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Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) |
Day 10 of 11
Since today would be a shorter hike, we took our time in the morning. We had breakfast at 8am, then left the hotel at 10am.
We walked back up to the Argentière city center. We stopped at the grocery store and bought some bars and apples to carry with us for lunch. Then we headed back up to the TMB along the same path we'd taken down yesterday afternoon. We had considered taking a bus or taxi back to the trail, and maybe we should have. It was hot!
We walked across the road, past the cascade (although yesterday's afternoon light was much better). We passed Auberge La Boerne, where there were still a few people. And then we were back at the trailhead.
We carefully crossed the road and turned left to continue the climb. The climb starts out steady, not too steep. Thankfully most of this lower section is shaded. We stopped for a snack break around noon, at which point we'd already climbed about 1200 feet, with about 2500 to go.
Looking back down at the valley Rock climbers Climbing Looking back toward Col de Balme Looking down the steep slope to Argentière
Next we came to the dreaded ladders. These are old metal ladders bolted to the rock face. Near the ladders were lots of rock climbers. Most of them were attacking the main rock face, but a group of kids were climbing up a tall spire (Aiguillette de Argentière).
I just tried to remember not to look down as I climbed the series of ladders, other than making sure my feet were getting good placement. The one thing that surprised me was how much energy I had to expend climbing the ladders. It was tiring!
Ladder section from afar Climbers on Aiguillette de Argentière Aiguillette de Argentière First ladder section First ladder section
Also, there were more ladders than I expected. From pictures, I thought there were only two or three, but that's just the beginning. There are also wooden steps, and then more ladders. I was glad when they were all over.
Further on there's another set of ladders, though I don't remember that set being quite as long or exposed. I think there were more wooden steps there as well.
Aiguillette de Argentière On the ladders above Aiguillette de Argentière Aiguillette de Argentière Aiguillette de Argentière
A woman coming downhill said bonjour to us. I replied in kind. Then she asked if we spoke French or English. Of course I responded English, and she proceeded to identify herself as a ranger. She wanted to know where we were staying. I said Lac Blanc. She said it was forbidden to bivouac at Lac Blanc, but I told her we were staying in the refuge and of course that was fine. She was the only ranger we saw our entire time on the TMB. I didn't even know there were rangers patrolling any of this hike.
Shortly after that we came to an intersection and took the right fork to continue toward Lac Blanc. We took another stop near a small pool of water. There were tadpoles but not much else in the shallow water. We decided to do a little stone skipping. The best rock I found was larger and sharper than I would have liked, but I skipped it twice and it reached the opposite shore.
Several seconds later someone pointed out that I was bleeding. As far as I'm aware, this is the first time in my lifetime I got injured from stone skipping. The rock had been so sharp that when I spun and released it, it sliced the tip of my finger. There was collateral blood on my pants, the ground, and my other fingers. But it was just a small cut. I patched it up with a bandage and we kept going.
Another ladder section Looking down at Argentière Climbing with Argentière in the background
At some point we came to another trail intersection and took the path toward Lac Blanc, which the sign said was about 40 minutes away.
We could now see a stream of day hikers coming down from Lac Blanc, and we could see the refuge itself high up ahead of us. I think food service there ends around 3pm, and it was a bit after 3 now. We had a few easy switchbacks and then a steady climb up. We had great views to the left across the Chamonix valley.
Refuge du Lac Blanc barely visible at the top left Chamonix valley Trail view Trail view
As we climbed more we could see a few small lakes on the way up. At one point I had the perfect photo opportunity and blew it. A woman in a pink top walked out to the edge to my left, looking across at the snow-capped peaks, her back to me. The contrast was perfect. I went to take out my camera and turn it on, and...she turned sideways before I could take the picture. I waited to see if she would turn back, but, alas, no.
Lacs des Chéserys Last of the Lacs des Chéserys Looking across the Chamonix valley (imagine someone looking at the view here) Looking back at Lacs des Chéserys
I continued up, crossing the edge of another small lake/pond. Just before reaching a snow patch, I spied movement up to my right. It was some sort of animal, maybe the size of a fox. My wife said it was an Ibex. I hadn't thought so since it was so small, but yeah, it was a very young ibex. There were at least two of them - one up on a large boulder and one below. I switched to my telephoto lens and took lots of pictures. They were still far away, so I hoped to get some closer ones later.
