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?