Starting from the Relais d’Arpette gave us a head start on what was billed as a tough day. A few groups left ahead of us but the trail was fairly empty since most people would be coming up from Champex. The path meandered through scrubby woodland then boulders covered in grass and I made a comfort stop off the path while there was still some tree cover. Unfortunately I chose a spot in the middle of the route used by a herd of cows, fortunately they ring bells so you know they’re coming.
We were expecting a long uphill, and eventually we reached a boulder field where te going was much tougher. There were lots of big reaches to get to the top of the next boulder, sometimes needing hands as well, and not forgetting there was a bg pack on my back to haul behind me. It’s just as well I have long legs.
The path was marked with the usual red and white pain flashes but it was a lot less clear than usual, and at one point Bill took what seemed to be the obvious path round some dodgy boulders – it wasn’t the right one. I had followed him up part of the way before I saw the next paint marks and there were two French girls following me. We managed to backtrack without too much difficulty but Bill had to do some ‘interesting’ scrambling back down to meet the path higher up.
When we thought we were about halfway up the boulders, the top looked fairly close but it was hard to judge the scale and a French guy with an altimeter told us there was still 600m to climb – over an hour then. Eventually the boulders gave way to loose grit covered in a light sprinkling of scrubby grass and from there it was a nasty, slippy, zig-zagging climb to the top. When we got to the col we watched others coming up and everybody looked both tired and relieved as they reached the top. There wasn’t a lot of room to sit around on the top but we found a couple of comfortable enough rocks while we let the crowd move on so we could take some photos.
The view down the other side was much more open than the way we had come, with spectacular views of the Trient glacier, but it was still hard work going down the rocky, gritty path, frequently making way for other groups coming the other way. After about an hour we reached a big flat boulder, warmed by the sun, that was perfect for a lunch stop and the path got easier after that.
When we got down to the Refuge de Glacier, we took the path for la Peuty because we had booked in the Relais de Mont Blanc in Trient, effectively cutting off the bit of the TMB via the Col de Forclaz. It was good path and track to Trient, which has a community bunker under the church built in 1992 (I’m not sure what it protects against). The Relais actually seems to be gite, shop, post office and everything else for the village and it looks a bit like it may have been a decent hotel at one time. Now it was a bit shabby but comfy and we managed to get a good hot shower just before two huge parties arrived.
I felt knackered; it had been a really tiring day with a steep ascent and descent over difficult terrain and my feet felt hammered despite the gel pads. We had a choice of meals again and we opted for cheese and tomato fondue (this was the last night in Switzerland) which came with a barrel-load of little boiled potatoes to eat it with. Because we had a room, we didn’t hang around long a the table after dinner and I don’t think I managed to read a full page of my book before I fell asleep.
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