August 31st, 2012 - Haute Route - Arolla - La Sage

Day 5 on the Haute Route. We woke to steady snow in Arolla. Another 2-3" of snow had fallen, so we mellowed out our plans to an easy day and a bus ride.

Bus ride down the valley

A bus brought us from Arolla promptly down to Les Hauderes, where we wandered about the village comparing rates for accommodations and staying hydrated.

Nicole sampling the town's water. This same town also had a creperie where we were charged for tap water. We could see one of these fountains from our table.... hmmm

Lots of beautiful old buildings in town

Les Hauderes buildings had lots of character

Haven't found a room for less than 120chf.... keep walking

Ahhh picnique :) You guessed it - bread and cheese.

After finally finding the Hotel des Alpes, and scoring what we believe to be the only room in town for under 100 chf, we played some cards and relaxed. We enjoyed a crepe and met up with some Irish friends who were getting turned off by the weather and decided to fly back home. Easier decision for them, as their flight is 1.5 hours long! We seriously considered a train to Nice, or a visit to Italy, but we're not quite adventurous enough to just take off without a plan. Plus, the weather was supposed to clear, and who wouldn't want to get back into the alpine to see the mountains in a fresh coat of snow!

An easy stroll around town on my somewhat tweaking knee (more on this later...) yielded some breathtaking scenery above town. We wound down and hit the hay early, knowing the next day was fairly long and featured lots of elevation gain that wasn't easily cut off by bus or train.

Pointe de Bricola above Les Hauderes

Dents de Veisivi above Les Hauderes

sunset backlight

August 30, 2012 Haute Route: Prafleuri - Arolla

Day 4 of our Haute Route. Probably day 6 or 7 by the guidebook.

Route up and over col de Roux, descent down to Lac de Dix, climb up to Col de Riedmatten, and final descent to Arolla.

Having arrived through a wet and soggy day yesterday, we were excited to find dry clothes downstairs and the prospect of walking in good weather. We found dry clothes downstairs (sortof) and it wasn't currently precipitating when we woke up, so we were all pretty excited. Choking down breakfast, we kept our eyes on the clouds, which had deposited about an inch of snow overnight, but were at the moment looking fairly innocent.

Cabane Prafleuri as we climbed up in the morning

Some of the groups traveling together split up today, as some folks made their way directly over towards the damn at the outlet of the lake and took the bus around instead of hiking the passes in snowy conditions. Due to that, everyone regrouped a bit and we teamed up with Melanie and Sven - friends we had met at Mont Fort. Stepping outside, everyone stopped and put on another layer... it was chilly! Even though we were walking uphill for the first 30 minutes, I kept the warm layers on and enjoyed the steady climb up the col de Roux. For the first and only time in the trip we beat the in-form Uli Steck time they use on the signposts. We had a celebratory high five at the top, enjoyed a little bit of a view towards Lac des Dix, and started our speedy descent down to the lake, hopeful that the ibex that often graze on the slopes would show themselves.

View of Lac de dix from col de Roux. Our path followed the near shoreline of the lake

And the ibex certainly showed themselves! A whole herd of them appeared on our left and a bit downhill from us. Perhaps 30-40 of them. Having only my 17-50 lens, they were a bit too far away for decent photos, however as we descended further a number of them were closer to the trail and I was able to frame some of them against the mountainous background. Sven kept a lookout for other likely close by ibex, and together we stalked them seeking the elusive good view that did not encourage a charge in return. They actually didn't even seem to notice us, and continued grazing lazily.

A heavy crop of an ibex image.

We continued to head down from the col into generally cloudy conditions, with views peaking out every once in a while. Rocky ridges would reveal themselves for a moment before being swallowed back up into the foggy clouds that kept descending down from the glaciated terrain on our right.

Trail and views high above Lac de Dix

The mountains at the inlet of the lake reveal themselves, momentarily.

As we descending lower down to the lake the snow began to pick up. It was never a winter storm with blowing winds, but the snow was dropping steadily enough for us to think hard about whether we wanted to climb up and over a col later that afternoon. A long easy stroll along the lake was pleasant enough, but we were all hoping the conditions once we got off this large trail (basically a road) would prove good enough to allow us to continue.

