It is Saturday morning on the 25th of July and I have just left the lake and the flowery campsite behind me, heading up towards the next pass. Once up on the pass, I had my breakfast in the sun as usual, though today it was very windy and I quickly decided to hurry up and get moving again. Walking down the slope on the other side, I was now in Switzerland, where I would be for the coming couple of hours. The route took me pass the Swiss little ski resort, Les Crosets, and deeper into a very beautiful valley, before the final climb over the mountain pass got me into France once again.
Walking down the path I soon came to a crossing, where a goat was keeping watch. Nobody would get past that rock without him knowing about it, that's for sure. So I made a quick stop to say hello and to take a photograph, before I moved along.
The path took me over yet another pass, before finally leading me down into the next French town, Samoëns. In the town I decided spoil myself with a visit to a restaurant. It had been long and pretty tough days so far, where I had averaged around 10 hours hiking per day. The menu was in French and I was too hungry to just swing it, so I kept it simple and ordered myself a lasagne. I even finished my meal with an ice cream dessert, which I pretty soon regretted. The first couple of spoons were delicious, but after that it just got too sweet....and at this point I still had 2/3 left! Once I had won the fight against my dessert, I left the town behind and continued my hike along the river, Le Giffre, for some kilometres till I passed a town called Salvangy. From here I headed deeper into a valley, where soon my next strenuous ascent would begin. I thought that I could make camp as soon as I had gotten a bit higher, but to my disappointment I saw signs saying that camping was not allowed. According to the map I would soon pass a hut, where I might be able to get a bed, but once I was outside the hut, I felt full of energy and decided to continue and hopefully get outside of this nature reserve. It took me longer than expected and it was 10.30 pm, before I had pitched my tent and began to prepare my dinner. I have to admit that I was quite happy when I reached this plateau, where the view was great and where I finally had found a flat spot for my tent. Up till that point I had been ascending this slope for hours and there had been no flat spot to be found.
The next morning I slept an hour longer to compensate for the late night and got up first at 7 am. It was a cloudy day that was waiting for me, but the sun repeatedly managed to find patches of blue sky where she could spread her warmth. The path took me further in on the plateau, passing a few lonely trees and some big boulders. I had only been walking for about half an hour, when I came across a small stream, where I decided wash away the dirt and sweat from the long previous day. Feeling fresh and hopefully better smelling, I continued my hike to soon pass a few huts where quite a few people were busy getting ready for the day. Once I had passed the huts, the relatively flat plateau had come to en end, and the only way to continue was up. I passed a few fellow hikers on the ascent, feeling the hunger sneaking up on me. I ignored my growling stomach and continued my hike. My breakfast has to wait a bit longer, because I had seen a lake on the map a bit further up in the mountains and I had decided that that would be my breakfast spot. The wait and the hunger was worth it. I came up on this beautiful little mountain lake, which was surrounded by green grass fields and high mountains with peaks covered in clouds.
After having a well deserved breakfast on the stone beach by the lake, the path took me up the last meters till I reached the highest point of the pass. I had now switched the view of the beautiful mountain lake for an amazing view of Mont Blanc and its neighbouring summits, Mont Maudit, Mont Blanc du Tacul and Aiguille du Midi. I stood there for some time, taking in the view and also trying to recognise and remember the different places there on the other side. I had tried to climb Mont Blanc 2012, but a snowstorm made it impossible to get to the summit and I only reached 3800 m. Though I didn't let that stop me and I was back again the next year. This time the weather was great and I reached the summit at 4807 m on the third day after I had started the ascend down in Les Houches. It was good to see the Mont Blanc again and it brought back a lot of great memories...
