Ken Baldry's Alpine Pages

Chamonix to Zermatt - Day Three Foclaz to Sembrancher

Previous Page
Argentière to Forclaz

Next Page
Verbier

Tour Start Page

Alpine Home Page

Ken & Avis' Home Page

From Col de la Forclaz to Sembrancher

Thursday 4th September 2003 Breakfast was not so great but it was at 7, so I was away at 0745. The path drops a little behind the dairy opposite the hotel but then works steadily up with occasional spectacular views down to Martigny & along the Rhone Valley, eventually both ways (from the right-angle bend at Martigny). The slog was for two hours & then suddenly, one is at the high point coming out of a wood with a spectacular view of the Grand Combin ahead.

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

Looking back to the Col de la Forclaz

The Grand Combin from Alpe Bovine

Alpe Bovine

The bit across Alp Bovine itself had the best of views & then, the path contoured round to the South until it crosses a little stream. There follows a ghastly steep rocky path down through the trees, where all the height gained plus some is lost, very wearing. I only encountered French speakers today except here, where I met an Indian mum & daughter, the daughter ahead of the mum, which was irresponsible. After a messy gully, the path did become better & I fuelled up on mint cake. Soon, it became a jeep track through the woods again at a gentle gradient down to the farm at Plan de l'Eau, after which there was another path through the woods, off to the right, quite pleasant & more or less on a contour, to Champex d'en Bas, which is just a few chalets. The path joins a little road here & goes up through the similarly nondescript Champex d'en Haut before joining the main road just before the pass over to Champex proper, where the ski lift is. There is a sort of ribbon development here before the lake but this is a real lake, not some stausee behind a dam & quite attractive. For Sfr 24.80, I had a pork escalope & beer beside it outside quite a posh restaurant, as I thought I might be starving, despite the double dinner last night. I arrived at 1306 (i.e. 5 hrs 20 mins from Pass de la Forclaz) & left at 1345 on Kev's track to Sembrancher. He calls the first bit 'a steady gradient' but it is uncomfortably steep, if straight, for quite a long way. At least, it gets the altitude off. Then, it is a long, pleasant amble down past real working villages. I was rather taken with Sou la Lé but La Garde looked like a posh suburb of Martigny, perhaps.

From above Champex East

The lake at Champex

Towards the Great St. Bernard Pass

Sembrancher is invisible until the last minute. I asked at the pub for a hotel & was directed to the Hotel de la Gare, so wandered off to the station outside the village proper. This was almost as basic as the Hotel Savoie & was only Sfr 42 B&B. After laundry & a shower (down the corridor but at least, the same floor), I had a snooze before having a Salade Niçoise for dinner, to try to repair the frightful damage to my feet. The pub was rather noisy & they had an electronic dartboard, which totted up the score for you. There was a sort of competition between the landlady (petit, pretty) & serving wench (vast, not so pretty) & two clients. But I did get a good night's sleep, despite the pain in my feet.

Clearly, my boots are due for a State Funeral & I abandoned the trip for this year. The next day, I thumbed to Lausanne & took the Eurostar train, so I was home that evening. The boots have been relegated to gardening/decorating.

In Kev Reynolds book, he suggests staying in Champex, having an easy day down to Le Chable, followed by a slog up to the Mont Fort Hut avoiding Verbier, the ski resort. In my opinion, this is a mistake, as the day from Mont Fort is the hardest). A better plan is, yes, stay in Champex but then, walk down to Sembrancher & (see the next page) walk up the path to Verbier, so that there is then a very easy day up to the hut, where you can enjoy the view, hang out, compare stories & read your book, before the Three Passes Day.

Previous Page
Argentière to Forclaz

Next Page
Verbier

Tour Start Page

Alpine Home Page

Ken & Avis' Home Page


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/cz3.html Last revised 23/65/2013 © 2004-2013 Ken Baldry. All rights reserved.