Uphill walking

 It’s easy to look up at a small peak and tell yourself that it wouldn’t be more than a stroll to “that bit just there, near the snow, just round that corner”.

So here at Lac des Plagnes, after listening to the cows coming in at about 4.45am and back out at about 7:15am, we made a plan. Go to the weekly market at Abondance, it has to be the morning as they finish by noon. Then come back, pack some lunch and have a brisk walk “up there”.

The market was small but it covered most bases. We bought fruit (great apricots), big pimento pepper, courgettes and aubergine. Also we bought a piece of Abondance cheese, at €14.95/Kg. We queued for our daily bread. It was Sunday and there’s always a queue at the boulangerie on Sunday.

Back at the overnight stop, we were ready and with us already at a height of 1,197m, we felt confident about our brisk walk uphill to Chalets d’Ardens and a bit further.

With baguette, apple and cheese, plus plenty of water, hats and waterproofs, we checked the map on the phone and Garmin and were off at pace.

The first problem we found is that the bit of the path at the bottom of the slope, visible from the Landy, needed a good stretch to reach it. A good deal of walking was required before we could turn and actually see the Landy.

Now the track got steeper and stayed that way all the way to the Chalets. “C’est dur” said a guy coming down, walking with a Dalmation dog. Is four legs good? 

Up and up. All that happens as you gain height, is that the mountains gets bigger. In the glare of the June sun and wishing that we had left earlier at the sound of cowbells, we got hot, sweaty and my legs decided to be jelly whilst my feet were lead.

Our excuse is that we are walking between 1,200 and 2,000m, so it must be something to so with science and air supply. Or perhaps it could be to do with science and fitness.

Whatever, we hauled ourselves up the track until we reached a reasonable lunchtime stop. These are the chalets that we were aiming for. They appear to be in good condition. Non were occupied so we assume they are some sort of summer retreat.

There were unusual sounds and falling rocks, plus the whistles from Marmots. These nice but at the same time annoying creatures, all whistle at exactly the same pitch. It seems as though one is running around and you expect to see it. Actually it is several of them, whistling in turn and they are motionless on their rocks and you can rarely see them with the naked eye.

We made it as far as we intended (1,910m) and really it wasn’t safe to go further, under the scree slope of the next mountain face. We have seen the slips of the snow slopes and wouldn’t want to be traversing underneath.

We were happy to see Lac Leman in the distance and then turned to start the walk back down, which was steep enough to make for tired feet.