Success and Sadness

A short distance on from our last photos, we met a lady sitting in the sun and using her binoculars to look across to Mont Blanc. Being friendly bears we stopped to say hello and the lady told us that she knew someone who was climbing the mountain that day, and she was attempting to follow progress.

We didn't realise this was possible from the far side of the valley where we were, but our leader Simon, pointed out that it was possible to see footsteps in the snow, on the route up to the summit. We took a closer look and saw that he was right. It made the climb to the top of Mont Blanc seem far more real to us. We were almost a part of it.

Thinking about what it would be like to climb Mont Blanc, kept us occupied on the final push to the Le Brevent, which was our summit for the day and the last one of our Tour de Mont Blanc. Here we are at the top ...

... we could see for miles so it was great to be sitting on a table which mapped out for us all the surrounding mountains that we could see.

Our pleasure at being here and having completed the final climb of our Tour, was brought to a sudden end when the news came in of the avalanche that had occurred earlier that morning on an approach mountain to Mont Blanc, and killed many climbers. We were stunned and, as we looked towards Mont Blanc again, it looked calm and serene as though nothing had happened, but we couldn't view it the way we had just minutes earlier. We did hope the lady we'd spoken to earlier was not going to be involved in this tragedy.

But life goes on, and we couldn't stay too sad for long. We needed to celebrate our completion of the Tour de Mont Blanc and enjoy our final leisurely descent back to Chamonix. We were so high that to get back down required 2 cable cars, if we chose to use them. We decided to walk down to Plan Praz, the half way point, as we didn't like the thought of our walking being over. It was also quite an exciting descent as, in season, it is a black ski run. It was very steep, and, in places, there was snow.

Someone, not us, had been snowman building - we thought it was a lovely touch and a far more sensible activity than tight rope walking, without a safety net, over a huge drop. It was exciting to watch but complete madness.

After just over 500 metres of steep descent we reached Plan Praz, still high at 2000m. We were walking with our minders and 2 lovely ladies from our group, Julie and Jonquil. When we saw there was a restaurant with a lovely outdoor seating area, we all agreed we should celebrate our achievement with a bottle of wine.

It was lovely to share it with friends and to know that we were now Tour de Mont Blanc veterans. It ranks along with our walk to Santiago de Compostella, as our greatest walking achievement.

We had tickets provided for the cable car descent to Chamonix and we took it, as we had done all we needed to and we'd completed the most interesting part of the descent.

We were looking forward to joining up with the rest of our group at our campsite and celebrating our joint success.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Almost There!

The day after our rest day, we found out exactly why we'd had a rest day: it was because the final 2 day's walking were going to be very challenging, and provide the hardest walking of the Tour.

We were told not to worry, as we had all improved our fitness since the start, and we should be able to take it comfortably in our stride. And so, we didn't worry, and it was fine.

Our penultimate day started off with some reasonable ups, interspersed with flatter sections and even a down, to our first coffee stop, which was in the plateau just north east of centre in our first picture.

The coffee stop was something of a carrot, so we didn't rebel at what was coming next! This was a big climb up the Col de Tricot. We would have to climb some 600 metres in a kilometre (I think we've got that right but the memory is fading now).

As we drank our coffee we were able to study the path, and see all the zig zags that were needed to get us so high in so short a distance. Apparently the guide book time for the climb is about 3 hours.  We needed nothing like that time. We romped up just ahead of our female minder who made it to the top in under an hour and our male minder also did well, arriving at the top just over 10 minutes later.

The top might have been the end of the hard work but there were still several hours more walking ahead of us, taking in a big suspension bridge. We finished the day by catching a bus back to the Los Bossons campsite, outside Chamonix where we'd spent out first night. It felt strange, but nice, to be back.

The next morning we started our final day's walking straight from the campsite. This was an even bigger day's walk than the day before. We had just over 1500m of climb ahead of us to the top of the Brevent.

