Around the Mountain Mont Blanc — on foot. 2014

It was meant to be a catchup over dinner with two other local Queenstowner’s - Graham and Gabrielle Smolenski - and a pleasant dinner it was in Chamonix.
The subject of discussion was -’the walk that they have planned around Mont Blanc’

Why don’t you join us? and  Why not? perhaps after the rain.

So join we did for the first day. We picked them up at the Hotel Heliotrope and drove to Le Tour and walked uphill to the Col de Balme, where we bade then good bye and - maybe see you later!

After a day of storm and rain and reservations we left for La Foulie by train and bus. The train from Saint Gervais to Martigny and then bus to La Foulie.

When I wandered into the hotel in La Foulie with the current edition of the New York Times International Grahams eyes lite up - You came?  but yes of course.

I had brought my tramping boots to Europe for a walk and this ended up being the one.

A quiet dinner with two kiwis, a couple of Australians, a Swiss Aussie and a German Australian that Graham and Gabrielle had already met. They were to be the companions at dinner and drinking for each night.


Next morning departure La Foulie to Grand Col Ferret to Elena Hut.
Now these aren’t huts as we know in New Zealand but small hotels in the mountains. This one  (the night time photo) slept 80 pax in shared bunk rooms and private rooms as well.  We were on the budget version and carried all our own clothing and lunch food - but Graham and Gabrielle had booked a supported trip and each day the baggage man arrived after 0800 to take the ‘no more than 10kgs’ extra luggage onto the next destination - all by van as each hut had some access by 4x4.

Our packs were about 4kgs total - but that was enough with the clothing for the night, a rain coat and the clothes for daily use. A little lunch things bought before leaving and thats’ it.

But there is no worry about missing lunch - there is always a refuge to buy a coffee, une tarte, or omelette.

So to the Grand Col Ferret.
A nice walk uphill on a small track. We are passed by a couple with bikes as we depart the top but their progress was only just the same as ours at they spend as much time off the bike as on.
9 - to 4.36. No it was not that time but approx anyway.

Not enough for the day - after many days biking my legs are fine, so I scamper over the left over moraine to the base of a receding glacier. It takes a bit to scramble up the last few hundred meters over quiet steep exposed rock and glacial rubble to get near the tongue. Near only but not there, as it is a bit exposed, and a slip would see me in the freezing waters of.the glacial stream.

Pleasant evening with laughter and drinking and new companions from Germany.

Elena hut /  Bonati hut /  Bertone Hut /  Courmayer / Maison Vieille
44,000 steps as measured on a pedometer - makes this the longest day of the trip.

It is also a day of down, then up to up Bonati and then up the valley (actually off the correct track) but Graham and I of course knew where we were going and we turned at the valley head to regain the ‘correct’ track and cross the first col for the day.

We have enjoyed crossing paths with the 700 runners who are competing in the the 330kms around the Courmayer mountains ultra marathon. We see only about 50 of the 700 eunners - some running freely - others in this last 50kms suffering the effects of the previous 300kms or so,

Another climb leads to the next col with Courmayer down the valley ahead, but the track ascends very steeply in the heat of the day up to the the days high point.

We stop for lunch with fantastic views of the Mont Blanc massif from the Italian side.  The Grandes Jorasses dominates the skyline.  This descending ridge then leads through high open meadows through grazing herds of sheep and goats and a couple donkeys.

A steep decent down to the Bertone Hut and a much welcomed hot chocolate.

Riding in France 2014

Based out of Saint-Gervais-les-Bains

What defines a holiday - the endless sunshine, the beautiful girls on the beach, the sun rising over tall mountains on snowy peaks. All of those would be nice but the often don’t happen in the same place.

But the one thing that totally defines a pure holiday nowdays for me - is the lack of connectivity. And a trip down the Grand Canyon will do that, where unless you have a Sat phone then you remove yourself from the world for a period of time. In our case a few years ago we actually removed the watches to also remove our connection with the daily world so dominated by the time to be here or there.

Riding in Europe, well just riding full stop does for a short time remove you from the everyday, although the pressure of returning on time, or being somewhere is ever present.

Riding in Europe and more particularly France is a pretty good escape even with the computer - just to mix it up so that neither the schedule, the work or the riding has predominance. To get the life balance right.

Think that there is about 14 different rides on this map with many thousands of meters of climbing.

