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Ken Baldry's Alpine PagesChamonix to Zermatt - Day Two Agentiére to Forclaz |
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From Argentière to Col de la ForclazWednesday 3rd September 2003 Plenty of breakfast served by a very nice Slovak girl who preferred to talk in English. This was served underground in the ski room! I left at 0811 & walked up the valley to Le Tour by 0806. From there, the path is excellent and there is a separate track for mountain bikes, keeping them out of one's hair. A fast English girl shot past me after a chat &, apart from a group of German bikers, everyone I met today was English, one pointing out that all the French had gone back to work. He was a member of a large party met on the Swiss side. Many were doing the Tour de Mont Blanc. The views back to Mont Blanc were spectacular all the way up to the Col de Balme but not on the other side, where the hills seem very steep. This map is copied from the Official Map of the Automobil-Club der Schweiz, (with their permission) which is on this link but not to scale |
Col de Balme from the riverside near Chamonix |
The view back to Mont Blanc from the Col de Balme |
Col de la Forclaz from the Col de Balme path |
Going up, I was moving quite fast for a couple of hundred meters or so & having little rests in between. This is a new pattern for me but seems to be quite fast overall. The first 1000' down are quite pleasant but then, there are 2000' of steepish tedium down through the woods to Le Peurty. It took 3 hours to get up & 1.75 down. Then, there was another 45 mins up to the Col de la Forclaz hotel, mostly avoiding the road on a steeper footpath. The hotel was very comfortable. Sfr 99 for half-board. The timing was about Kev's. I did my laundry & cleaned up, then went down for an apricot tart & coffee. Yesterday, my socks did not dry overnight, so travelled in my crampon straps, where they did dry but today's laundry dried very quickly. Dinner was soup, two goes, then chicken, beans, cauliflour & chips & I got two of those as well! Only one go of ice cream for pudding though!
Contact: Ken Baldry, 17 Gerrard Road, Islington, London N1 8AY +44(0)20 7359 6294 or e-mail him URL: http://www.art-science.com/Ken/Alpine/C-Z/cz2.html © 2004-2013 Ken Baldry. All rights reserved. Last revised 23/6/2013