September 1st, 2012 - La Sage - Cabane de Moiry

Day 6 on the Haute Route. Despite the titles, we were actually in Les Hauderes the past night, and needed to walk up to La Sage before we could start the hike of the day. 

Our route up from Les Hauderes up to col du Tsate, down to the base of Glacier de Moiry and up to the cabane

This would be one of the longer days including the most climbing, so we were looking for a way to skip out on the walk to La Sage. The bus didn't leave until around 9AM, and we wanted to get an earlier start than that, so after breakfast we tried our luck waving a car down. As we walked up the road, a few cars passed until finally one pulled over, right where the path was about to cut up and away from the road. As we got into the car we could see a party of 3 hiking up the trail above us - we'd get a jump on them, we though!

Nicole starting the walk up to La Sage that would end.... in a car :)

We zipped up to La Sage in the back of a Honda full of hay. Though we couldn't communicate very well, the woman was obviously a bit worried we'd find her car too dirty - obviously she hadn't gotten a wiff of us yet!

She let us out near the town center, and we consulted the guidebook for directions out of the town onto the track. We vaguely matched up the description of the town with what we saw, and decided that we must be going the right way. A single yellow sign that directed us towards a village further uphill seemed to indicate that we were on the right path. As we climbed, the way got less and less clear, paths diverged and shrank, and we soon found ourselves at the edge of some steep fields with small game trails going up into the woods. Didn't feel right... we saw a road a few hundred feet below us, so we decided we ought to get to the road and get reoriented. Cutting through farmers fields and people's backyards, we finally got down to the road, and we ran into the group of three we had seen from below while snagging our ride up the road. It was a group of three from Israel, and we teamed up with them for most of the climb up to the col. They were walking out from the ACTUAL town center, which we hadn't been to, so with our bearings now recalibrated, we headed out uphill.

As we wound our way higher, we passed a number of ski lifts and small cabins for rent. One even had some smoke out the stack as the occupants were warming up on the brisk morning.

Cabin and dents de veisivi behind

After two days of rain and snow, the grand views were spectacular

We passed a few small villages high up on the hillside, and eventually came to a junction where the trail meant to bring us straight up a loose gully directly up to the col. We opted to take the road cut up and around instead, especially since we had seen some hikers about an hour ahead of us navigate that way rather easily.

Nicole making her way up along the road cut

As we neared the Remonte du Tsate, we saw a large long building and heard the bells and noise of cattle inside. They surely heard us coming as well, and probably figured they were about to be fed, but alas we didn't offer up any powerbars. They were a noisy lot, though!


Cows below col du Tsate from Erik Turner on Vimeo.

Now we turned directly uphill and could see the col, or at least a notch we thought could be the col. Up to this point we were able to walk on wet trail and road, but had avoided the snow. Now we were following steps in the snow, which at its deepest only got to about ankle height. We began up and only a few minutes above the cattle came to a beautiful lake with a great view. It reminded us of the enchantment basin in the eastern cascades.

Beautiful lake and views of snowy peaks

As we climbed, the views off to our right got bigger and better. Glaciers and more distant peaks came into view. The skies stayed a dark blue with only innocent puffy white clouds there to provide context to the peaks thrusting up into the sky.

snowy peaks and glaciers

The last bit of scrambling up to the col was made fun by the inches of snow laid on top of the slick rocks. With careful balance and the aid of previous footsteps we scampered up to the col and met quite a scene. A group from Seattle was having lunch, so we chatted with them, naturally, but we were also witness to some fit looking guys running up to the pass with large packs on, which they quickly produced parachutes from. Paragliders! We learned there was a paragliding race on over the last few days - the racers were tasked with trying to visit as many huts as possible in 4 days. They had been cooped up for the last two due to bad weather, so they were out in full force on this bluebird day to chase down some points. We watched different paragliders for the rest of the day as they found thermals, rose up hundreds of feet, and proceeded to fly up and over cols above us.... it was intense!

We also broke for lunch at the col, enjoying the warm sunshine, amazing views and nutella. Anxious to move onward, we didn't stay long as we sought to finally catch a glimpse of the cabane and the nearby glacier. As we descended form the col we saw impossible switchbacks carved into the rock face on the other side of the valley.... that couldn't be the way up to the cabane... right?

Well we learned that the short climb at the end of the day up to the cabane would be a bit more than we bargained for! We needed to descend all the way to the terminal lake up the moraines on the other side and then up steep switchbacks to the cabane. Probably should have studied the map a bit closer, but we had plenty of time, so we took off down the rest of the descent.

Nicole after descending from the col du Tsate with the icefall coming into view behind

Terminal lake and Moiry icefall

From the terminal lake we climbed up through cattle fields into increasingly rocky terrain. One particular bull obviously liked standing on the trail directly above a bridge over a small creek. There was a well worn trail that went down from the bridge, skipped over the creek on a few rocks, and then back up the trail beyond where this bull was standing... suggesting that many folks had avoided skirting too close to this bull before! We followed the trail and gave him some space.

Nicole climbing higher up towards the cabane

The snow that we had left on the col du Tsate came back, and soon we were walking up through upwards of 6" of snow. There had been enough traffic up and down, however, that the trail was fairly evident, and our feet could stay dry. Hiking up to the cabane is a popular day trip, as there is a road up to the terminal lake.

clinging onto spring

racing paragliders

We trudged up the road through the cattle fields and eventually were on the switchbacks that we had spied from across the valley. We tried to keep count... seeking to hit the magical number of 16, which we had counted from the col. After about 17 or 18, we were looking forward to seeing the cabane, which was doing a very good job of hiding around the top of the slope above us. Finally I shouted down that there was a flag! And the flag was in a courtyard... next to the cabane! It had been a fairly long day on the trail, and we were happy to throw our packs down and relax in the most beautiful dining area ever created by man:

best dining room ever.

Unfortunately my knee had taken quite a beating on this day. The climbing hadn't bothered it while we were moving, but I could feel it tightening up rapidly. Plenty of advil and a few beers helped to relieve or ignore the pain, but I could tell the hiking wouldn't quite be the same for the rest of the trip. I stretched as much as I could and hoped for the best. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the views out the windows, settled into our room and charged up the camera batteries thanks to the extra adaptors our Seattle friends had brought.

Dinner was a carrot and beet heavy salad, lasagna and some sort of sherbet for dessert. The food was decent, but we mostly enjoyed chatting with the Seattle crew and continuously gawking out the windows at the icefall.

cloud formations above the glacier moiry

clouds lit up a bit at sunset

A very short window of colorful light at sunset

I continued to pump advil through the night, and we knocked off pretty early, having fairly tired legs. This was one of the best days of the hike, however, as we really felt like we were hiking away from civilization for much of it. The cabane was not overshadowed by ski lifts, we weren't looking down over a village - we were perched below a remote glacial icefall.