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Month: July 2013

Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 14: Valsavarenche – Rifugio Vitt. Emanuele II

Our destination for today is Rifugio Vitt. Emanuele II on about 2700m. From here we want to climb the Gran Paradiso tomorrow. From Valsavarenche we start a two hours walk to Pont along a quite boring road. On our way we have been taken over by one of the two only busses today. The weather is good, it is still early in the morning, we feel good :) …so the two hours pass quickly. At Pont we find a very small supermarket and buy a new bread :-D We leave some things like stove, helmet, cooking material and some clothes at a hut below. All those things we do not need the next day. This reduces the weight by about 4-5kg! We are very fast upwards overtaking everyone on the way to the hut :) – actually feels like flying :) At the hut we meet Gianni – our guide – again. It is quite full today – probably because of Sunday…but maybe also because tomorrow is the last day with good weather for a while. Lets see if the weather forecast is correct…. We have a very small but nice chamber tonight :) Tomorrow we will get up at 4 am, have breakfast and then start to walk to the top of Gran Paradiso.

Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 13: Courmayeur – Valsavarenche

Those two days we walked a very long and boring road from Courmayeur to another valley. The regions we passed seemed to be far away from any hiking tourism. There were almost no signs and many paths on the map were no longer there. So we tried very hard to find a way by foot to our destination. The first day it worked :) I would not have believed that but on the second day we finally had to give up. When we stood in front of a long tunnel and the cars passed us with 120km/h we decided to take the bus for a few kilometres. I think it would have been quite dangerous entering such a tunnel by foot. There was nothing for pedestrians at all. It took the bus only about 10 minutes to get to our destination. From there we walked again. One night we slept at a very nice guesthouse. A big kitchen, the living room and the garden was free to use for everyone :) Luciana, the owner also lived in the same house with her three kids. This created a nice atmosphere – like in this american television show – I can’t remember the name….

Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 11: Refuge de Requin – Courmayeur

What a great day! We got up at 6. After a quick breakfast, packing and putting on all the equipment we left the hut at 7:15. The first thing was to pass the ice fall which was to the right approx. 200m above our heads. We asked the guide if we should wear the helmet. He just smiled and said: If you feel better…. :-) But if this comes down you don’t need a helmet ;-) And so we quickly crossed the ice fall and luckily no ice and no stones came down at this time – probably also because it was still quite early. The next thing to pass were some big crevasses which were partly still covered with snow. Parts we had to go in parallel to the crevasses what actually created a strange feeling because you never know what is under your feet. After 2 hours the critical parts were done. Then we could fully enjoy walking on the glacier. There were still some crevasses but they were not so big. After 4:30 hours we finally arrived at Rif. Turino which is already in Italy. There were quite some people around which all came up with the cable car. From this hut (~3300m) we planned to climb down to Courmayeur. Unfortunately the path down to the middle station of the cable car was too dangerous since it is very steep and there is still lots of snow. Our guide recommended us to take the cable car at least to the middle station. From the middle station it was approx. 90 minutes by foot to Courmayeur. Here we found a quite nice and cheap one star hotel :-) For dinner we had a huge pizza :-)

Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing 2013 – Day 10: Montenvers – Refuge de Requin

Today we got up at 7am. We had a typical french breakfast – a croissant and a coffee :-) After reorganizing and packing the bag again we met Gianni – our guide – at 8:20 at the train station. At first we climb down a via ferrata 300m until we reach the glacier Mer de Glace. The ice is melting very quickly – so every year the ladders of the via ferrata have to be extended by several meters. On the glacier we put on the crampons and the rope. At the beginning the glacier is not very steep. Later this changes and a labyrinth of crevasses opens up. We now need much more time to find our way. Some crevasses are 2 meters wide and hundreds of meters deep. We cannot see down to the ground. It is like a black hole – scary… Some crevasses are still covered by snow. The snow forms a bridge across the crevasses which may or may not carry ones weight…you never know… After 4 hours walking on the glacier we do a short break and then go another via ferrata upwards. After an hour we climbed about 400m and finally arrived at the hut. Several hours we still had the quite strong sun before another thunderstorm arrived. From the hut we have a great view on the ice fall.

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Published on Leave a comment on Alpine Crossing – Day 9: Chamonix – Montenvers

Today we got up a little earlier to avoid the thunderstorm in the afternoon. The weather forecast here was quite accurate so far. For 3 hours a path led us through a forest – upwards to Montenvers (1913m). Tomorrow morning we will meet Gianni – our guide – at the train station. We both are glad that we climbed the 1000m today already – tomorrow will be exhausting enough.  We have a very nice ‘old style’ hotel for tonight. Very old looking rooms – all made up of dark wood. From our window we can see the steep and dark Grandes Jorasses wall – one of the most famous north walls in the Alps. It is hard to believe that this has already been climbed many times… The dinner here was also fantastic. After the three courses I do not want to move any longer…. :-) We had a vegetable soup, Tartiflette (potatoes with lots of cheese), green salad and an apple pie. All was served with French red wine, water and baguette. This was the best thing  I have eaten for a while. I think if I would live in France I would become fat :-D The sunset tonight was not visible directly – but the red light of the sun was shining on the summits and the clouds around. This condition only holds for a few minutes – it is a very special moment :-)