This story starts still a couple of 100 km away from Chamonix. After a long day at the Outdoor Fair in Friedrichshafen (more on this in another post) we were tired and had to sleep. Where would be stop. Could we just stop and sleep in the car. Somewhere in the middle of Switzerland I pulled over on a random parking lot.
How to do this. We have not slept in the new car before. We had tons of gear and we were tired. I crammed the tent and the sleeping bags into a corner. Then I dropped the rest of the back bank. Two mattresses and the XP top. 10 minutes later we were asleep. Tired and hyped. How would Chamonix turn out to be.
We woke up early in the morning. I noticed that a lot of cars had stopped over the night. It seems to be OK to sleep at stops in Swizerland. Good I thought. Then we made our way to the border. The more we went south the more signs were in French. Mountains were getting bigger and bigger. Good I thought. Soon we left the freeway on to a narrow steep mountain pass. Sings of the impeding tour the france showdown were everywhere. A good hour later we were already dropping to the Argenterie.
We were a little tired. But pumped to explore the area. Since I had a shitload of stuff to do at work and with little time for preparations I did not make anything but a rudimentary plan. It went kinda like this. I studied the route from Aguie de Midi up to Mont Blanc the Tacul and then over to the actual peak. I was counting on low temperatures and us being super fit. Since I had to be back at work on Monday, the window of opportunity was narrow to say the least.
Unrealistic was the real word. We learned that the wind at the top was exceeding 100 km/h and that it would stay windy like that for a few more days. So we buried that plan. Chamonix is great. There is so much terrain and so many things to do there. So we decided to do a scouting trip. With our new trail shoes and Jans turbo tempo, with me being pushed, we could cover a lot of terrain.
Fortunately I had a few contacts here as well 😛 I called Natalija, a good friend who`s husband Lori works as a guide to give us a few tips on alternatives.
the views of lec blanc
She directed us to the Lec Blanc, above the Argenterie. A 2 hour trail to the lakes with a beautiful view of the Mont Blanc masiv and the Mer de Glas. We were just passing the parking lot when I was on the phone. The tarmac was freshly paved for the upcoming Tour de France bike race. We got ready and started our ascend. We even found a nice spring at the beginning of the trail with a few interesting bouldering problems.
As we were gaining altitude trough the first steeps Jan was giving me a run for my money. First I thought that I might really be that exhausted. Would I be able to catch up. I did not even stop to enjoy the great view. Instead I upped my tempo.
At the beginning of the plateau I finally couth up. Then we continued among the many tourists of this frequented route. We were passing people from everywhere. Avid German hikers, English explorers, Japanese sightseers… in short. It was kinda crowded. But regardless we made good time. The view of the Mont Blanc form this side of the valley was awesome. With the perfect weather and the wind, we did not even notice the sun burning hot.
Soon we made it to the first lake. And then to the hut. It was bustling with tourist and it was even hard to find a sport on a stone to just chill out. We relaxed a little and tried to bring the local crows to come and eat out of our hand. The critters were smart and got our lure befor we got the shot. Undoubtedly used to this from the hoards of tourists.
Then it was time to descend. There was still some snow so we had some fun drifting down. I liked that my new Salomon Speedcross 3 CS outer Climate Shield shell worked well here. In fact the snow cleaned my dirty shoes so they shined like new. What I did not like and noticed was that the soul of the Contragrip was wearing down really fast on the granite stones here. Jan used the Vario version of the shoe and did not seem to have that problem. But his did get wet on the snow. Interesting. Did not think these shoes were so specialized for certain scenarios.
We made it back to the lake in no time passing by the crowds descending directly on the granite plates. It was really fun to run down like that. At the lake I did not of course let the opportunity slide to cool my feet in the crystal clear waters. It was really nice. Back at the parking lot we made it was time to eat. I let Jan play paparazzi with my mega lens extender for the big camera to do some nice macro pics. With my Aura cooker we made soup and soon went down towards the Argentine.
The evening before our extended trip long drive to Friedrichshafen I checked out a few camping sites where we could crash. I was quite surprised that it was so cheap. Particularly there is a nice smaller camping site at the Argentine that climbers like to stay at. We checked it and were surprised to pay only 18 bucks for tent, two people and car. The annemeties were also really nice and that was cool to.
Chamonix – the town
Settled my friend Natalija invited us for dinner at her place at Passy around 20 km out of Cham. But before heading there we did need to take a stroll true town. Jan wanted to find the store of Black Crows skis, one of his sponsors. We were told of a secret parking spot at a Carrefur next to the main road and close to the Mont Blanc Cable Car. It was a good tip. The whole area was pretty new and modern. With ticket prices of up to 60 bucks for a return ticket it was no surprise that they municipality could afford that :P.