Snow from Erik Turner on Vimeo.

Snow began accumulating as we walked along the lake.

After climbing a short ways up from the lake and seeing the snow cover on the rocks, Melanie decided she ought to flip it around and get back to the bus at the head of the dam. Our plan was to try climbing the passes, but we could always bail to the cabane nearby (Cabane de dix) but Melanie had friends waiting in Arolla, and the sure way to get there was the bus on the other side of the lake. Sven, Nicole and I pushed on, with Sven usually taking off and blazing trail and waiting up for us every once in a while. We saw him a little ways ahead, past the junction that lead up to the col de Ridmatten. Confused... we waited a few minutes and watched as he led a fairly big group across the non technical glacier crossing over towards the cabane. Figuring he just wanted a hot beverage, we pushed on up the col. Found out later he was actually a bit turned around and accidentally went there and had the spend the night!

We began our climb up the col, thankfully following footsteps for the whole way. For much of the ascent the footsteps seemed able to follow a somewhat level trail that wound its way around the boulders and up towards the col. 

Erik climbing up the col de Ridmatten

Eventually at the very top we could see the chains that marked the final scramble, but the first set of chains was difficult to get to due to some ice on the rocks in front of us. We climbed directly up for a few sketchy moves and grabbed the second set of chains, and from there on climbed up to the col quickly and easily.... phew! We had learned earlier that the other side of the col was an easy grassy trail - not the rocky mess that we had just climbed, so we figured all technical difficulties for the day were now behind us.

Looking down at the col de Ridmatten - the chains were nice to have at the top!

Indeed we did descend on a great trail, wandering down through the clouds and light breeze. Now on the downhill we caught more of a chill, and took a break behind some rocks to throw down some food and layer up. We kept dropping through the snow and clouds, eventually coming to roads, ski lifts and the edges of farmland.

Nicole descending into the fog

Breaking out under the clouds!

Eventually we found ourselves on a nature walk for some hotel on the outskirts of Arolla. After looking at the map, we realized the hotel was the Kraushaus - the place we had heard about and were aiming for anyway! We followed the numbered markers along and in no time were dropping off our stuff in our room and warming up by the blazing fire.

Nicole spreading out our gear in the room to dry

August 29, 2012 - Haute Route: Cab du Mont Fort - Cabane Prafleuri

Route for day 3 - Our first cabane to cabane day: Mont Fort --> Cabane Prafleuri

Our weather luck held for two days of beautiful sunshine and warm pleasant weather. Just in time for heading up into the high alpine territory the poor weather descended upon us. As we left Cab du Mont Fort, the clouds were low and threatening, but for the moment, held their rain.

Cab du Mont Fort

The route for the day deviated from the preferred route through col Termin, a lower elevation pass, due to rockfall and a landslide. Because of its orientation, col Termin would have boasted even better views than those possible along the alternate path, but that hardly would have mattered, as it turned out. As we climbed up towards Col de la Chaux, we flirted with the remnants of the glacier. Despite trying to stay high on a moraine, the path was still forced to dive down and even the most careful of steps found traces of glacial ice under pebbles and glacial flour. Stepping on ice is OK if you know you are stepping on ice. What is difficult is stepping on what you think is just a pile of pebbles, only to find that your foot has already wiped out because the ball bearings slid away revealing bare blue glacial ice.

The path was well marked, as usual.

Moraines and incoming weather

Just as we were getting onto the hairy icy portions of the climb, the sky slowly opened up and gusts of wind sent chills through our light wool layers. Rain shells donned, we pushed further uphill, carefully, making sure each step was secured by rocks frozen into the matrix of the glacier. As the rain intensified, we topped out on the Col de la Chaux where we put on the rest of our rain gear - we were now fully encased in poorly ventilated polymers that helped shed the water, but encouraged unpleasant "internal humidity".

Nicole leading the way to Col Louvie.

The rain settled to a light, steady patter, and we slowly descended down into a steep valley and eventually gained a small ridge (old lateral moraine) off to our right. Above the teal blue lake shown above, we paused briefly and had lunch - fueling up for the next few hours and two additional passes that needed to be climbed.

