About 11:00, I finally found a flat area and I took a break and had something to eat. I also wanted to wait for Laurie because I had the directions as to where to go next.
When we started hiking again it was about 45 minutes when we were out in the open and had beautiful views of the mountains that were covered with snow. The large mountain is called Gran Combin. It is a 4000 meter mountain. We stopped and enjoyed the view awhile. There is also a restaurant there if one wants to spend lots of money for food and soda. The town below is Verbier. It is one of the best known ski resorts in the Alps. It has about 80 mechanical lifts.
We started hiking and we were walking on a ski trail for awhile. The trail then brought us into the woods. Another steep climb. It was suppose to be only 2 1/2 more hours from the last rest stop.
The trail took us to a ski lift. The ski lift was going but I sat and waited for Laurie. Good thing I didn't hop on--it stopped. I could just see myself in the middle somewhere high off the ground screaming for someone to get me off.
The rest of the hike was in the open. We had views of mountains all around us. I finally got a glimpse of the hut we were heading for. It's one that you think is closer than it is. The last part of the walk seemed long.
The hut, called Cabane du Mont Fort, is up high on a hill, also surrounded with mountains. We checked with the hut caretaker. I think he is the one I spoke to yesterday when I tried to make reservations. He didn't speak English. We finally were able to get some answers. He was a little difficult. Laurie and I had a two bed room. There is a newly built area to the hut and it is nice.
I sat outside and read while enjoying the sun tp warm me up. We are at about 8060 feet. Again, we didn't see too many hikers. The first part of the day we didn't see any. The second half we saw day hikers. I had been concerned that maybe the hut wouldn't be open because of lack of people. There are only 8 people staying here tonight. It holds 80 people.
We ordered the dinner without knowing what it was. The room, dinner, and breakfast is about $46. For dinner we had vegetable soup, bread, salad, spaghetti, and chocolate pudding. I haven;t eated like this since we went out in Chamonix. I was full.
I saw a beautiful sunset from the deck here. The sun went down behind the mountain and you could see the glow from behind. From our room we can hear the cows. The cows have these enormous bells on them. The collars themselves are about 4 inches wide and the bells are large. I guess that will be our lullaby for the night. I am hoping for another good sleep because we have another tough day tomorrow.
September 5, 2003
My last statement from the day before about today being a tough day is an understatement. It was a killer of a day. I can't say why, really, except that we had to climb up to three cols and down on the other side and it was all through rock.
The first problem we had was that I couldn't find the right trail so we just followed the three women in front of us. It looked to me that we had taken the alternate route. That was fine with me. I started dreaming of checking into the hut early.
The first col was Col de La Chaux. It was 9643 feet. It was only a 1584 foot elevation gain, but we had to work our way through rocks and boulders. The bottom of Glacia de la Chaux had to be skirted around. We had to be careful on the rocks. I could hear rocks falling. I was also thinking that it was possible to step on the wrong rock and start a landslide. It was like that all day Going down on the other side of the col was just as bad. When we were down the trail it wasn't so bad and we could move a little faster.
The three women were still ahead of us. One of the women signaled me and I quietly and quickly walked over to where she was. There were three ibex sitting over on a hill. The ibex sort of reminded me of goats and deer. They have very long horns. I then showed Laurie. We could see them pretty well with her binoculars.
I then noticed the three women walking off trail trying to go back to a higher trail. Laurie and I read and reread the book. We looked at the map and decided that we needed to do what those women were doing. If we kept on the trail that we were on, it would take us down by a lake and we would have to climb back up.
We met up with the three guys from Ireland that were at the cabin last night. They did the other longer route.
We all started up the next col together. It wass called Col de Louve. It was not as high as the first, but it was steeper. On the top we ran into the three women. I thought they were all Swiss, but found out one immigrated from the UK and the other from Holland. They all lived in Verbia and worked in the tourist industry.
We sat with them for a few minutes then Laurie and I started off. The sky was getting dark and I wanted to get to the cabin before it started to rain. The last part of the day seemed the longest yet. I kept thinking I was going the wrong way. There were some very tricky sections that headed down to some glacier lakes. The path was on the edge of the rocks and we were heading down. We finally got up to the Col de Prafleuri whiich was at 9725 feet. I think that will be the highest elevation for the trip. Again, another steep down. It seemed like we would never get to the end of our hike. On our way down I saw a group of chamois. At least that's what I think they were. They are similar to the ibex, but don't have large horns. There were also some young ones.
The cabin was finally in view. It was just starting to rain. I got in at 5:15. The book said it should have only taken 5 1/2 hours. Well I certainly have a complaint with that. It took us about nine hours and everyone we hiked with thought the times were way off. We had hiked only 6 1/4 hours and had about 2900 feet elevation gain. It was all of the rocks and boulders that slowed us down.
Well, it felt good to be able to sit down, take my boots off and change into dry clothes. I could smell our dinner cooking. It smelled so good. I had only gorp today. I just didn't feel like eating.
