From our itinerary:
We cross the Col de la Seigne back to France, descend through la Ville des Glaciers to Les Chapieux.
Today we are heading for the Val Veny and the start of our walk at La Vissaille (1660m – 5450ft).
We’ll reach this by bus to then start climb gently along good paths beneath the massive glacier de Miage and pass Lac Combal before the gradient becomes steeper as we follow the old Roman road and head for today's pass: the 'Col de la Seigne' (2516m – 8250ft), which marks our re-entry into France. A fairly steep descent brings us through la Ville des Glaciers (1789m – 5870ft) and finally after quite a long walking day to Les Chapieux (1553m – 5090ft), a small remote hamlet inhabited only during the summer months. 8.5 hours walking time including breaks and lunch etc. 870m – 2840ft up, 970m – 3180ft down. I show we walked for 12.5 miles The weather is wonderful again.
Another lovely sunrise. After a good experience yesterday, I again took some of the breakfast meat for my sandwich which really hit the spot at lunch.
We began our hike from the bus stop along a paved road and crossed a very pretty river. As we started up the hill we encountered other groups and I started to pass people. This did a lot for my morale and I figured they might have been going a "normal" speed and I was in a group of over-achievers. The walk is an enjoyable and gentle increase in elevation with beautiful views and along a river. After our first stop we shortly joined the roman road and had a wonderful vista with several glaciers visible and a wonderful waterfall in the distance.
The road was no longer paved and started up the hill for a rest by a large pasture full of cows.
At this point we come across more people coming the other way - people coming down from the high pass. The temperature gets cooler and ideal for hiking. We stop about 2/3rds of the way up at a waypoint for a rest before hiking the rest of the way up the pass and our lunch. It is very windy and cool and we put on more layers. We prepared for our re-entry into France.
Today was a bit of a breakthrough hike for me. I finally was comfortable at a pace that allowed me time to observe the vistas while keeping up. Walking down I was in the lead and feeling great. Along the way I heard marmots, but could never spot them. We saw goats and a herd of sheep right next to the track.
They were complete with a sheepherder and sheep dogs which earned their keep by keeping the sheep away from the track.
We stopped about half way down for a rest and a drink. Coming into this stop is a memorial to finding a downed WW2 aircraft. After our stop, we continued to the hamlet of Les Chapieux and our hostel named Auberge de la Nova for the night. This hamlet is known for its cheese - unfortunately, there was no way to take any with us. Along the final portion of the hike Peter tells me more stories from his time In Russia.
This was our second worst night. We were on the second floor meaning lugging that stupid duffel up 3 floors, the last of which was a narrow, winding staircase. There were 4 rooms on this floor and we all shared a toilet/shower. Peter was in one of the rooms, but we didn't know the other inhabitants. The room itself had a single bed and bunk beds. There wasn't room to swing a cat and it was probably my worst night's sleep. That said, dinner was marvelous.
We had vegetable soup, something like beef bourguignon, local crusty bread, oven roasted potatoes, and fontina cheese made locally. Tim teases and looks a bit like a serial killer:)
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