Mist in the valley

As we arrived at the base of the next climb up Col de Louvie, the weather cleared momentarily, and nearby ridges came into view. Climbing higher, we hoped for broader views, but as we approached the col, the next valley was socked in thickly, not surprisingly as it contained a large lake and massive glacier - plenty of moisture ready to saturate the air. The rest of the climb up to Louvie went smoothly, and we dropped down quickly to the basin below the Grand Desert glacier and its outlet lake. We crossed the lake along a shallow finger where carefully sited stepping stones had been placed. A long gradual climb led to a fun and adventurous high plateau which included lots of slab variations, and even a finger crack here and there!

Nicole making her way to the base of Col de Prafleuri

We rounded a corner and below us lay a basin with three small lakes. A careful descent gained the basin, and on the other side, the last climb of the day awaited - up to the Col de Prafleuri. The weather had started to worsen again and we were looking forward to getting the last climb over with. It started off with a bit of a boulder scramble, but careful route finding likely would have yielded a more throughly tracked tred nearby. Regardless, we climbed towards painted waymarks visible halfway up the col, and from there bounded up the last bit of uphill trail for the day (or so we thought).

Nicole enjoying the weather at Col de Prafleuri. You could see the beginnings of massive glaciers behind us... :(

A long, twisty, grassy and often muddy descent brought us down to a large ledge which was basically made up of highly compacted, and sopping wet, glacial flour and small pebbles. If you were careful, it was possible to sink up to your ankles in the muck - good thing this matrix of rock and sand wasn't covering any crevasses.... would have given right away.

As we crossed the plateau, we realized we had even further to drop through more grassy fields and increasing signs of industry.... turns out the next cabane was located directly at a mine site - sweet! Don't drink the water, for fear of the heavy metals... but no worries, you can buy some for 8 chf.

The real kicker, however, was the fact that the fog had really descended upon us, and the poorly signed path seemed to be taking us uphill again. A quick consult with the map brought realizations that I still hadn't quite gotten the hang of translating the swiss topo graphics into reality. They are beautiful maps which are wonderful to look at, but they lack the detail of the USGS 40k series. Makes sense, I guess... we developed lots of our good maps to best deprive the earth of minerals and other resources. By the time those type of detailed maps were being made, people had already explored everything in the Alps, and knew where any resources already were. Thanks for the maps, Halliburton.

As we climbed up into the fog the cabane finally revealed itself... which was funny because it was only about 10' in front of us. Good thing we weren't walking too fast. A quick hustle inside and we found our room and began the long process of drying out, which to be fair, didn't really end for another day or so. We chatted with our friends who had made it through the rain- some arriving just in front of us, and the Aussies arriving quite a ways after - I think they missed the rain and really wanted to soak it all in. The night was filled with card playing, route planning, beta gathering from a German guide, and some dinner... deep fried veggie burgers, yum.

Cabane de Praleuri. Nice folks here, but what a shit-hole. Cold shower, cramped rooms. A must-skip.

The next day called for precipitation, but not in the form of rain. And it was supposed to be significantly colder - any guesses?

August 28, 2012 - Haute Route: Champex - Cab du Mont Fort

Day two of the Haute Route.

Our general strategy for tackling the walker's Haute Route in 10 days was to skip out on stages that  simply paralleled a road walking down a valley. There are numerous stages that fell into this category. I'm sure they're beautiful hikes for the most part, but we had a short time frame in country, and were there to see the grand views above treeline. Really this trip was just one big beta gathering expedition, and from what we've learned so far, we should have just gone to Chamonix and climbed everyday :)

Our route for day 2. Champex -> Le Chable was a stage on its own, but it just walked down the valley to Sembrancher, so we skipped it.

We boarded the post bus from Champex-post (ie the post station in Champex - center of town). It seemed that every morning the first bus was 0825, and so it was on this day. The post bus driver again amazed us with his amazing ability to navigate sheer switchbacks with a full coach style bus, while avoiding the infrequent cow or compact car on the road. The bus took us down the switchbacks to Orsieres where we waited for a train to Le Chable via Sembrancher. While switching trains in Sembrancher we gazed up at the NE ridge of Le Catogne:

Climb right from the train station

Check out that ridgeline! How sweet would that be to walk from the train station and run up that guy! The ridge stepeens out of the trees at around 750m, and the top of the rocky portion of the ridge is at about 1150m - 400 meters of vertical! And then there is the steep shadowed face... oh Osieres, we'll be back (maybe-probably not, see comments above regarding Chamonix).