We had plenty of time though so we took it nice and steady. We didn't want to hurry anyway as it was our last day and we knew that when it was over, the Tour would be over. After our first coffee stop we left the pine forests behind and were out in the open with the most amazing views of Mont Blanc and its surrounding peaks.

It was spectacular beyond words, which is why we won't say too much about these views; we'll just let our photos speak for themselves.

At this point we still weren't at the top, but you can see how high we were when you see how far below us Chamonix is.

We won't hurry our account of this excellent final walking day, so we'll be back soon with part 2.

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Our Active Rest Day

We ended our last post telling you that we were spending the night at a campsite that was part of a leisure complex. It turned out to be quite a complex, with every activity from archery and horse riding to swimming and crazy golf. This was great for us, as we were in fact spending 2 nights at this site, as we were about to have our second rest day.

We were very happy as there was loads for us to do. As well as the camp site activities, we could walk along the river into the French market town of Contamines. We did this in the morning, after a lie in and leisurely breakfast. As a bonus, it was market day, so we were able to explore lots of fascinating French market stalls who liked the look of us bears, and offered us lots of tastes of olives, cheese and saucisson. We were very happy to accept and to tell them how they tasted to an English bear's palate.

In fact we were so relaxed and had such a fine time, that we forgot to take any photographs, which wasn't good news for our blog. It did show that we were taking our day off very seriously though.

All is not lost though, we did remember a photo or 2 in the afternoon, when we went to the rock climbing area, a short walk from the campsite.

To start off, we made ourselves comfortable in the sun and watched our 2 leaders Simon and Ben showing us how it is done.

It was a big face, which is why Ben looks so small. Both chaps are good climbers though and made it look easy, so easy in fact that we were inspired to have a go ourselves. Regular readers will know that Yorkie and I are keen (and competitive) climbers, but Gio is more of a novice. We therefore tackled a smaller and easier face and put Gio in between us.

Gio did very well, but when we suggested moving onto something bigger, he developed an urge to play crazy golf and, correctly pointed out, that if we didn't do it now, we would run out of time. And so, we went off to play crazy golf, and we were very glad we did, as it was a bigger and more interesting course than we tend to get in England.

We dined in the campsite restaurant that evening. and had pork cheeks again (yum), with berries which turned the meat a very interesting purple colour. It was another great meal though and, after it, we knew we'd be ready for more walking the next day.  

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

To Val Montjoie

Our camp site was situated just a stone's throw from the next part of the trail, so there was no warm up trot along the road before we started to climb. Even worse, at the first zig-zag we were out in the open sun, and boy, was it hot that day.

We decided the thing to do was to maintain a slow, but steady pace and follow Gio who is a master of the art of plodding.

We also admired Gio's technique of finding good places to rest, where there was a) an icy stream close by for a cooling dip (see behind) and b) a nice flat stone to sit on and dry off. Gio also liked this particular spot as the red and white 'GR' trail markings brought back happy memories of our time following similar blazes on our way to Santiago.

Finding a good spot to rest was quite important as there was a bit of waiting to do, but not too much. This was our view as we watched our male minder toiling up the patch with a man in red from the hotel group.

When we got to our refuge coffee stop at the top, we had to look after our male minder who was suffering a bit from low blood sugar. We were quite amazed at the number of sugar lumps we had to shovel in before he could taste the sweetness. For the first cup it was about five! He is made of strong stuff though and recovered with the second cup.

 The top was La Croix du Bonhomme (2,478m) where we posed for our customary cairn picture, with a wonderful view as our backdrop. We camouflaged rather well with the stone, but if you look carefully, you might spy all 3 of us on the left hand side.

From the cairn it was a real treat to enjoy another great ridge walk along to the Col. It was quite a rocky path so we took our time; needless to say Simon, our guide, ran along it later to catch us up, just like a mountain goat. At the end of the ridge, before we started our afternoon's descent, we paused for lunch, enjoying both the views and the sunshine. Simon astounded us all by telling us that on the previous trip, just 2 weeks earlier the weather had been atrocious at this point, with blizzard conditions and the need to break trail through thick snow. We think it was quite a worrying time for him, but, true professional that he is, he got everyone down safely.

