It is Wednesday morning on the 29th of July and I have taken down camp and made my way back down to the path, where I continued my adventure. The day before I had gotten a text from a friend, saying that he would like to join me for a week and would probably arrive the coming weekend. First we had said that we would meet up in Landry, but I quickly realised that I would be there way too early. Probably on Thursday already, that was why I decided to only hike for a few hours the day before. Though knowing that I could't just walk a few hours per day the coming three four days, I texted him a new plan. Let's meet in Bessans. With that out of the way, I picked up my normal pace again and it felt good knowing that I didn't have to hold back any more.
Maybe an hour into the hike, I arrived at a crowded refuge and found two from the French group that I had met two days earlier camping close by. I didn't linger around and continued up a ridge having an Ovomaltine dark chocolate for breakfast as I was walking, before my descent down to Plan de la Lai. It seemed to be a popular place for day trips and shorter getaways, most likely because of the easy access thanks to the wide tarmac road and the multiple lakes that were in the neighbourhood. I kept a steady pace and tried to leave the busy place behind me as fast as I could. Some minutes later I saw a guy carrying a lightweight backpack and wearing trail runners on his feet, giving the impression in general of being a long distance hiker. I got curious and said hi and asked him where he was heading and he told me that he was also doing the GR5, though he had started his walk from home close to Luzern (Switzerland). We got along really well and decided to continue together and see how it goes. We covered a lot of topics as we put kilometer after kilometer behind us, till we, after 35 km or, so arrived in Valezan. We passed a sign saying "food and beds" and we decided that we had earned a bit of luxury. With that decided we headed over and had tasty dinner and reserved two beds in a 12-bed room. It was the first cooked meal since I had started the hike, and also the first shower. It was nice to wash myself with warm water again, though I don't mind the streams and rivers as long as it is summer. We also managed to charge our power banks and telephones. It was definitely 20 euros well spent.
We left the hotel after we had had a French breakfast, a warm drink and a croissant, from which no-one can feel satisfied after they have had. What about eggs, muesli, yogurt, bread, cheese, ham and so on?? Anyways, moving on. We continued our way through the village down in the valley, where we would be at 700 m, to then ascend up to one of the highest passes on the hike, 2650 m. Though just after an hour or so, before we left the civilisation in the valley behind us, we had to stop and buy ourself an ice cream to still the hunger a bit. After another hour or so we stopped for an early lunch. How can the French survive with just a croissant?
Slow and steady we were working our way up towards the pass, we had now reached La Gurraz at 1600 m. A small settlement in the end of the valley, with a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains. From here on there would be no more houses or roads until we reached the ski resorts on the other side of the pass. Leaving La Gurraz behind us, we passed grass fields full of cows, rivers, waterfalls and lakes on our ascent.
The weather had been playing along for most of the hike, with the exception of some rain on a few occasions, but as we were getting closer to the pass we were spotting really dark clouds on the horizon. First we were not sure in which direction they were moving, but it didn't take long before we agreed on that they were heading directly towards us. We were now at around 2500 m altitude and only had 150 m left up to the pass. It was 7.30 PM and we knew that there would be a refuge just below the pass and we decided to check it out, maybe we could spend the night there protected from the storm. Unfortunately they told us that they were full and that we were not allowed to camp outside, because of Corona they were not allowed to have more visitors neither in the refuge it self nor outside on the camping grounds. The area up here on this side of the pass, was a national park and therefore you are not allowed to do wild camping either so we had to continue. Though the lady in the refuge had told us that there is a skiing area on the other side and that we could probably find a place to camp there.
We had almost reached the pass when the storm hit us. First there was just a really strong winds, but as we pushed forward and left the highest point behind us, the storm added rain to its attack as well. The almost black clouds looked incredible with the sun shining through in the horizon and I tried as best as I could to take a few photographs, but unfortunately most of them ended up blurry because of the strong winds. With rain and some debris hitting our faces, we walked as fast as we could to get shelter behind a small building that we had found just a few hundreds meters ahead of us. We managed to get some cover, but it didn't offer any possibilities to pitch the tents there so we decided to get out in the storm again and head over to a large cable car building not very far away. It was far from ideal, but at least it was giving us protection from the storm and kept us dry. It was even big enough to pitch our tents underneath the engine room. We had a quick dinner together and then tried to get some sleep. It had been a long day.
The next morning didn't show any signs of the storm and welcomed us with sun and blu sky. Feeling rested and in a good mood, we packed our gear and headed out on empty stomachs. We had decided to continue directly to the next village and have our breakfast there instead, because both of us were almost out food and we definitely had to restock before we could continue the hike.