Riding in the Haute-Savoie
With Saint Gervais as a base I was able to explore many different areas. The 3 day Ride Around the Mountain blog precedes this one, and after that the 5 days walk Around the Mountain. So what follows is the balance of the time in the Haute-Savoie.

Out and about after the 5 days of walking and which way to head. A easy spin down the valley to Sallanches with a killer 6 degrees speedy hill climb to follow, and then a gentle descent to home, followed by a day dropping down the  valley of the river Arve (thats drains out of the Chamonix Valley) through little villages below the Tête du Colonney. right at Araches and up to Flaine (21kms @ 8%) yahoo - a climbers delight.

Flaine is a ski resort in the winter with perhaps 5,000 beds but it is completely shut in the winter. No coffee, nothing. I really was glad for the coffee shop at Araches - la - Frasse on the way down.
Other local rides include a 11km hill climb to Plaine Joux - a small resort on the hill opposite. Suburban rides round the other local hills after computer work in the morning filled in days of superb riding. Quite narrow ‘country roads’ through the high villages and petit ski resorts along the flanks of the valley

Time for a another ‘famous’ col. The Col des Saisies (Up to 2010, the pass was 11 times on the Tour de France schedule) But it was not just to climb the pass but to circumnavigate the Saisies mountain. I had spotted on a map a ‘white road’ and felt like exploring - so guessing that white meant that it had tar I turned right at the saddle and followed my nose around the mountain. This very little used road had tar laid on it once and with so little use it was still in pretty good shape. Not another soul to be seen in 3okms of quite rolling with views extending down the valleys to Albertville and then Urgine.

The navigation works and eventually the circuit is complete. I emerge on the Saises road at a small resort of Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe. Crepes and coffee and 3okms to home (up through the valley to Megeve, and then down to Saint Gervais)

More local rides in the afternoons after emails and other computer work in the morning. I found a small ride at 25% to Bonnessy quite hard, when mixed with a fast 1hr climb on 3-5% to Contamines.
I used the 1hr return to Contamines as a test of fitness and something that could be fitted in at the end of the day. But it is autumn and the sun sinks fast from this tight confined valley.

So two more weeks pass quickly. Saving one more climb as a checkout for the July tour 2015.
Col de Aravis followed by the Col de la Colombière. Down the valley from Megeve and turn right at Flumet. the road climbs a bit at first and then flattens before climbing through La Gettaz. A nice little town. The pass is high to the left after a series of switchbacks.

The descent through La Clusaz and Saint Jean-de-Sixt is pleasant. More so after ‘tart and coffee’ on the corner in the latter.

Just around the corner is the valley of Le Grand - Bornard which sits right a the bottom of the Col de la Colombière. This south side of the Col is easy as Le Grand Bornand, is at 923 meters height. That only leaves you 690 height meters up. Only the last kilometers was up to 7-9%.  
But it was nice day and the chain is running a bit quieter now after the bike shop on the corner added a little chain oil. Thanks guys.

 

So a nice climb over a famous pass - but wait it is not finished yet. After a few kms of descending a little town of Le Reposoir. appears and the Route des Grandes Alpes signs turn me towards the Col de Romme. I don’t remember this climb from the past (we had come straight up the valley from Cluses) The road climbs steadily before dropping quite steeply at times across the cliff face above Cluses.
A fantastic way to end the climbing and descending day.

Now just to get home - 3okms up the valley on roads that are familiar, with the super highway to the right (it goes up to and through the Mont Blanc tunnel into Italy)

This was to be virtually the last climb in Europe ’14, and it was good to end with a great one.

What can I say about riding in Europe that has not already been written. For Kiwis it is riding in the dream world. Polite traffic with trucks that wait behind until the way is clear ahead, and then they give you oodles of room when they pass.  Cars that are polite, roads that lead to high mountain meadows, roads that climb every hill visible, often with ski lifts crowding the ridge lines or passing overhead the road. Glaciers hanging overhead (in some places)

Great coffee, great croissants, crepes, tartes and coffee to revive a cyclists - guaranteed on every col. Can’t wait to go back.

Come and join me in Sept 2015

PS I did sneak in another climb up to the Megeve airport. Just a 1hr 30mins climb and twenty mins back to the house.

Picture link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/geoffryjh/sets/