.
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+For dinner I’m put with two others who are doing the Tour of Mont Blanc alone, hiking in opposite directions, so they have plenty to share about what’s coming up. Joanne had come to Europe for a couple of months from Australia and had completed the Wainrights Coast to Coast, the West Highland Way and was now just beginning the Tour of Mont Blanc, she’d hiked a lot in New Zealand and clearly loved these multi-day hikes. Remi was new to hiking and she’s from Singapore, where there are apparently no mountains! She said she took up running last year and mentioned going to Hong Kong for a mountain trail half marathon where she said it all felt very slow, then the was a fast road section where she overtook a lot of people. She came third and didn’t seem to understand that this was any kind of achievement. Remi was squeezing the Tour into 7 days and struggling to keep the pace up and said she was learning a lot, especially after arriving at a col in a storm and taking refuge for the night in a tent with someone she met a few hours before, with no sleeping bag, instead wrapped up in a beach towel because she didn’t know how to pack light! It was great to share stories while eating dinner, then again at breakfast.
+
+## Day 2 – Le Peuty to Le Châble (nr Verbier)
+
+I said goodbye to Remi and Joanne. The refuge staff said it wasn’t safe to take the high alternative route over Fenetre d’Arpette as there was a lot of snow. I saw some others who intended to try the Fenetre d’Arpette route anyway but I had a long day ahead of me so I wasn’t up for trying it against the refuge’s advice as it’d be a long way to backtrack. The climb ascends first to a road about Trient, then a little further to Col de la Forclaz where there is a shop and a hotel, I’d had three coffees in quick succession this morning and a bunch of bananas over the last two days. Just before arriving at Col de la Forclaz, I farted and shit myself, this wasn’t how I’d hoped the day would start. Spotting a toilet block in the car park by the hotel I went in and cleaned up – luckily my boxers were fine. What a relief.
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+On the gradual climb out of Col de la Forclaz the views went from the pretty to stunning as clouds sat in the valleys and others rose up in the foreground, obscuring the views then revealing them again, sometimes creating a frame of clouds for the views, backed by vast snowfields in the far distance. Passing Bovine mountain refuge the clouds climbed up the valley so the mountains eerily faded in and out of view, clearing again shortly before I met groups of hikers coming the other way, a lot of groups. Friendly bonjours and bon courage exchanged. 
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+My feet were soaked by a couple of rivers crossing the path that couldn’t be avoided then a rocky descent, I tried to run but there were still a lot of hikers getting in the way. I did laugh a little when they tried to keep their feet dry crossing puddles and small streams, knowing they’d be knee deep soon! I got distracted and rolled my left ankle twice on the descent and decided to walk for a bit until the trail got easier, then ran most of the way to Champex, arriving at about 11:45. I had sorbet for lunch and cracked on for Le Châble.
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+The trails were easy running for about one and a half hours, downhill to Sembrancher. Dropping out of the alpine trails through wide tracks and some roads. The clouds were turning a little darker. It now feels like rural Switzerland with flattened fields and working farms between forested mountains, no longer full of groups being guided round the Tour of Mont Blanc, which my route left at Champex. It started raining heavily as I reached a forest track which climbed, though not steeply, eventually to a singletrack trail that dropped off steeply. The rain got heavier and I heard a loud sharp crack of thunder, then again a loud crack. That’s not thunder, it’s a supersonic rifle round. I descended quickly and kept hearing shots getting louder until I reached the river at the valley bottom and they were right over my head. The atmosphere felt very different since I left the Tour of Mont Blanc route. I ran quickly along the track with the river loud beside me, the shots quietened and I emerged onto a road in an unfriendly industrial area with vans and snowplough and industrial buildings everywhere, still heavy rain. I moved as quickly as I could be bothered and soon I could see Le Châble to the left, I breathed deeply and began to feel normal again. It’s easy to get worried with days of high mountain hiking alone ahead, my brain was ready to be scared.
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