2022 Tor des Geants Italy

Thursday 11th August:  Weather: 11°C to 27°C: Sunny hazy day

Chamonix:  12.5k walk: 6hrs with one 20 minute break: Started 7.30am finished 1.30pm

Ascent/Descent: Ascent 1,781m, Descent 764m, Total up and down 2,545m 

Accommodation: Chalet Chamonix

Highlight today was climbing 1,781 metres from Les Houches in the valley floor up to Le Brevant above Chamonix.  Compare that to climbing 120 metres up Billeau Rd at Mt Cotton! And the views across to Mont Blanc were stunning.  This is a stage of the Tour de Mont Blanc (TMB) and will be the 4th time we have done this section of the TMB having been here in 2005, 2009 and 2012.  The hike was a long but mostly gradual ascent of 1,781 metres from Les Houches at 990 metres in the valley floor to Le Brevent at 2,525m with. few ups and downs in-between. 

We’re both awake at 4.15am, an hour later than yesterday so tomorrow we should be almost back to normal and over any jet lag.  More packing and booking buses to go to Courmayeur on Monday.  After an early breakfast, we catch the 7.15 train from Chamonix to Les Houches, arriving at 7.30am.  The hiking trail starts just 50 metres from the station.  There’s several groups going our way.  The gradient is easy going to the Christ Row, a huge concrete statue of Jesus Christ overlooking the Chamonix Valley.  The trail passes the Merlot zoo, a huge area fenced off for animals we’ve never seen in the four times we have done this walk.  

The climb becomes steeper and it’s already getting hotter, our backs wet from sweating on the climb up.  After two and a half hours, it’s time for a coffee.  But there’s trouble with our jet boil with a flame spurting from the ignition.  Not good!  Not happy says Jan waiting for her coffee.  Ian screws the can down tighter on to the burner and it works.  Our jetboil has served us well for 14 years but it’s time to get a new one when get back to Chamonix from one of the many sports stores.  

After a 20 minute coffee break, the climb becomes steeper, but the views actross to Mont Blanc are stunning.  It’s rare to see Mont Blanc in all it’s glory.  Usually it’s buried in the clouds.  More climbing and we start to meet heaps of hikers coming down.  Hiking etiquette requires the down hikers to give way to the up hikers, but sometimes if we needed a breather, we’d be the ones stepping aside.  Le Brevant with it’s space like cable car mounted on top, comes into view.  

Thirty minutes later we are at the top of Le Brevant where we have been many times in the past two decades.  It’s crowded with holiday makers who have caught the cable car up from Chamonix and are wandering around in sleeveless tops and thongs - clearly not hikers.  There’s no spot for our picnic lunch so we walk down the steep track to Planpraz, the intermediate cable station, and still no picnic spot, so decide to go back to Chamonix in teh cable car and have lunch at the bottom.  We buy a return ticket with the intention of returning tomorrow to walk down a different route via La Flegere to Argentiere.  

It’s warm in Chamonix and we find a shady tree to have lunch- nuts, biscuits and a cup of tea.  Then a stroll back to our chalet to have a shower and wash our dusty clothes. Time to go buy a new Jet Boil.  Snell’s Sports store has been in Chamonix for yonks, and in 2005, we went there to buy our first Leki trekking poles, which we still have.  One of teh staff was extremely helpful and took one look at our old jet boil and raised his eyebrows.  Enough said.  ten minutes later we walked out with a spanking brand new Jet Boil.

After a quick stop at the Casino supermarket to buy a French baguette, it’s a short stroll back to our chalet to rescue our perfectly dry washing and enjoy dinner - same as last night - beer, mace, cheese, ham, tomato, onion, mayonnaise and a baguette with butter. There’s no traffic at this end of town as Chamonix is a car-free zone. Just the noise of some crazy guy nearby who sits on his roof blasting music. Bedtime and it’s still light.