Talking of snow, even on our sunny day, we had a substantial snowfield to cross on our descent. Here we are, going down in size order so as to break trail and make sure we didn't have snow going over Yorkie's head.

There was still plenty of crunch in the snow so it wasn't too slippery. It was a shame we didn't have skis, as it would have made a lovely run.

After the previous night's wild camp, our new camp site was part of a big leisure park with all facilities and even a lake doubling as the local lido.

Back soon

Lots of love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Rock in More Sense than One

When the bus reached our campsite we had to work hard to elbow our way off, as there were people everywhere. It didn't take us long to work out why; we heard the reason almost immediately. Just across the road from our campsite, a Celtic music festival was in full swing, and it went on into the early hours of the morning. Fortunately we had our ear plugs with us, as tent walls are rather thin.

It was so hot when we got to our tents that we couldn't go in them for more than the 5 seconds it took to reach in and pull out our bags. We had the seek the 2 inches of shade provided by the side of our support van, to sit in to drink our tea. Although the site was very busy with all the festival goers, Ben, our brilliant support crew, had found enough room for all our tents and booked us into the on site restaurant. The queue for the showers wasn't too bad as everyone was at the festival, so we had everything we needed.

We woke up the next day to pouring rain. Thankfully there was an indoor room we could move breakfast into, otherwise we'd have had very soggy cereals. We all agreed to spend €1 and catch the bus to the start of the day's walk, rather than have a very wet road walk, and everyone agreed it was a €1 well spent.

By the time we got off the bus, the rain had as good as stopped, and it soon got very hot. We followed a climbing riverside path for a while, then we had  flat section (you can see from our next picture, just how flat!) which was unusual for the Tour de Mont Blanc ...

... we think that glaciation had something to do with it. Just after the point where we took this photo, it all changed and there was a steep 'up' with the consolation of another refuge/coffee stop (chocolate on this occasion!) just when we needed it. For the rest of the morning we dodged showers, saw some more marmots and made steady progress upwards through some sizeable patches of snow.

Shortly after this picture we reached a visitor information hut, with some charming staff and lots of information about the geology, history and flora and fauna of this area. There was also an empty room we could use to eat our packed lunches. This was good, as we were at a high enough altitude for it to a bit cold for outdoor picnicking. 

It was hardly surprising that it was cold as we had almost reached the day's high point of the Col de la Seigne at 2516m. Here we are at the Col, and if you look extremely carefully, you might spot Gio sitting half way down the cairn. The rest of us were scoffing cheese which a fellow walker -  but not one of our group - was giving away!

The col marked our re-entry into France so we switched back to bonjours for everyone we met coming the other way (it was actually us that were doing the Tour the wrong way round, but it was by far the best way to go!)

Our descent was long but easy, just how we (well our minders) like them. The scenery kept changing and there was another refuge/drinks stop, but this time it was hot again so it was an iced tea with ice cream stop.  

Our camp site for that night was our second 'wild' camp, but as you can see it wasn't too wild.

'Wild' just meant no showers and log drop toilets, which were actually no different to any other toilet in looks or use, they were just lacking a flush handle and looked rather dark inside. The lack of showers wan't a problem, as just a few yards behind us, as we took this picture, was a small stream with fast moving water and pools big enough to sit in and wash. So, it was on with our swimming cossies and into the stream. Much more fun than a conventional shower, especially as it was still very hot.

That evening we met up with the hotel group in a local restaurant and, much to our delight, they didn't like the idea of the simply delicious pigs cheeks that were served up, so left loads in their serving dishes, which they were happy to pass across to us to finish off. With the soup and clafouti like pudding, it was one of our best meals.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Marmot Country

The day after our much enjoyed rest day, we went to Courmayeur again, but this time we walked there via a rather different, and much more interesting, if harder route, than that followed by the bus.

