Chamonix Activity Report: 31st May 2006
Last Saturday, keen to blast out some of the cob-webs of winter lack of fitness (lazy-boy skiers!), we decided a marathon hike up to the Montenvers (accessible by train), across the Grand Balcons Nord to the Plan de l'Aiguille and then back down to Chamonix, was the order of the day. We last did this circuit about 5 years ago, mainly as it has taken about this long to recover from it!
We set out at around 10.15am equipped with Camelbaks, energy bars (PowerBar Chocolate muesli bars are not bad at all – even managed to eat one on the way back from the shops before even setting out!), and the trusty heart-rate monitor (if you are going to go you might as well measure that you went…). We reckoned on about a 5 hour circuit.
Starting the stop-watch at the Montenvers car-park in town we set off at a brisk pace. The weather was just about right – not too hot with some light cloud cover to avoid excessive exposure to the sun's blaze. The first sign-post indicated 2h30 to the Montenvers and with a dismissive ‘Pah!' we set out to come well within this time. In fairness these timings are fairly accurate for your normal ramble but we had our trail-runners on and this was no Sunday stroll after all! About 5 minutes later I was puffing, sweating and in danger of exploding the sensor on the HRM, when the path luckily flattened out slightly after the steep start. Perhaps several cocktails at The Club House summer opening party followed by dinner at No Escape and two bottles of wine was a little bit excessive the night before!?
The initial trail heads up through the woods with up several switchbacks following the line of the cog-railway. The views are fairly limited at this point although glances of the valley are to be had through the trees. About an hour up there is a slick-rock face which is much more fun scrambling up than walking past, if you are as inclined as we were. Again the HRM screeched like I was about to flat-line; but no pain no gain they say and with determination made it to the top of the rock face where we got the first views of the Mer de Glace and Les Drus. We were well within time.
Carrying on up through boulders, steps, ladders and more trees we came across the first of what would be many snow patches of the day. Trainers are definitely not the ideal but we weren't about to turn back. We made it up to the Montenvers train station and hotel 1h35 after setting out – not bad.
After a brief stop for a snack and some photos we chose to take the Signal route rather than head straight across to the Aiguille. This adds about 30-45 minutes and some more uphill which was part of the challenge. With 20:20 hindsight the path was still too snowy and we lost it several times having to scramble over rocks to rejoin it when we picked up the trace. Nevertheless, over the snow there were several tracks of past walkers – we were just a bit too early in the season to be trying to run the course or to be in running shoes. The snow and the additional efforts to keep on track added time and used up valuable energy reserves (and calories which was absolutely the plan!). The Grand Balcon Nord to the Plan de l'Aiguille took another 2h30, much longer than it can be done in. The views down in to the valley and of the spires of the grandes Jorasses and the chaine du Mont Blanc are quite impressive and can be enjoyed on the way (if you are not looking at your feet trying to stop them slipping down the snowfield!).
As we approached the Plan our legs were feeling the strain, we were fed up of snow fields and we still had the steep descent to Chamonix to go! There was serious consideration given to taking the cable-car down from its mid-station but decided we wouldn't quit that easily – dinner was now the motivational force, some 1200m below. Feeling a little like it must be on one of those SAS TV-training courses (where they tell you to run yet another 20 times up and down the sand-dunes) we tried to find the path down – only there was just a big pile of snow. A cunning combination of scree-running/skiing/sledging technique got us over this obstacle and onto a discernable trail. Although our legs seemed to weight 10x more than usual we began, assisted by gravity, to run down. The trail back to town is steep and there are plenty of rock and roots to get over safely. Close to exhaustion the path seemed to carry on for ages – but really only about 35-40 minutes was required to get back down which wasn't bad.
The most satisfying however were the readings on the HRM at the finish line – 5600 kcals gone in 5h35 minutes. The implications were just fantastic – dinner could be anything we wanted, stuffed with calories and it wouldn't matter. Roast chicken, new potatoes with loads of butter, broccoli, a tub of Haargen-Daz Pralines & Cream, and 2 litres of watery orange juice later, the DVD player went on and several sore limbs went to sleep on the couch!
The circuit was around 13km and at a pace should take between 3-4 hours (if you are fit) taking the opposite route to the one we did - after the initial climb up much more of the circuit is then a descent (we were almost always heading uphill). There is a vertical ascent of about 1300m (1450m heading over the Signal route) in total.
The next day we actually recovered quickly and by Monday we were heading out on a favourite run up to Argentiere and back along the Petit Balcons (Nord and Sud) but that we'll save that for another report…
The weather over the last few days has been cold and miserable – it has even been snowing in town: well it is only nearly June! The weather is set to improve at the end of the week – in time for some more weekend sports. Keep tuning in!
Piste Maps for Chamonix (pdf format), Les Houches (jpg format), Cross-country skiing (pdf format), and Mountain-bike trails (pdf format)
Current status for opening of Pistes & Lifts
Chamonix Webcam Index
Useful Links
Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
French Avalanche Research Institute
Meteo France - Mountain weather and avalanche conditions bulletins (in French)
Henry's Avalanche Talk - popular avalanche training sessions based in French Alps as well as translation of current avalanche conditions
PisteHors.com - Backcountry Skiing and Snowboarding News in English for the French Alps. Excellent coverage of avalanche safety and advice
Additional snow and weather information provided, with thanks, by meteo.chamonix.com and the Tourist Office