Later this morning, when we got sight of the village, it was strange experience to say at least. When you are high up in the mountains like we were, you are expecting to see a normal mountain village with its traditional huts and buildings. Though that was definitely not the case here. We were welcomed by tall skyscrapers, huge parking lots, a golf course, large electronic billboards and other things that only belong in larger cities and not in the mountains at almost 2100 meters. This is the ski resort Tignes.
We walked down the last distance and set out to look for a place to have breakfast. First we thought about one of the restaurants along the shoreside, though seeing what kind of breakfasts that they served, we quickly decided that it is better if we will try and find a supermarket instead. No more useless French breakfasts for me if I have anything to say about it. It didn't take long before we had found a big supermarket. First round we just went in to do some recon and buy breakfast. Now with full stomachs and an idea of what they had to offer, we went in for the second round. It was not the cheapest place, but that wasn't to be expected when you are in a popular ski resort like this one. We finished our shopping and repacking our backpacks with all the new food we had and afterwards we just relaxed a bit, while recharging our telephones at a power socket we happened to find outside the supermarket.
At around noon it was time for us to part ways and say our goodbyes. He had decided to take another route for the coming couple of days, which would let him stay more up in the mountains instead of taking the normal route down into the valley. Unfortunately, his route wouldn't pass the village where I was to meet my friend, so it was no option for me. We had had three good days of hiking together and decided to exchange numbers, so that we could go out on more hikes once we are both back in Switzerland. Once that was done, we both left this surreal place behind us. He headed back up towards the mountains and I left in the opposite direction, down into valley of Val-d'Isère.
Val-d'Isère was completely different compared to Tignes and looked more traditional with its stone facades instead of the concrete in the previous village. Looking at all the people getting their food served in the many restaurants at the village square, I got really tempted to do the same, but looking at the map I knew that I had many hours ahead of me before I would get to a good camp site so I just refilled my water by the fountain and set off again. The village is at around 1800 meters and I would have to ascend over the highest pass of the entire trek, just below 2800 m, before it looked like there would be some better places to pitch my tent. Parts of the ascent were really steep, not difficult steep but exhausting, because there were not really any flatter parts in between where you could let your legs recover. On the positive side, that also meant that I was gaining altitude really fast and it didn't even take two hours before I was up on the pass. Up there it was a bit windy and chilly and the sound was about to set, but knowing that even with the sun gone behind the mountains it would stay bright enough for hiking for another or or so. So to get out of the wind I decided to move on and try to get down in the next valley, where I would hopefully have some less wind.
It took me two hours to find a good spot for the tent and the sun had already set a while back, though it wasn't pitch black, because the sky was clear and the moon was giving me some light for hiking. I had come down to a small settlement, where a few camping vehicles were parked for the night and one more was trying to find a spot, while I was pitching my tent some meters away. After a few tries, they gave up and left. The valley was peaceful once more. Having hiked for the whole day, I was really tired and decided to go to bed after I had had a quick meal and cleaned myself in the river a bit.
Next morning I slept in, trying to recover a bit from the long previous day and ended up being the last one who left the area. It was Saturday, 1st of August, and I was only a few hours away from Bessans, which was where I was to meet my friend. Though he was to arrive at around noon the coming day, which left me with a lot a time to spare. On the hike to the village, I once again spotted a golden eagle and decided to stay up there to try and get a better photograph than I did last time. The best chance I had was when he passed me the first time, unfortunately I didn't have the long lens on. The second best chance I had, also got messed up. This time because I had not realised that I didn't have any memory left on the cards, which I noticed as soon as I fired away a burst of shots. I started deleting photographs which I didn't think were any good, though it is not easy to do so on a small d display on the back of a camera. Nevertheless I managed to delete around 30 photographs or so, which would be ok if the eagle was to return. I saw him again, but this time he was too far away even for my long lens. I gave up and finished the the last two hours down to Bessans, where I had to locate a supermarket. I had run out of powdered milk, which I was using daily for my breakfast muesli. When I was at it, I decided to spoil myself with a nice late lunch, and bought myself fresh bread, cheese, salami and a bottle of orange juice. It was really delicious! It was very warm outside and I didn't want to let the food and juice go bad, so I decided, against my better will, to eat and drink up everything. I knew that orange juice has a laxating effect, but I did it anyways. It didn't take long before I regretted my choice. I knew what was happening and I quickly used google maps to locate some public toilets. Lucky for me, there was one just a few minutes away. Even though the distance was really short, I barely made it. Three times I had to go within only half an hour or so. It was not pleasant at all and I was so happy that this little village had a public toilet. One liter of orange juice is definitely too much and one thing is for sure, I will never do this mistake again!
