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.