Chris didn’t sleep well at our crooked campsite, and I woke up from time to time, too, with fears of marmots getting into our bags or geese flying over our heads (not sure why that was a concern but I woke Chris up a few times yelling at these fictitious creatures). But every time I woke up, I was enthralled by the scene around us. The horizon, or 270 degrees of it, was lined with jagged peaks, and the sky splashed with stars. Down below us, the peaceful village of Trient sparkled in the dark valley. So not sleeping well didn’t bother me too much.
When we woke up, some chamoix were wandering around the hillside next to us. These “acrobats of the hillside,” according to a children’s book we bought for Ashlyn, look like goats with warpaint, according to Chris. They looked like beefy pronghorn to me. Anyway, the closest one to us made eye contact when we started talking, and then ran away. Then all the others galloped off, as if the rocy hillside were nothing. They must have been very spooked because they kept running until they were far out of sight. But I felt like we were very fortunate to see so many of them (8-10), considering how skittish they are.
Anyway, we had seen the trail for the day the evening before, and it looked crazy. This ended up being a very difficult day, but I was glad we at least knew somewhat what to expect. We started hiking at 9:15 and hiked down, down, down. We had to take a break near the Chalet du Glacier at about 11 AM just to give our joints a break. Here’s an idea of the profile: we passed the Refuge les Grands at 2100 m, then down to the Chalet at 1500 m, and then back up to the Fenetre d’Arpette at 2660 m, and back down to Champex at 1460 m! My legs were so tired by the end that they ached.
The hike up the Fenetre (which means ‘window’ in French) was not so bad because we did a good job of pacing ourselves (AKA I was in front, and we stopped every 25-30 minutes). We arrived at about 2:10 and the view at the top was pretty amazing, as were the views of the Glacier de Trient all the way up. I’ve never been so close to such a huge glacier, it was impressive. It was also interesting to compare it to a picture in the book we are using. I don’t know when that was taken, but the glacier seems to have retreated quite a bit since then.
The only really bad part of the day was the water. There were plentiful streams to drink from on the way up but none for about 1-1/2 hours on the way down. It was hot and we were very very thirsty and growing more fatigued with every step. I was so happy to finally see a stream that I was ready to lap the water off the ground, if necessary.
We finally arrived at Champex-Lac at 6:15, just in time to check into a hotel (Club Alpin), rinse off, and sit down for a magnificent dinner. So all told we hiked for 8 hours 15 minutes. Kev (the author of our guide book) said it would take 6.5-7, oh well. We loved our hotel. For 70 francs (about $70), we got a 5-person room all to ourselves, a 4-course dinner, and breakfast (I had 3 cups of coffee ☺). Also Champex was nice, a beautiful setting but not over-developed.
The Refuge les Grands - a nice spot that we passed up in favor of camping last night.
Easy hiking on the western side of the Fenetre
Views along Lac Champex
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