Well, the sun is back - thankfully - and interseason mode has kicked in up here in the Chamonix Valley. Thankfully the Flégère and Les Houches lifts are still open, until this weekend...and we've been out there enjoying the last few days of operations.
A bike ride along the Charlanon was the highlight of the week. If you're not familiar with the route, which runs along the top of the treeline from La Flégère to Planpraz, it's a windy, bleak singletrack climb for about a mile, struggling with the bike down metal staircases and up sketchy scree slopes. The exact route is detailed in the Mountain Bike Guide that I put the finishing touches to around this time last year.
Along the way I saw precious few other trail users - gone are the processions, shouted apologies and sketchy overtaking of midsummer. I saw a couple of weathered septugenarians fumbling around in the bushes with rake-like tools; upon questioning, it turned out that they were collecting one of the local specialties, myrtilles. I've always wanted to know what kind of berries these are, that I see so often gracing the top of my Croix de Savoie; later dictionary consultation was no help, giving me the less-than-satisfactory translation of bilberries. They're like sloes, but sweeter. I wonder what the gin tastes like?
Further along the trail, after gorging myself with wild rasperries and those myrtille berries, I came across the huge rockfall that came down a few weeks ago in the Lachanel bowl. There are huge craters around the side of the runout, in the mud, where you can see how 10-ton granite blocks bounced freely down the hill like marbles. A sobering site indeed - thankfully there was no-one hurt when it went. It's easy to get over on foot (less easy with a 20kg downhill bike...) and a 'real' trail across it won't be too far away, I'm sure.
Another outing this week was the hike back from Montroc down the glorious Petit Balcon Nord, cutting through Lavancher and ending up back in Chamonix. The trail is in beautiful condition, all dry and crackly underfoot, and the bridge at the Crèmerie du Glacier is back up, cutting out the time-consuming deviation down to Argentière. Remember that the lifts close this weekend - make the most of them while you can.
Until next week!
