Miles walked: 16.64
Steps: 41,313
Ascent: 1,420 meters (4658 feet)
Descent: 950 meters
We woke up on Sunday, day two to a very overcast and low cloud cover in the valley. We had stayed in Contamines, France and a lovely little hotel. It wasn't fancy but it was clean and the food was fabulous. The amount of food given at dinner was more than I could ever possibly ear in one sitting, even after hiking all day. And it was all local and fresh. We tried to get an early start and were off by 8:30. The hotel packed is amazing ham and cheese sandwiches on French baguette. The walk was initially very flat along the river up to the Notre Dame Gorge. We strolled along past a nordic track center and a play area for kids that consisted of a ropes course and slacklines. Once we reached the church, the path proceeded steeply up an old Roman road. You could see the walls and old stone work in the road. Glade and I chatted about what they must have been doing here and who built this road and who was the guy who came over the Alps with elephants, oh ya, Hannibal. The things you talk about when hiking. We walked along the gorge for a while, peeking over the edge every once in a while to see rushing water, carving our smooth stone into the perfect path. We crossed an old bridge built by the Romans and fortified in the 1400s. I have never seen the amount of water that I have seen during this trip. It's everywhere, in waterfalls and streams, coming out of the sky and out of glaciers. Rushing down rivers, roads and paths. Making its way, however possible down to the valley. It's cold and fresh, clear and in some parts milky with minerals. It's seems there is enough water here to take care of the entire worlds needs.
After crossing the bridge we proceeded past some refuges and continued up. the cloud cover continued to be low and we were often walking through the mist. You would hear the music of the cow bells in the fields around you but barely be able to make out the image of the cow. It was strange and beautiful. When we first hit the snow, we came upon a group of about 5-8 people starting to cross the snow, we stayed with this group for the remainder of the climb up to the Col du Bonhomme. The visibility was very poor and everything was a white out for hours. We were just following other tracks in the snow to keep to the route. It was scary but there weren't any steep drop off and it didn't feel especially dangerous. It was just a steady long climb. One of the men leading us, Ard from Amsterdam, was wearing cut off shorts is a large man, 6'3" with giant feet and legs like tree trunks. One of the other guys following us pointed out that his size 16 boots made the best steps in the snow (although his stride was a bit of a stretch for some of us). I wrote a poem about him:
I followed a man with legs like tree trunks into the nothingness.
Time and space had stopped and all I could see were legs. Legs with roots pulling strong into the earth.
The nothingness enveloped me. It enveloped us. All of us. The scared boys, the strong men, the following girls.
But he led on, through the snow, the gray, the nothingness....
By the time we reached the Col, the wind had picked up and it was snowing. There was a small hut at the top and we all jammed in trying to adjust our clothing and grab a quick snack. By this point my phone has died due to the cold. We then proceeded over a ridge and on to another pass, Col du la Croix. At this point we could have proceeded onto Col du Fours and over the mountain to drop down into the refuge we were staying the path was covered in snow and everyone we talked to said it was unsafe in the low visibility so we proceeded the long way, down and around. We came upon Refuge Bonhomme next. This was a true Nordic refuge, with no access by road. We stopped and got out of the snow and wind and dried some of our gear. The refuge was warm and cozy with a wood fire, lots of clothes hanging space and a bucket of crocs to keep the floors dry and clean from dirty boots. We had a lovely vegetable soup and a beer before proceeding down.
The beginning of the stretch down was still covered in snow so we were able to get on our bums and slide down. Once the snow cleared up it was a muddy trudge down the mountain into the little village of Chapieux. At this point we were exhausted but still had a 4.5k hike back up another valley to our refuge. It was the longest 4.5 miles ever! We truged and complained and kept reminding ourselves how strong we were and how strong we were getting. Right before the refuge we came upon a mobile milking station and a boy chasing individual cows through the field to get them in to be milked. Then a herd of 200+ sheep with their bells clanging and a shepherd and his dog moving them from high pastures down to the low fields for the night. Above them were a herd of ibex with their long curved horns. They were incredible. We finally reached the refuge just in time for the communial dinner. We were fed soup and stewed beef and rice and vegetables and cheese from cheery French girls with rosy cheeks. It was a fabulous end to a long day!
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