Our second train brought us to the foot of the Verbier ski madness. I can't imagine what that place must look like in the winter. There were houses way up on the hill where I figure they must get totally covered in snow. Many of the houses had full wooden shutters for when they get snowbound. Not wanting to miss out on another mode of mass transport for the day, we bought a ticket for the lifts instead of walking the 1000+ meters up to the Cabane. We figured walking uphill under ski lifts was similar to walking downhill along valley roads, and we also mentally used the "honeymoon" excuse as we bought our tickets. We found out from friends later that the hike was actually rather enjoyable, oh well - we'll be back Verbier! (probably not - see comments above regarding Chamonix).

At the top of the lift we figured we had really pushed ourselves too hard up to that point and decided a pique-nique was in order (that is, we wanted to eat a lunch of bread and cheese followed by chocolate). We laid out on the side of the road in the alpine sunshine and ate our lunch as we watched paragliders sprint downhill before jumping into the air... pretty cool. The walk over to the cabane was fairly straightforward, and we arrived after about 1.5 hours from the lift.

pique-nique atop Verbier with paragliders readying for the takeoff

Scenery wasn't too bad for a hike...

Cab du Mont Fort

A horrible picture of the Grand Combin. This one we would come back to climb, joking about Chamonix aside.

Cabane du Mont Fort was the first cabin on our trek, and it is owned by the Suisse Alpine Club. They generally do things well - keep the cabane clean, and in good working order. Mont Fort was no exception, but the location left a bit to be desired against my imagination of an alpine cabin. It was smack dab in the middle of the Verbier ski area - there were lifts going right by the cabane. Would have been amazing in the winter, but I was hoping for a bit more of a remote feeling.... though this is the Alps! Can't complain... we took a bus, train and ski lift on our hike today....

beautiful fields all around our hike above Verbier

Nicole posed for a picture in the flowers. Not sure what these foundations were for. Check the elephant in the background....

We relaxed out on the patio and took in the views of the Aiguille d'Argentiere peaks off to the southwest. We learned that the main route for the next day's hike was closed, so we'd have to climb up a slightly more exposed and rocky col instead, in likely deteriorating weather, yay! We ganged up with a few other teams of trekkers in our planning, though, and by the next morning we were not a bunch of random folks on the trail, but the "Aussies" leading the way with the GPS (not really needed though) and the London crew + suisse / canadaian to help us read the french on the signposts (not really needed, as the signposts just said the name of the town :)

Aiguille d'Argentiere and nearby peaks. This was the money view from the cabane patio...

Just as dinner was being served the weather started to come in. The rain clouds gave plenty of warning as they swept up the valley and slowly enveloped the cabane. The rain didn't last too long, however, and soon after a strong rainbow formed directly over the Col de la chaux, our first climb on tap in the morning!

virga, which quickly became rain, and enveloped our cabane

rainbow over the col de la Chaux (center right)

already framed, had to take it!

After enjoying some ridiculously rich macaroni and cheese, we chatted with new friends in the dining room and eventually went up to our room and fell asleep to the sounds of cowbells and light rainfall. We were all hoping it would blow over by the next day. And yeah, seriously... the cowbells were loud. I have video evidence from a few days later when we found their secret hideout.

Well marked.

August 27, 2012 - Haute Route Forclaz - Champex

Day one of the Haute Route.

Nicole and I celebrated getting hitched by flying to Switzerland and hiking around from town to cabin to town. Being a bit short on vacation time, we shortened the traditional walker's Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt by cutting out days along the way and starting on day 3.

We flew into Geneva and took the train to Martigny. This was a trip of firsts for us... first time to Europe (together), first international flight (for Erik) and first time we had the pleasure of sticking a 100CHF bill into a vending machine and crossing our fingers it wouldn't be eaten. It didn't, though, and we purchased our train ticket and ran to our train just in time.

window in Martigny. We'd hike to the fenetre the next day, which was considerably higher.

Rain leader in Martigny. Does anyone weld rain leaders in the states?

