DAY 23: Sunday June 24th - Refuge de la Leisse to Tignes le Lac:
Walk:15k, 5hrs: Blue skies, 0°C to 21°
Accommodation: Hotel d’Aigle Tignes le Lac
Edelweiss right outside our door
Cold start from Refuge de la Leisse
Frozen lakes - to Col de la Leisse
Frozen Lake - unbelievable beauty
Frozen wilderness near Col
You can't imagine the beauty
More icy wonderland
And more
Can't stop including all our photos
On way to top of Col de La Leisse
Gondoliers in sky - dots are skiers
Vanoise Park - Such beauty
It's hard traversing the snow
Cold de la Leisse ((2758m)
And we're there at the Col
Looking back at the Col
Tignes le Lac is a Ghost town in summer - and notice no cap
Tignes le Lac
Are we allowed to have another magical day???? I can't describe the beauty of being in the Vanoise Park amidst this icy wonderland almost alone except for a few through walkers. Today we cross the very high Col de La Leisse (2758metres) - not a difficult climb starting from a height of 2500metres at the Refuge de La Leisse, but there's about 3 to 4 kilometres of snow drifts to cross on the way up and down. My day was spoiled when we arrived at Val Claret just before Tignes Le Lac and realised my cap is missing - my favourite Body 4u cap loaned to me by Bonnie's. Nothing upsets me on this trip - falling in waist deep snow, getting lost, 10hrs of walking in a day, no showers, no loos, but losing my cap was very upsetting!
We started the morning at 6am when the first person was up. Packed and ready to go, we have a very early breakfast of cake and hot tea - yuk! There’s Edelweiss growing right outside our dormitory – a must for a photo. We leave the refuge at 7.30am and soon stop for a rock stop - neither of us could go to that loo first thing in the morning. We walk around the edge of an icy blue lake then through a frozen wilderness to the start of hundreds of metres of snow drifts. For the next 2 hours, it's an icy wonderland. We stop to take a myriad of photos. It's just another one of those blue sky picture perfect days. We reach the Col de La Leisse (2759metres) in 2 hours. It was slippery but not difficult - just 50 metres lower than the Col de Chaviere from 2 days before which was a much more difficult and a steeper climb.
We move through the snow drifts following yesterday's footsteps of other walkers - and high up above us we see skiers sliding down the hill 500 metres above us. They have come up by gondala from Val Claret to ski the glacier, La Grand Motte, which they can do all year round. In another 30minutes we descend below the snow line and walk down a gradual descent to Val Claret - a high rise ski resort that is a ghost town in summer. We get to the tourist office just before it closes, to find a hotel. The girl suggested the Hotel d'Aigle about 1k around the lake at Tignes le Lac. I soon realise I’m missing my favourite cap and after one hour of retracing our steps with no luck, we walk around the lake and sit and have lunch on a bench seat with other picnickers.
At the Hotel d'Aigle, we’re soon in our room having a shower and washing our clothes in the basin with shampoo then stringing it on a line Ian has tied across our balcony which will be in the sun until at least 9pm so it should dry. I'm still thinking about that cap. So…At 4pm, we re-don our walking gear minus pack and retrace our steps - I'm not leaving until I find it. We go to the tourist office, the boulangerie where we bought bread, then my last big rock stop - no hat. That's 3k and it took an hour. We walk back, and knock on the door of the boulangerie (which is closed but we can see someone inside) - no she hasn't seen the cap. Walking on down the road, head down, looking sideways - and there it is - sitting on a garden ledge. I must have dropped it juggling baguettes and quiche and someone's picked it up and put it on the step. I'm overjoyed. This makes my day.
We walk back around the lake, check out the Spar grocery store to see what time it opens in the morning - 7am - then back to the hotel to do FaceTime with Donna who has cut her ankle on the bike chain - nasty. Then time to type diary and sip a really nice red while Ian has his usual beer. Dinner is at 8pm - there seems to be an Italian connection. Everyone is speaking Italian, including the manager, and we’re served pasta - very nice if you only eat 1/4 of the mound. Then a thin slice of pork and 2 slices of carrots – we haven't seen greens for days, followed by a cream and berry compote. Wine is ordinary, compared to earlier - might have been the exhilaration of finding the cap that made it taste nice.
We finish dinner and Ian gets the manager to phone ahead to the next refuge Chalet de Rosuel. Just a few more days and we’ll start the Tour de Mont Blanc. And of course the Tour de France starts at the same time , so we have to make sure we finish each day at 3pm to see the last 2hrs of the TDF. Bed time
Very happy Jan - cap found