Laurie and I carried our bags to our room which is a four room dorm. We met one roommate, Amanda. She is from England and has been here for three months. She plans on staying through the winter and work at the gite and ski in her free time.
The other roommate, we haven't met is from the U.S.
Laurie and I went doen to the dining area and made lunch. I was still cold so I had some hot chocolate to warm me up. After lunch I went to the room to read and then nap. Boy, I must be getting lazy.
I got up about 4:30 and Laurie and I went for a walk up the street to see what was around. I bought a nice cold coke and pastry. The woman was giving me the wrong pastry and when I corrected her she said she was giving me two for nothing. It made me feel bad for saying something. I thanked her.
Laurie and I went back to the gite and sat in the dining room. That is where I am now. We will be cooking pasta tonight for dinner.
September 1, 2003
Today is Labor Day back home where they have a day off from work and have picnics and fun. Laurie and I worked our legs off.
After a quick breakfast of cereal and hot chocolate, we started walking about 8:30. The weather report said it was suppose to be clearing. It did look promising.
The first hour and a half took us to Le Tour. It was a small ski village. There were a few ski lifts there. I read that you could take the ski lift up to where we were going, but they didn't look like they were operating. So we had to climb up. The reference book that we were using has been good for directions, but I totally disagree with his descriptions of the uphill. He said that the trail "climbs easily up". The next stage he said we would gain "height without undue effort". I admit I am a little out of hiking shape, but the climb was still 2600 feet and I certainly used a lot of effort to get to the top. The cloud cover was low and we had very few views. I had shorts and short sleeve shirt on. The sweat was pouring off of me and I felt quite chilled. I looked at my thermometer and it was only 43 out. No wonder I was feeling cold. I knew these conditions were good for hypothermia, so I was being careful.
The top was at Col de Balme and there was a refuge there. A refuge is a place where you can spend the night. They also serve food there. Laurie and I had hot chocolate there to try to warm up. The top is also where we cross from France into Switzerland.
When we walked out of the refuge we could see the villages below. The sun looked like it was shining down there. That is where we were headed. I wore my fleece, raincoat to break the wind, glove liners, and a hat. I felt toasty once I got going. I guess I should be grateful. I read some people's story of their hike at the same time of year and they had snow.
The down was steep and had lots of switch backs. My feet had lost all of their calluses from hiking and I could feel every step on every inch of my feet.
On the way down I said "Bonjour" to a man. He didn't respond. I saw the woman behind him. She had an EMS plastic bag covering her back. I said "oh, you aren't French, you must be from the states". I asked where they were from and they said Massachusetts. I told them that I was also. They next told me they lived in Springfield, which I responded that I lived in Springfield. They lived in the next town over in Longmeadow. They told me what street they lived on and I told them a friend of mine lived on the same street. They knew who my friend was, so I told them that if they see Suzie to let her know I said hello.
We walked into Trient which was a very small village, unless I was missing something. We checked into a dortoir, which is a place that has dormotories. Our room has 12 beds. At first I was hoping that it would be just us, but two Frenchmen came in. Maybe that will be it.
There are also three young men from Israel that are staying here. They stayed at the gite we stayed at last night. When I saw them hiking, I asked if they were doing the Haute Route and they told me they were. I think they are planning on doing it in less days then we are though.
So for the days tally--we did 7.5 miles, total of 3,126 feet elevation gain, 3034 feet elevation descent. The name of the place that we are staying at Relais du Mont Blanc. They accepted Swissfrancs or Euros. That is good becaue I don't have a lot of Swissfrancs. I hope to see a bank tomorrow.
Since we couldn't cook and the dinner was expensive, Laurie and I went to the cafe for a drink and a plate of fries. My soda cost more than Laurie's beer. Soda is very expensive here. The fried were delicious and the plate was heaping full. I didn't need to eat anymore than that.
September 2, 2003
We were suppose to get up at 7:00 and try to get an early start. It was suppose to be a tough day. I didn't want to get up. The bed was so comfy and warm. We finally got going. We had yogurt and cereal for breakfast in the room. There were only two others in the dorm room last night.
The sky was clear blue when we started walking a little after 8:00. We had started on the wrong road so had to turn around. We weren't on the correct road until 8:20. The first part wasn't too bad. It had an incline, but then leveled off.
We then got to the climbs of the day. We had an elevation gain 3548 feet. Besides the elevation gain some areas were tough. We had terrific views of Glacer dir Trient all the way up. Before we started climbing up the temperature was up to 46 degrees. When we got to the top it was down to 35 degrees. The sun was no longer visible as the clouds moved in. There were lots of people on the trail going both ways. We met a large group from Colorado doing an organized hike by REI. They were doing the Tour of Mt. Blanc. This is another popular hike and part of it coincides with the one that we are doing.
