DAY 32: Tuesday July 3rd: La Flegere to Col de Forclaz: 23.5k 9hrs: No wind, misty early, patches of blue, sometimes cloudy, 10°C to 20°C
5.30am view from La Flegere
6am Aguile de Midi and Mont Blanc
Sunrise over Mont Blanc Massiff
7.30am - the mist descends again
9.30am - mist lifting
9.30am Mont Blanc out of the mist
A huge ibex appears from the mist
He watches us from above
Think I'll give the ladders a miss
Tete aux Vents 2132 metres
Down to Tres Le Champ
Chamonix Valley from Col de Balme
Col de Balme 2191 metres
Witches hut at the Col de Balme
Keep moving - the witch is out
Beaufort salamis die a slimy death
Down the Valley to Col de Forclaz
Through the pine forests
Overladen donkey - sacs from group
Just in time for Tour de France
We're back in the blue again. Mist to begin with, beautiful day to follow. A long 9hr day with 3 high points Tete aux Vents (2132 metres) and Col de Balme (2191 metres) and Col de Forclaz (1526 metres). A a total descent of 1800 metres - ouch! An eventful day when saw Mont Blanc (4807 metres) in all its glory poking through the mist, our 2 salami sausages that Ian had been carrying for 5 days died - orange and green slime is not a good colour for sausages, we met the witch of the Balme, and we raced down the mountain to see the last 30mins of the Tour de France.
Ian is up early and snaps a magnificent photo of the Mont Blanc Massif at 5.30am followed by a sunrise. We get to have a quickie shower before breakfast - a luxury in a refuge. Breakfast is really nice - they have gone to a lot of trouble to make sure the tea is hot - continually reboiling the jug, and the bread is hot - even if it has been zapped in the microwave. The fine day has become misty again and it's cold - about 5°C - when we leave.
On through the mist for several hours - can't see down in the valley or the Mont Blanc Massif. But all of a sudden at about 9.30am, the mist lifts, the clouds part and there is Mont Blanc and the Aguile de Midi (a mountain point 1,000 metres bellow Mont Blanc, though from our angle, it doesn't look it). Then the mist rolls in again. An ibex appears in the mist - he slow-trots ahead, knowing we are following, as if posing for photos. We continue to climb to the Tete aux Ventes at 2132 metres - it's grassy, low shrubs, boulders and a myriad of wildlife and we have a coffee. There's an ermine scurrying over a rock face in the distance - too quick to photograph.
A bit further on and we meet a junction in the paths - one leads down to the eschelles - the dreaded ladders - several series of them, all nearly vertical, hanging over a 300metre drop - we're gungho but not suicidal so decide to take a different route. in fact, a first for me - we decide to take a variant that is not part of the official TMB - take note G and J. We've been over the Possettes twice before and decide to go down into the Chamonix Valley then walk up 800 metres from the village of Le Tour to the Col de Balme, zig zagging under the cable car going up to the col. 12.00pm and time to boil the billy before we start trekking up.
It's a long haul to the top and at 1.30 we reach the Col and the witch's hut, where we get a stranger to take our photo with the hut in the background and then Ian actually takes a photo of the witch herself! There's a long story. The first time we went to the Col de Balme in 2005, it was miserably cold and damp and people were crowded outside the hut looking for shelter, including us. The hut actually sells drinks and snacks so the lady/witch who runs it doesn't like anyone in her space if they haven't bought anything from her. So here we are huddled against the cold, and she comes out with a broom - intending to sweep the area around the tables outside - but she waves it at us to move on. In 2009 with Graham and Jenny she's there again shooing people away. And everyone we ever spoke to after that, has a story about someone being shooed away. Hence the Witch of the Balme story grows. This time, she's outside again, presumably checking on intruders, so Ian quickly zaps a photo of her - for future reference.
It's 2.30pm and lunchtime, but we daren't sit within cooee of the hut so we mosy on down a bit. I'm really looking forward to our Beaufort dried salamis - Ian has been carrying them for 5 days but for the past few days, we've really not had time to eat much for lunch - it's been too wet, too late, too cold to have a decent sit down lunch so now's a good time to roll out the salamis, some tomatoes and stale bread. Ian hands me the bag with the salamis to slice onto our picnic plate - I open the bag, and one whiff and I feel sick, one look at the orange and green slime and I'm even sicker - they're off big time. Ian reminds me that for 5 whole days he's been carrying these salamis weighing 1kg, waiting for the right time to eat them, and now they're totally inedible - a starving Ethiopian. I need to bury them - I can't stand the thought of them being in anyone's back pack - so I dig a hole, cover them over and park a big rock on top. Lunch is 2 tomatoes and dried bread. All of a sudden we're not hungry.
It's about 3hrs to the Col de Forclaz where we're booked for the night - that makes it close to 6pm when we should get there but the Tour de France will be over by then. We decide to step up the pace - it's mostly down hill - and try to get there to see the finish. We haven't had much lunch, so our legs are not bogged down with carbs - we're off. Down the mountain at the rate of knots, zig zagging through rough rocks and open mountainside until we hit the pine forests and its a constant zig zag for the next hour at about 7kph, double our normal pace. The weather is now blue skies and beautiful so it's easy to make good time without having to stop start with rain gear on, rain gear off, rain gear on - like we have been for the last few days.
We hit the bottom of the valley at 4.10 - another 40 minutes up to he Col de Forclaz - no time to stop so we sprint up the hill and reach the Hotel de Forclaz at 4.30pm. But the girl at reception is a bit dithery. i ask about the Tour de France on TV, but she tells me (and I know from last time) that the only TV is in the private section where the staff have their time-breaks and dinner etc - but I stand firm until she lets us in. There's 23k to go in the TdeF, so we sit and have a beer while watching the last 40 minutes - it's a long 200k day ino Boulange sur Mer - not a great deal happening to the placings, but it's just exciting to be able to watch it in real live time instead of waiting up til 1.30am at home.
It's over, Peter Sagen from Liquigas wins the stage, Cadel avoids the crash. Time to go to our room, have a shower in the communal shower, but at least we have a room to ourselves with a basin, and do our washing. Dinner is at 7.30pm and the dining room is full of Americans on tour in a group. Hot soup, chicken and chips, and ice cream. They must have catered for the Americans, but who cares - it was really nice. We ordered a half bottle of red wine - there was no choice really - we were asked whether we wanted it strong or not - I presume that meant shiraz style of rose style - it was pretty ordinary. But when we got the bill it was 21 Euro for a half bottle - That's like $30 for a half bottle, $60 a full. The problem is that we're now in Switzerland and wines are 4 times the price in France.
Our washing that Ian hung on the line outside isn't dry - the air is now very cold, so we bring some of it up to the room and hang the rest in the drying room downstairs with the hotel heaters. Time to blog a little before bed. We're hoping for fine weather tomorrow to do a variante we haven't done before - the Fenetre d'Arpette.