Strangely enough, our day did in fact start with a bus trip, but no, we weren't cheating, we were simply going back, in the opposite direction to Courmayeur, to the place where we had caught the bus to go to our campsite 2 days ago.

On the Tour de Mont Blanc (TMB), whenever you leave a road, there is always a steep uphill, but we were all fresh after our rest day and marched up with few stops. Then there was a lovely ridge walk, with a good path, so we really could look all around and safely enjoy the mountain vistas.

As always, we scampered ahead, but we were impressed to see our minders almost keeping up with us bears. We liked to wait for them in the sun on these way marking points. It is interesting to note that most of the places marked were the refuges which provided us with our coffee stops. As we sat waiting for our minders, we were pleased to note that one was coming up, the Bonatti refuge, just 15 minutes away. 

Just before our coffee stop we had a real treat, our first marmot sighting ... 

We were simply thrilled to see one of these elusive creatures and we loved what we saw. We had heard them many times and scoured the mountain sides to see them, but of course, what we were hearing was their distress call, so they had already gone into hiding and were not coming out ... until today.

After coffee, we did a bit more undulating before a steady climb up a glacial valley which ended in a steep climb to a col where we had a quick lunch as there was a rather cold wind. The climb after lunch was unbelievably steep -  it was almost vertical - but mercifully it was quite short.

Then it was downhill for the whole of the afternoon's walk. As you can see from our next photo, it was mostly a long gentle downhill, although when there was a steep section, it was steep.

This was also wild flower day and Gio was in his element. We had to keep an eye on him otherwise we'd have left him behind, communing with pink, yellow and gentian blue alpine flowers.

It seemed to take forever to get to Courmayeur and it was extremely hot. Thankfully, when we arrived, we found a marvellous ice cream parlour which served heavenly ice creams. From Courmayeur it was a choice of bus or walk to the camp site. Nobody walked!

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Our Raclette Introduction

Our first full day in Italy was our first rest day, and we celebrated by having a lie in and doing some washing.

Our priority though was to explore Italy, but to do so by cable car, rather than on paw, as it was supposed to be a rest day. We didn't want to be too lazy though, or lose hard earned physical condition,  so we walked the couple of kilometres or so, down to the cable car station.    

The Funivie Monte Bianco took us on an interesting journey, and took us so high that it felt as if we were going to the top of Mont Blanc.

The top was actually the Rifugio Torino, which was at a pretty high altitude of 3329m. This is well into the altitude sickness zone, but fortunately we weren't there long enough to suffer any ill effects. The refuge is one used by serious mountaineers, often those attempting the summit of Mont Blanc and it was in serious ice axe and crampon territory.

It was absolutely freezing cold and there was almost no visibility at all. It did make us wonder what the attraction of high altitude mountaineering is. There must be some powerful pull to compensate for that mind and bone numbing cold. Perhaps when the sun is out it seems very different.

The attraction for us bears though was the control room. It was nice and sheltered, if not warm, and there were lots of fascinating dials and levers for us to fiddle with. At our paw tips we had everything we needed to drive cable cars all the way across into France. Amazing and great fun!

 Our minders had to drag us away. They were keen to descend to the half way stop of Pavillon which at 2173m meant positively balmy temperatures (it's all relative). Our cable car ticket included entrance to the botanic gardens, which are the highest in Europe. We wandered round for a bit but then went in search of a spot of lunch. The food in the restaurant was very good and reasonably priced.

As we descended still further, the views started to return, and we looked out the window at the Italian ski resort town of Courmayeur.

We caught a local bus into Courmayeur and had a relaxing afternoon strolling, drinking beer, and once again, catching up on the Wimbledon action. 

Back at the campsite, everyone was making their own arrangements for evening meal. Our leaders Simon and Ben had recommended the raclette at a small restaurant a couple of minutes walk away. It was a great choice and we loved melting all that cheese and smearing it on our baked potatoes with lots of ham and pickles. We washed it down with a fine bottle of rose and we couldn't have been happier. 

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx