Wednesday 10th September: Sunny morning, overcast afternoon, rain late afternoon:11°C to 15°C
Chamonix to Moede Anterne: 22k: 7.45am to 4.45pm: 9hrs
Mont Blanc at 7am
Snells, my favourite Chamonix shop
Mont Blanc in early morning sun
L'Arve River, Mont Blanc behind
Aguile du Midi - cable car stop on way to Mont Blanc
Coffee Stop just below TMB path
Follow that beer truck to PlanPraz
In awe of hang gliders
Like old times at PlanPraz
Col de Brevant at 2368 metres
And we're there at the top
Change of flora on other side
Lunch stop by a cold stream
Refuge Moede Anterne a long way
Muddy stony slippery squelchy
Barren gully below
Refuge Moede Anterne
View from Dining Room
Lunch in fridge outside window
Room for 2 only
It was supposed to rain all day today, but like all met bureaus, the Swiss Meteo got it wrong! We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning to start our first day of the GR5 from Chamonix to Lake Geneva. Our highlight was climbing from Chamonix to Planpraz and then to the Col de Brevant in the morning - a 1300 metre climb straight up, and seeing Mont Blanc in full sunlight in all it's glory. In previous years we've taken the cable car up as technically all the walks start at the top above Chamonix. Then on to a remote refuge in the middle of the moors - Moede Anterne.
After the storm and torrential rain last night, we were fully prepared for a rainy morning, but awoke to blue skies. The Hotel Morgane was such a nice place and we'd definitely stay there again. There's a jug in the room to have an early morning cup of tea with a hunk of bread and small container of yoghurt. And the WiFi is so good we get to talk to home and check emails. We're out the door at 7.45am, anticipating a very long day. It's not raining so we've decided to walk up to PlanPraz before picking up the GR5 at the top to hike to the refuge Moede Anterne.
Through Chamonix, to the local Casino Supermarket which we know opens at 7am for all the tourists going up the Aguille du Midi to get a close look at Mont Blanc. A 1 minte stop to buy a fresh French loaf of bread, then along the L'Arve, gushing with water after last nights rains, to the tennis courts which we'd earmarked as the turn off to a path leading up the mountain to La Charlenon high and above the Tour de Mont Blanc path we want to pick up. It's a relentless up and the path joins a jeep track which is clearly heading up. That's the direction we want to go. UP. It's still a steep climb even on the track and there's a few 4xwheel drives and Heineken beer trucks going up and down - clearly to service the Cable car stations at the top so we'll stick to this graded track through the pine forests. And every now and then we see spectacular views of Mont Blanc across the valley.
After two and a half hours of climbing, we spy the troops of walkers doing the balcony section of the TMB above Chamonix. Time for a coffee break and cheese sandwich before joining the Queen Street hikers. We watch in awe as the hang gliders float past on the thermals rising from the Chamonix Valley. We watched one pair for 20 minutes float up and down - they clearly got good value for money. Another 30 minutes and we're at PlanPraz, at 1999 metres, our starting point for our TMB 9 years ago.
On and up to the Col de Brevant, a further 300 metre climb. There's a Spanish couple following and when we get to the Col, we wait a minute so they can take a photo. The Col de Brevant is the junction of the TMB and GR5 and we're taking the downward route, the GR5. We're surprised that the Spanish couple follow. About 30 minutes later, he catches us up and asks where the Telecabin is. I drag out my map. No telecabin on this side of the Brevant. They'll either have to walk 20 hrs down the valley to Gervais, or go back up the way they came to get the cable car from Plan Praz. I give them my map, just a one page photo copy, as by this stage we can actually see our Refuge Moede Anterne far across on the other side of the valley. We later see them climbing back up towards the Cold de Brevant.
Once over the Brevant, the landscape changes to very Moorish, heath covered mountains with no villages. The sun hasn't reached this side of the mountains yet, so we press on, watch the path, and waiting for the sun to come our way. It's 2pm, by the time we have lunch by a stream cascading down the mountains. Mace, fresh bread, brie cheese, tomatoes and mayonnaise, followed by a piece of chocolate.
The track follows a contour around the mountain side then down into a gully with a bridge across the L'Arleve. Then it's another 500 metre steady climb up through a squelchy muddy stony track, with the Refuge Moede Anterne, our home for the night, in full view a long way up ahead. It's in a spectacular position with a backdrop of hight barren mountains on one side and the grassy Col d'Anterne behind.
It's 5pm when we arrive and getting cool, but the bar is warm inside. We've paid extra to have a shower and extra for a room for 2, and the room for two really means room for 2 mattresses, nothing else. The shower is warm, but not hot, and is a press button style, so in between shampooing (with our own soap) and pressing the button, it's cold standing in a draughty shower in the nuddy. Our lunch bag just fits nicely outside on the window ledge 2 floors up, outside our bedroom. We thought we'd be the only ones in this refuge, stuck out on the moors, but there's a group of 20 day hikers plus Edward and Sue, an English couple who spend 5 months of the year in Chamonix and walk and ski.
Time for a beer before dinner, but the beer is luke warm. It would have been colder if they'd left it outside instead of in the heated room. We've been asked what we'd like for dinner - a choice of Polenta (mashed wheat), cheese fondu or spaghetti. Can I have a salad please? That's extra. No problem. At dinner, my salad arrives and I have to stop the other guests from thinking it's a shared dish. All 5 other people at the table then order a salad to go with their selection of melted cheese and stale bread. Desert is a small bowl of stewed apples. It wasn't a cheap refuge so we all thought the dinner was a bit skimpy.
We sit chatting to Edward and Sue when we're asked to move tables about 8pm - they're getting ready for breakfast which doesn't look inviting - cornflakes, stale bread and jam and even the hot water is prepared in 4 large thermoses - surely it won't stay boiling hot for another 12 hours! We're almost subtly asked to move on, so time to go upstairs to our two person room - yeh!! and crawl into our sleeping sheets under 2 doonas.