Descending into the valley on the other side, I passed a cabin not that far away from the pass. There I greeted some bikers and a few other hikers heading up to where I had come from. Well, the bikers where hikers at this stage too, and I honestly don't know where they had planned to ride their bikes again. Leaving the the pass and the cabin behind me, I didn't see many people again for some hours. Down in the valley, just before the next ascent started, I had to cross a river. It was about noon and the clouds had vanished and the sun was now burning hot, so I decided to find myself a shady place and use an hour or two to wash some of my clothes. Travel light means that you don't really have any spares, so it is better to do this kind of washing in less crowded places to avoid possible discussions with less open minded people.
I started the ascent with slightly cleaner and fresher shoes and clothes, knowing that it wasn't going to last for long. The ascent was steep and the sun was still high up and there were no clouds to be seen. This was the last pass before I would start the descent down to Les Houches. Down in the town I would have to restock my food, because all I had left was one freeze-dried dinner for tonight and muesli for one last breakfast and that's it. Once up on the pass I had a short break and while I was sitting there, a trail runner asked me to take some photos of him with Mont Blanc in the background, before he had to continue his run down to Chamonix to catch his train back home. Watching him hurry along made me feel a bit pumped up and I wanted to see if I could keep up with him. So I took my backpack and tightened it thoroughly against my back and started to walk quickly. A few hundred of meters down the path I saw him a couple of zick sacks ahead of me and thought "he doesn't look so fast, I can do this" and I increased the pace to a slow jogg. It wasn't very fast, but because of the tricky terrain it was still faster than the other guy was doing. It surprised me, but after some minutes I was just a few meters behind him. I guess that he was either exhausted from a long run or he didn't feel very comfortable running a rocky and steep path like this. Though it didn't matter to me, I felt good and was happy that I had managed to catch him. It was a happiness that didn't last very long though. Having looked at the map, I realised that I had taken the wrong turn somewhere and had done 500 m descent where I wasn't supposed to. After having studied the map for a bit longer, I saw that it didn't matter very much...I could just take another path down to Les Houches from where I was and there was no need for me to climb up again. So my competitiveness didn't just made me take the wrong turn, it also made me feel my old Achilles tendon injury again. Sometimes I get the feeling that I never learn from my mistakes or just very very slowly.
After a good night's sleep just outside Les Houches, I restocked my food and got moving again. Like so many other days on GR5, this one also started with yet another steep ascent. On my way I passed quite a few houses with fantastic view over the valley and the high white peaks. It was pretty quiet and peaceful, but I can imagine that it is very busy in the high season. Anyways, after continuing uphill for a few hours I finally reached the highest point for today. It was a small settlement at one of the stops along the Mont Blanc tramway and I used the opportunity to refill my water bottles. Now it was just downhill from here on, all the way down into the valley of Les Contamines-Montjoie, where I of course would find the next ascent. Though one thing after the other. On my way down I passed through a sleepy little village. It looked really idyllic where it was situated on the slope of Mont Blanc. In one of the gardens a little girl was practising her singing, while her father was playing his guitar. I felt like staying a bit and listening to the music, but I didn't want to disturb so I continued down the road and let the music slowly die away.