The town itself felt a bit like St. Moriz to me. The difference here was that instead of the Guccis and Pradas it was the Norronas, North Faces and Quicksilver`s that were varying for you wallets attention. We cruised the town but could not find the black crows. We did not have internet nor a plan of the place so we just followed our noses. The streets were packed and it was clear that it was summer hike season.
After a few circles we ran over a good restaurant that we would return to on the next day. It looked like the spot for all us extreme idiots with good food like burgars and awesome stakes and good home brew beer A micro brewery with good food and nice staff. The Micro-Baresserie de Chamonix it was named.
Chamonix is an interesting town. It shows the duality of the mountain tourism industry in its full glow. On one side you have all the hotels and the flagship stores and at their edges you see the guiding companies, the small bars and little cool places hidden from the main roads. This is where the interesting people are. Trying to survive of the main wibe to do what they love. Even having that option I think we in the west can be very happy. We have social nets, family and other fallback to allow for such excesses in lifestyle extremes. Myself with a full time job am sa guilty here as anyone else.
After a few hours in Cham we headed to Passy. When we got out of the Autobahn we first saw a gain Quecuha store. I am told that that is also their HQ is also not far from here in Sallanches. As part of Dechatlon, the third biggest world retailer in sports goods and a well known Brand even before our first Dechatlon opened in Slovenia. As we were chilling time passed quickly and we were back at the tent after midnigt without a shower. Natalie also told us about a few nice climbing routes in the area.
Plan de l’Aiguille and Mer de Glace
As we woke up in the morning and turned to our left, there it was. The Mont Blanc. Today would have been a great day to start our two day ascend. Unfortunately even with all our gear with us there was an insurmountable hurdle. I had to be back at the office on the next Monday. For what is another debate but regardless even if we were to take advantage of the whole day we would have to drive back home on the expansive Italy route to make it in time trough the whole night. But that was still a few hours away.
First we wanted to get something done. As we did well with the trails the day before We were eager to scout more of the area for possible powder lines. That after all was the real goal of all this trailing around. We decided to take the Aguie de Midi cable car to the First middle section and go to the Mer de Glace from there. It used to be a huge Ice glacier but it has gotten a lot smaller now with the years.
The area is really an awsome playground. We were seeing lines everywhere. Can not wait to get back here in the winter. Should be quite a lot of fun. We will definitely do that. Even descending form the Aguie de Midi. with enough snow it should be doable. Winter dreams already materializing before our eyes.
We would hike and check the lines from the bottom. Take some pics and see the area. Instead of going straight thou we ran higher and higher and were soon at the snow line. Over tons of granit rocks we jumped and puffed until we could not go any higher without climbing. It was kinda funny. We had to descend then a long way until we finally reached the Mer de Glass Station. After 1000 more steps in a odd construction we finally made it into the icy cave.
True, these caves are nothing special to us anymore. After beeing and staying on glaciers for days at a time you kinda feel sorry for the ice that is made into these sculptures and hallways. It might be a toursit attraciton but it did not include any massage on climate or any other natural goal. All it was is a painstakingly and probably very expensive to maintain toursit attraction that people can tick of their list because Ice is fascinating. After seeing all that we descended, went to the Micro brevery for a burger and, since it was already late, we had to head back home.
Driving TROUGH the night
This was a first. I had not let anyone else drive my new car since I got it. But because we were exhausted, and would need to drive trough the night I gave Jan the wheel. We made it to the tunnel where an eager officer was checking a french macron guy suspiciously. After all the day before saw the terror attackt at Nice and it was still all up in the air. Right behind him Jan was having trouble with the gearbox 😛 Next to that and an Italian guy with a machine gun. Ah welcome to the new world.. lol
After passing that and the tunnel that cost you a wooing 44 buck, almost a full gas tank on my car, we were in Italy. We did not use any fuel for the next 40 or so km and Jan was getting a hang of the car. Nice i thought. Still I could not sleep. It was almost full moon. Two hours later we were starting to get drowsy. We stopped at one of the horrible Autogril stops around Milano to strech our legs and get some water. 4.5 buck for 0.75 l wtf.
Soon after I took over and hatched another idea. Stop at the seas side and throw ourselves into the water if we made good time at Lignano. Jan dozed off as he usually does.. not even noticing and soon it was only myself and the whole album of Ghoultown. Unfortinalty I was tired to so we needed to make to many stops to go swimming. We arrived in Ljubljana at 6 am. An hour later I was at work on an day that we could have made the peak of Mont Blanc. Of well some things have to stay for next time right.
Well next post we tackle the big one. We try to reach Mont Blanc peak. Dropping tommorow 😛