Two young ibex Young ibex Young ibex
We had to briefly cross a couple small snow patches, but we didn't need our microspikes. We saw another ibex, a large one with horns. But it went behind the snow, hidden from view.
After a little more climbing we reached the refuge. It was a little after 4pm, perfect timing for check-in. There were still a few day hikers enjoying the views around the lake. The refuge actually overlooks a smaller section of Lac Blanc, sitting below a wide outlet stream from the main part of the lake.
Refuge du Lac Blanc
We checked in. We had 4 beds in a 10-bed structure separate from the main refuge. The refuge employees slept across the hall from us. For a while we had the entire place to ourselves, but a couple hikers came in late, maybe around 6pm or so. They hadn't meant to stay here; they'd planned to hike to Chamonix, but hadn't been able to make it today. Still, our room was pretty quiet.
I went out to take pictures of the lake. I went over to look at the main lake, but it was partly covered in snow and not that interesting to look at. However, by going to the strip of land next to the main lake outlet stream, I was able to get nice views of the smaller lake, refuge, and mountains beyond. While I was there I saw a couple of people on the opposite shore. I then noticed an ibex nonchalantly walking behind them. I yelled at them to turn around, but they didn't hear me. They eventually did see it, though.
Lac Blanc Lac Blanc Lac Blanc Lac Blanc Ibex sneaking up on two hikers
I went back and changed to my telephoto lens and went hunting for ibex. I went left this time, across a couple snow patches toward a cairn overlooking the view. As luck would have it, an ibex walked almost straight toward me. I tracked him with my camera, and noticed more ibex up on the hill. Later, when I was about to head back in, I noticed the ibex coming down. I started firing rapid fire photos as they ran down the snow. Looked like they were having fun.
Ibex on the snow near Lac Blanc Lac Blanc outlet stream Ibex Ibex looking right at me Two ibex Ibex on the snow Cairn near Lac Blanc Ibex running on the snow Two ibex playing in the snow Two ibex playing in the snow Ibex Mountain view from Lac Blanc Bird in flight Snow near Lac Blanc Mountains across the valley Lac Blanc
Dinner was 7pm. It had started to sprinkle a bit by now and the skies were completely overcast. Dinner was some sort of light soup followed by sausage and lentils. Dessert was something resembling banana cake, I'm not sure. It was all pretty decent. We shared a table with others and got to talking with an Australian couple from Sweden (they'd moved there). They'd hiked all the way from Trient today. We shared stories from the trail and other trips. They explained that Sweden has thousands of shelters that you can use without reservation. But they also admitted that Norway has better scenery. I mentioned that we had done the Overland track;
despite them being Australian they'd never done it before, though they wanted to sometime.
While we were finishing up dinner, the sky cleared up briefly and the sun shone onto the mountains across the valley. It was sort of magical, but it didn't last long. A few minutes later the clouds returned. I was hoping for some sunset pictures, but nothing materialized. Also, because of the cloud cover, there wasn't anything good for night photography, either. So we pretty much lugged the mini-tripod around for 11 days for no reason.
Thursday, July 11th
Argentière to Lac Blanc
6.3 miles
3670 vertical feet (ascent)
160 vertical feet (descent)
5:59
Mountains across the valley from Lac Blanc
(Click image to view full size)
Mountains across the valley from Lac Blanc
We also lugged around a water filter for 11 days, but in the end we decided to just buy a couple bottles of water from the refuge, instead. We thought there weren't any showers at all at the refuge,
and that made it a little harder to sleep (at least for me). However, from reading about it online afterwards,
it looks like there are showers in the main
building, but you have to pay and they're only 4 minutes long. Seems like a miss that they didn't tell us about
this when checking us in. In any case, apparently a bit after midnight, we could hear thunderstorms in the area. We could see the flashes of lightning and the booming thunder.
View from our bedroom window at the refuge
(Click image to view full size)
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