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Breakfast was 6:45am and was pretty typical. Bread, rolls, cold cuts and cheese, juice/coffee, and cereal. No hard boiled eggs or fruit.
One nice touch - when we got our boots from the boots room, we found out that the rods we had put them on were heated. So if you have wet boots, they might be dry in the morning.
Hikers prepping at Hotel Edelweiss
View from the back of the hotel
We started off on the road through town. The weather was bright and sunny today. Soon we turned left and hit the trail. The trail roughly parallels the river, heading downstream. The views aren't that great, though, to be honest. There are a lot of gravel bars visible next to the river.
Chains on a narrow section of trail
Drop off from the trail
After maybe 4 miles or so of descent, we reached a little cafe stand with some picnic tables. We stoped here for some sodas.
This is what I get for losing my lens hood
La Kabana cafe
We then walked through a small Swiss village, with some old buildings probably over 100 years old, along with some more modern buildings. After snaking our way through, we exited the village and returned to the trail, where we had some views of the surrounding mountains.
View from near the cafe
A gnome and a deer in someone's lawn
Looking back at the village
After more descent we reached another cafe, but this time skipped it. Instead, we started up the climb to Champex-Lac. It started off very steep through the forest. After about 20-30 minutes we stopped for a small lunch, then continued climbing.
Continuing on toward the start of the climb
View from the climb
After another 40 minutes we came to a bench with a nice view. After a short break we continued the climb. After about half an hour we reached the outskirts of Champex-Lac. Then we reached the lake itself. It's smaller than what I expected. Fancy hotels abound here. We hadn't been able to reserve any of them, even though we'd tried back in October.
Some building with a nice view
View from the rest area
Sculpture next to the trail
Lac de Champex
We stopped at the grocery store to buy ice cream and drinks, then continued on another mile to reach Gite Bon Abri around 3pm. Unfortunately, there was a sign that registration didn't start until 4pm. The refuge itself was completely locked up with no staff yet. So I settled down to write these notes while we waited.
Gite Bon Abri
Unfortunately once we checked in, we discovered that they only accept cash (I wish they'd told us this in advance), and we didn't have enough. We had to go back to Champex-Lac (luckily someone offered to give us a ride): use the ATM, and walk back (about a 25 minute walk, thankfully without a backpack). Let that be a lesson to always have enough cash. Most places accept credit cards or Apple Pay, but some do not.
There were only two men's showers, so I had to wait a while. Thankfully there's no time limit, but I think
the people ahead of me were taking advantage of that and were taking super long showers.
Dinner started at 7pm. It was not good. There was some watery soup. Then some salad that was literally just some lettuce and carrots. The main course was fondue, with only potatoes for dipping. No meat.
Dessert was some tiny cake thing consumed in 3 bites. It was all very disappointing.
We had a shared room with 2 other people. The room was very small, but adequate. Our roommates went to bed almost immediately after dinner. I thought I was going to stay up and listen to some music, but somehow fell asleep not long after them. I only woke up once in the middle of the night, although I think my snoring (and that of our roommates) kept up the rest of my family.
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