After this disaster, I took my backpack and headed out of the village in search for a place that I could spend the night. I had seen at the tourist information, that there was an official camping site just a few kilometers further down the valley, so that's where I was headed. Once there I decided against it as soon as I heard what it cost and when she told me that wild camping is allowed. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't that it was crazy expensive, it was just that I didn't see why I should pay the money when the it was allowed to do wild camping. I didn't need the cooking or bath facilities that they were offering. With that decided I went back somewhere in between the camp site and the village and found myself a good spot. I spent the rest of the day chilling and reading my book.
The next day I continued reading and relaxing a bit, but was slowly getting a bit bored. Just waiting for the time to pass is not something I like to do. Though it was slowly getting time for me to pack my things and head back into the village to meet my friend. We had said that we would meet at one of the local restaurants so I decided that I would head over a bit earlier and have myself something to eat. My friend had to hitchhike the last distance because no buses were going on a Sunday, but he was quite lucky and only arrived a few hours later than planned which was really good considering the means of transportation. After we had something to drink at the restaurant, we set out on our hike. Up till now the weather had been good, it was just as we set out that the rain and wind came upon us. We donned our rain gear and continued, because I wanted to get up a bit higher and leave the valley behind us before we would call it a night. The rain didn't last very long and we could soon take off the jackets again, but we had almost no visibility for the entire ascent as we were surrounded with clouds. Once up on 2300 meters most of the clouds have passed by and we could finally enjoy the beautiful view of the valley and the surrounding mountains.
We came upon a refuge where we asked if we could pitch our tents for the night on the neighboring field, which they said we could. With that out of the way, we made camp and cooked dinner together before we said good night and each of us slipped into his own tent for the night.
The next morning I waited for my friend to come to life, he had been pretty exhausted from his trip. He had been on the road for almost a day since he had opted for one of the intercity buses that took him from Freiburg (Germany) to Turin (Italy) in 13 hours to then took the train to the closest city here in the mountains and then he had to hitchhike the last distance. So with that in mind, I let him sleep a bit longer. Though at around 8 o'clock I decided it was time to get going and made sure he got up. We broke camp relative quickly and had our breakfast two hours later when the sun had decided to greet us with her presence. Though it soon became pretty clear that she wasn't going to stay. First it was just cloudy as we continued our hike, but later in the afternoon the rain started falling again. Though before that happened, we passed a small lake and we took the opportunity to freshen up ourselves a little bit.
We were just a few minutes away from a refuge when the rain hit us, so we decided to go over there and have something warm to drink, in hope that the rain would soon pass. Unfortunately it wasn't the case, it actually got worse and now the wind was picking up as well. It was just mid afternoon, which was too early for us to call it a day (we never asked if they had any rooms left for that matter either) so we put on the rain gear and headed back out again. We got back down to 2000 meters, but had to fight against the wind and the rain the whole way which made the descent much harder than it would normally have been. Once down there, we crossed a river and then started our next ascent, which would then take us up to just below 2500 meters. It was pretty steep and now it was all muddy as well, which made it all much harder more tiresome. It was wet and cold and to keep warm, I held a steady pace, though unfortunately my friend was struggling and fell further and further behind. I had seen some ruins a bit ahead and decided to seek shelter there while I was waiting for him to catch up. The wind was constantly increasing, but we decided to continue. The map showed us two lakes coming in a couple of kilometers and we hoped that we could make camp there. The hike was everything but pleasant. The rain hit your face so hard that it had started to hurt and the wind made it more difficult to keep the balance, but we finally reached the two lakes. Unfortunately the ground around them was soaked and there were barely any flat areas anyways. Disappointed and cold, we pushed on. Hoping that we would find a place to pitch our tents. It was getting late and was getting a bad feeling about the situation and like that wasn't enough, the rain was now turning into snow and hail. I told my friend that we would need to hurry up and find a spot before it gets any worse. Even with some daylight left it was getting hard to see things because of the snow hitting you so hard that you almost had to shut your eyes completely. I still wore my shorts and the cold skin on my legs and face was hurting quite a bit from the snow and hail hitting it, though I didn't want to put on my pants until we had made camp. If I did, they would get soaked as well and I really wanted to put on some dry clothes later. From time to time I turned my head around to make sure that my friend was still to be seen. We had to cross a river, which wasn't very fun in this stormy weather but we made it across without any accidents. Afterwards there was a slight ascent over a bouldery slope, which didn't offer any places to pitch our tents or any protection whatsoever. The body tried to ignore all the unpleasantries as good as it could and just focus on moving forward. It is pretty fantastic what our bodies can do if necessary. Anyways, I came around a bend and found a semi flat grass field, though it offered no wind protection at all. It was far from ideal, but considering the situation we were in, I decided that this would be our best option. I waited a few minutes for my friend to catch up and we discussed our options. It was settled, we would stay the night here. With some struggle we managed to pitch our tents, though I wished I would have brought my other much robuster tent instead of this ultralight one. I had one of my most uncomfortable nights I have ever had. The wind almost flattened the tent and being afraid that it would break down completely, I sat the whole storm giving support to it. Also I had to prevent the snow from building up onto of it. Snow was blowing in from underneath, because of its high outer walls, and soaked all my sleeping gear. It was a very very long night for me.
