Today started out just where we left off, a great trail with amazing views. Val Veni is probably the most beautiful valley I have ever been in or seen, and remember, I’ve been to Nepal, Washington State, Colorado, and all through the Pyrennes. These last three days are worth the trip in itself. I just can’t imagine a more picturesque place on earth. We have had the glaciers hanging over us, we have heard avalanches and rock falls, and we have had to go slow, not because the trail is hard, but because we can’t stop staring at the massif across from us.
We were the last ones out of the refuge this morning, mainly because I had to cook breakfast and clean up after while Pam just had to pack, so chalk it up to me being slow domestically. Add in the morning rush hour in the valley (a man and his dog driving a herd of cattle along the trail) and we just didn’t care how fast we went. Other than the cattle drive, we didn’t see anyone until we got to Refuge Elena just before the Swiss border.
It was about 5 miles to Refuge Elena so we were ready for lunch when we got there. Since it was closed, they had removed all picnic tables from the area. We decided to make use of the winter room so we could have a table with a view. While we ate our lunch, we watched a group of about a dozen climbers making their way up across the valley from us.
After lunch we had less than a 2000′ climb to Grand Col de Ferret which is the French/Switzerland frontier. We passed an older couple that had been in front of us, but now they were siting on the side of the trail watching the climbers and the glaciers. They were in their early sixties, both retired, and had a vacation home in Chamonix but lived full time in Paris. Now that we have accepted that we are not going to pick up a whole lot of French on this trip, we tend to look at communication as more of a game–international charades, if you will. He spoke no English, we are illiterate in all languages, and she spoke a little bit of English. We managed to all have fun trying to communicate.
As we were nearing the top of the col, we passed one very overloaded donkey and about a dozen underburdened people. They were doing a half way around the mountain trip ending in Courmayeur. We really felt sorry for all the gear the donkey was carrying–you could hear him struggling with the load. I’ll bet there was easily more than 500# on his back. I don’t blame the people that booked the trip, I blame the tour operator for not using 2 animals instead of one.
At the pass, we had great views of the valley behind us and a nice easy trail in front of us, but no magnificent vistas to look forward to. Going into Switzerland, you lose all views of the upper portion of the massif with its glaciers. We did stop and watch a farmer with 4 amazing sheep dogs gather up an entire flock of sheep from the side of the mountain and get them all in a single file line to move them to another grazing field. The dogs were lightening fast and efficient, the shepherd just stood there and let the dogs do all the work–typical of management (it really brought back memories of Brad Butler to me–I guess that will be another “cease and desist” order from his lawyer).
The trail didn’t match the description in the guidebook or a turn was not well marked, but we ended up doing a lot of road walking into the town of Ferret, Switzerland. We knew from our hard earned refuge list that there was nothing open for business in Ferret, but we saw the church at the lower end of town and wanted to get a picture of it. I had just read an article on the internet (it was on the internet so it must be true) that Switzerland is the least welcoming country in the world–don’t forget, the world includes places like North Korea, Afghanistan, and Georgia (the country or the American state–doesn’t matter which for comparison purposes). As we walked through the small town, we didn’t see any people, but the doors of all the houses were open. We got to the church, took a picture, and turned around to walk back to the trail. Every door that had been open was now closed. They didn’t slam them, just waited until we were past and silently closed them so they wouldn’t take a chance of intermingling with the strangers.
We were not off to a good first impression. We continued on to La Fouly where we knew there were places to stay or even camp. The guidebook gave us the name of a cheap place to stay and it was the first place we saw upon entering town, so we went there. It was dead, but open. They didn’t take credit cards, but were willing to accept Euros (Switzerland is not part of the EU). She graciously rounded the price up effectively charging us 10 Euros more than she should have. The place was OK but 80 Euros for a bed without food. Most places in France are between 70-80 Euros for a night in a refuge and that includes dinner and breakfast. We think France is high priced, this was ridiculous and a total ripoff. We had already taken off our boots and were too tired to argue.
Supper was on us. We have been carrying food for 6 days now and it was time to start lightening my load. We had Mexican couscous, snickers, and hot tea. As we were just about finished, two other Americans showed up. They were college students from Gonzaga and were spending a semester in Grenada, Spain to learn Spanish. Luke and Maddie seemed like good kids, but they were hiking in sandals.
After talking with them for a bit, we headed up to get ready for bed while they attempted to watch TV and cook supper. I was a little envious of them having the nerves to study abroad for a semester. I was always trying to study a broad while in school but could never find one willing to cooperate.