We took our first day lazily adjusting to the time zone and accidentally ordering octopus on our salad, oops! Many lessons were learned this day, including the fact that the suffix "croix" evidently means "slightly uphill and you should walk - only lazy Americans would take the bus". We took the bus from Martigny to Martigny-Croix. We thought it was the deal of the century... everything had been fairly expensive so far, so the 2chf bus ride seemed very cheap, until we got to our stop approximately three stops and five minutes later.

Accommodations in Martigny-Croix was a great little B&B tucked into apartment buildings. We strolled along the vineyards near the town's edge and I got some ice for Nicole's ankle, which had gotten a minor tweak from taking a big step out the barn during the wedding (it was not our first step together, so we can still say we started off on the right foot). Her ankle would be fine for hiking, thankfully, but it wouldn't be the last body part we iced on the trip, unfortunately.

Breakfast was delicious. 

Day one : Col de la Forclaz > Champex via Fenetre d'Arpette

We grabbed a bus the next day from Martigny-Croix up to La col do Forclaz, where we joined the Haute Route. The bus timetable was still a bit perplexing for our high school french, but thankfully the bus showed up just as we were considering starting to stick our thumbs out. We were concerned, though, that the bus might drop us off at a retirement home, as most of the day hikers on the bus appeared to be over 60. At the next stop other day hikers who evidently knew the entire bus got on to raucous applause and high fives. They greeted us in the same manner, though, so maybe they didn't know anyone. Greetings friendly german pensioners! After an appropriate amount of time had passed, our bus pulled up to the col and we were off to our first task : find the trailhead. After several minutes of reading yellow signs searching for anything about Champex, we realized the trail was around the corner... evidently all the day hikers were going to do some other hike. We started the Haute Route... alone. It was odd to leave the crowds as we started a very popular trek... I figured we'd be in crowds the whole time.

From the col we slowly walked uphill along a bisse (man-made irrigation water way). The trail was gentle, which was good as we were only slowly adjusting to the weight in our packs. It wasn't that they were heavy, but we knew we had 12 days of hiking ahead of us... my crummy lightweight boots felt heavy at that thought. About an hour in we came to our first small cabin - more of a drink stand really. We purchased some overpriced apple juice and a homemade fruit bar and then started the climb up to the fenetre.



First views of glacier du Trient

The col we were climbing to was called Fenetre d'Arpette (window into the Arpette - the valley we would drop into). Magnificent views of the Glacier du Trient on our right were rivaled by craggy peaks behind and the gorgeous grassy slopes up to our left. Infinite moderate ski terrain exists above Trient, it should be noted.

Lots of exposed ice here - fast retreating glacier...

As we closed in on the fenetre, the track steepened and became more rocky. We took our time pushing our heavy packs and tired jet lagged bodies uphill. At the col we took a break and befriended some english blokes (I'm not sure if bloke is offensive, but its fun to say, isn't it?) One of them had worked in Zermatt for several years and recommended several restaurants to try out.


Erik tagging the sub-peak of upper Fenetre d'Arpette. Clerestory d'Arpette? Relite d'Arpette? Need to stop working with so many architects...

Trekking poles were extended and we dove down the other side of the fenetre into the Val d'Arpette, which means Arpette valley. We saw lots of Arpettes along the way.



Flowers on the walk down the Val d'Arpette

The trail was generally in great shape and easy to follow, until we lost it and found ourselves following what appeared to be about 2-3 sets of bootprints through knee high grass. This can't be the trail that the hordes use when they do the Haute Route, can it? It wasn't, but it didn't matter much as the valley narrows at the bottom, there was no Cascade schwacking necessary, and we could see a large clearing with a cabane that the trail passed by a mile or so downhill. The rest of the downhill trudge was uneventful, but we did have our first cattle sighting. They didn't seem to notice hikers walking by, which was good as they outweighed us considerably (though I did eat lots of Nutella for breakfast that morning).

first cow sighting

The town of Champex appeared to be fairly dead, as the high season around these parts is mostly winter, and earlier in the summer when more people are hiking. We shopped around for accommodations and eventually choose the creepiest place for a moderate sum of an arm and a leg. We succeeded in not eating seafood accidentally, considered the day a win, and went to bed.