Continuing down and deeper into the valley, I passed through more settlements and villages. The two communes in this valley, Saint Gervais les Bains and Les Contamines-Montjoie, are two big ski resorts and tourism is their biggest income. Now during summertime it was not very crowded, though when I came as far as I could in the valley, there was a very large recreational sports resort. People where playing golf and tennis and all kinds of other sports. It was not the most peaceful place, but I saw a restaurant not far from where I was walking and thought that I would spoil myself with a burger. Feeling good about my decision I went over there and waited for a waitress to take me to a table. Unfortunately my burger wasn't meant to be, because they had closed the kitchen for the evening and were just serving drinks. Disappointed that I didn't get my burger, I walked back from where I had come from and continued south. It was getting late and I was hungry, so during my ascent I was scanning the surroundings for a good spot for my tent. Though my luck wasn't doing a better job here than it had done with the burger. It was all too steep, so all I could do was to continue. I was walking along this gorge and after a while I passed a big waterfall, unfortunately it was very difficult to get a good shot of it and after a few failed attempts I let it go and continued uphill. Once I had come a bit higher I reached some fields and some houses, and since the houses looked empty I thought that maybe I could pitch the tent in the corner of the field, but then I saw a sign saying "no camping" and decided against it. I was getting tired and it was slowly getting dark, but then just a few minutes later when I came to a refuge and I was just about to go inside and ask if I could pitch the tent on their lawn, I saw another sign "bivouac 10 minutes". So I picked up my pace and pushed away my hunger and walked the last distance to this bivouac place. When I came there it was already full with tents and people walking around and preparing their supper or organising their gear. Since my tent is really small I managed to squeeze it in just by the entrance of this place. All I had to do was to mark one of my lines with a bottle so no-one would stumble over it early next morning. A group of French people invited me to join them for their supper down by the river and I happily accepted the offer. They were doing the Mont Blanc Tour and as I would see the next day, so did a lot of other people too.
It is early morning, Tuesday the 28th of July, and I had decided to sleep a bit longer to let my body recover from the long previous day. I had also got a text from a friend, who told me that he wanted to join me for a week. After we both had looked at the map a bit, we agreed on that the best way to do it was probably to meet in Landry the coming weekend. Though it meant that I would have to take it much slower for a few days, otherwise I would arrive in Landry on Thursday already. With that in mind I started my a bit later and slower than usual. As I mentioned earlier this part of the GR5 was much more crowded, because it shared the path with MBT. I passed a few groups of 10-15 persons and lots of smaller groups as well of course. The first week I had almost been alone so it was quite a big difference, and I really hoped that I would be alone soon again. I reached a pass at around 2300 m and saw that the signs for GR5 and MBT were pointing in the same direction, we would have to share path a while longer. Maybe around 30 minutes later I had this wonderful view over the water reservoir, Lac de la Girotte. It was just about noon, but since I knew that I had to slow down I decided that I would scout the area to see if I could find a flat spot to spend the night. Since there were lots of hikers walking this route, I left the path and climbed higher up on the slope, hoping to find solitude and a good spot to pitch the tent. After having inspected a few less optimal spots, I came up on this relatively flat and hidden one where I decided to stay. Water was just a few minutes away, where the melting snow was creating a small stream of drinkable water. It was early afternoon and I had heard that a storm was coming this way in a few hours, I pitched my tent and started to build myself a stonewall for wind protection. I had to find something to do anyways and building things is fun, so I thought it was a good idea. At least that was until two rangers showed up and telling me that camping there is not allowed and that the fine for breaking the rule is 400 euros. I apologised and explained that I hadn't seen the signs and that I only wanted to seek protection from the storm, which was more or less the truth. They were very friendly and said that personal safety has top priority, though asked me to take down the tent and raise it first after 1800 or earlier if the weather made it necessary. Also the tent has to be taken down before 0900 in the morning. Feeling relieved that I didn't have to pay the 400 euros penalty, I thanked and promised them that I would take it down and also tear down my stone wall before I leave. Leave no trace mentality was something that they were trying to bring by all the park's visitors.
After they had left, I took out the pole so that I could lay down the tent flat on the ground as promised (or at least that was a fair compromise in my opinion instead of packing everything back in the backpack). I sat down in the sun to enjoy the view when suddenly a huge bird appeared high up in the sky. It was one of the few golden eagles, which according to the two rangers are roaming around in this area. I grabbed my camera and tried to get a shot, but all the settings where for still photography and I failed miserably. After this encounter I changed the settings and put on my 50-140mm zoom lens and started my watch. If he came back, I would be ready. I sat there the whole afternoon, but the wait paid off. He finally appeared on the horizon again, unfortunately the reach of the lens wasn't great enough and he only became very little bird on a very large canvas. The hunt was exciting and I will definitely consider buying a new lens with better reach.
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