The next morning the worst was over, but it was still a bit windy and rain was coming down from time to time. The landscape looked incredible and it was a shame that I wasn't equipped better so that I could have enjoyed this adventure more than I currently was. I was cold and wet and we packed everything as fast as we could so that we could get going and hopefully warm ourself with a meal in the next refuge, which was a couple of hours away. Though while I was packing my gear, I noticed that my left hand was aching and I had to pull myself together to even manage the packing. I didn't see any injury at first, but as the hours passed the hand was slowly getting swollen. There was not much we could do about so we just kept walking, till we finally arrived at the refuge later that morning. Apparently we were a bit early, because the staff was having their own lunch and told us that we would have to wait 30 minutes or so before we would get some food. That was not a problem at all for us as we were just happy to be somewhere warm and dry. Plus we both had a hot chocolate while we were waiting. After having had a really well made lunch and full bellies, we both felt a bit better and were ready to continue our hike.
As the day went on, the weather just kept getting better and better. Soon we were walking in sunshine and used the opportunity to hang our sleeping bags outside our backpack to dry. We walked the whole afternoon, high on the slopes above the valley and it really let us enjoy the magnificent scenery that we had around us. Later in the evening around 19 o'clock, we came to a skiing area which offered a flat grass patch infant one of the cable car buildings. We both found that the spot looked nice and started pitching our tents. We also happily noticed that our sleeping bags had dried out completely in the sun with help from the breeze that we had had the whole day. The only negative thing was that my hand was getting worse and barely managed to pitch my tent on my own. It was getting more and more swollen. Though that didn't stop me from trying and do some photography. The evening offered us such a beautiful view that I couldn't let the camera be. Not very far away from us was this lonesome tree on top of a cloudy mountain, and for just a short moment the top got lit up by the last sunshine of the day.
The next morning we are welcomed once again by blu sky and a warming sun. It makes getting up in the morning so much easier. This day we left the skiing area behind us and hiked around this blu and grey dual dam, before finally heading down to the next village, Modane. After the dams there was a slight ascent before the actual descent started. From here on, the path would go in one direction only. Down. It would do so until the 1300 meters have been descended and it would do so without any pause, which is something that you feel in your legs.
A few hours and 1300 meters of altitude later, we were down in Modane. My friend was exhausted and had some pain in his knees and I had trouble with my hand. We were two broken hikers. First we tried to find a place to eat, which turned out to be difficult since it was only late in the afternoon. It was like Thonon-les-Bains all over again. In the end we went to a bakery and had a couple of sandwiches and had something sweet for dessert. While we were in the civilisation again, I took the opportunity to buy two new memory cards for the camera. I didn't want to finish the second half of the trek with no camera, or try to free up memory every time there was something great to photograph. My friend and I also discussed how to proceed and he told me that he was giving up and was going to look for a bus back home for tomorrow. The week he had wanted to join me had been reduced to three days of hiking. That made me think about quitting as well, because at this point my hand had swollen up quite a lot and I could barely use it. If he would have continued with me for a few days longer, I could have gotten his help if needed but alone up in the mountains with a bad hand wasn't really appealing. In the end I said that I will decide spontaneously tomorrow morning depending on how it feels. Maybe the creme that we had bought in the pharmacy would fix it.
We spent the night just outside the little town and feeling that the hand hadn't gotten any better, I finally made up my mind and told my friend that I was going to go home as well. It felt like a real loss, but I still believe it was the right decision. I will have to finish the trek another time. We had a last breakfast together and then he had to catch his bus. We had had a good time these few days and we will definitely go out on other trips in the future again. I went to the train station and bought myself a ticket back home to Basel. This was the end of this adventure, but other will be coming.
Cheers,
Björn
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