Short but stunning stage through high parts of the Vanoise. The route has magnificent views of the glaciers and peaks. From the refuge, the trail hikes a little further into the valley, then crosses the river before turning back toward the valley of the River d'Arc. At first, the trail descends, followed by a steep climb. The second half is a lot flatter and follows the mountainside.
We wake up among the high mountains. Magnificent to unzip your tent with this view. Today we have a short stage ahead of us; "only" 13.5 kilometers, so we allowed ourselves an extra hour of sleep. We get up at 7 instead of 6. About 2 hours later we leave Refuge du Plan du Lac and are happy to walk into the sun because it's pretty cold at the top of the mountains, at 2,400 meters altitude.
For a change we start the day with a descent, nice to slowly warm up a bit. We walk further into the valley and after descending we will cross the river and then walk back on the other side of the valley towards the larger valley.
No cars are allowed in the park the Vanoise, so we are surprised when we cross a paved road, on which a scheduled bus comes driving over. It's a funny sight.
The river we cross flows pretty hard and here enters a small reservoir, d'Entre deux eaux, which is used to generate power for some houses and refuges in the area. The little bridge across the river is made of wooden beams and from the looks of it, it has been there for a long time: you can see the water flowing right through it.
After crossing the river, we climb a lot higher to another magnificent view. We walk on small paths through the alpine meadows between peaks with glaciers. When we reach the top, we see a great place to take a break and we pitch the tent, which is still soaked with dew (it's amazing how much heavier a wet tent is than a dry one!). This causes a few surprised looks from hikers passing by, given the ban on camping in the park. But we still have our French-language explanation ready ("Seulement secher!"), lol. We are in no hurry at all today, since it is only a short hike and we're not allowed to pitch our tent before 7pm at the next refuge. The view is so beautiful, the weather is good and we enjoy an hours-long break. This never gets boring... even without phone coverage.
By 4 o'clock we've packed up all our stuff and are back on the road. It is still about 2.5 hours of walking, so we'll be at Refuge de L'Arpont nicely in time. At least, that's the plan.... We walk along 2 breathtakingly beautiful lakes towards a large glacier river which we cross. In the rocky landscape it's sometimes hard to find the path, over the huge plateaus with stones and fields of boulders it's difficult to see where people have walked. But here and there piles of stones serve to indicate the correct route. Once back on the trail, as we walk over a small hill, suddenly a large alpenstone buck stands in the middle of the path in front of us, just a few meters away. With his two long horns, he's quite imposing. He looks at us for a moment, but then quietly goes back to grazing. We hesitate if we will just walk by, but then he slowly starts walking ahead of us. Suddenly we see him startled by something to his left in the grass. It turns out to be an alpine grouse with chick, what cute little creatures. It's funny that the buck isn't afraid of us, but he is startled by such a little fowl.
A bit further on we see another alpine buck, this time a female with a young. These too seem to pay no attention to us at all and the mother stays in the middle of the path. The cub is closer to us, so if we keep walking on the path we have to pass between them and that doesn't seem te be such a good idea. We climb a bit up the slope and walk above the two animals. They continue grazing undisturbed. Amazed by all the beauty we have just seen, we walk over another small hill, where to the left and right of the path at least 10 more female bucks with young are grazing. Aiii... we are definitely not going to cross this! We have to climb up quite a steep hill, but we go around it anyway. And also around the rest of the herd of male bucks, which appears on a hill beyond. Even though they are calm, they're still wild animals. With big horns. That does command respect.
Safely back on the path we have to make good progress. It's downhill for a bit and then a final climb up to the refuge. But at the top of the slope, about 100 meters below us, we see a large flock of sheep accompanied by several large guard dogs, but no shepherd... One of the dogs has already spotted us and as we are about to walk on, he comes towards us. These dogs are trained to keep the herd safe and we have heard quite a few stories of hikers who have been bitten by these animals. For us, there is only one option: go around the herd in a véry big bow. We climb the slope and clamber over large boulders, all the while keeping an eye on the big dogs. There doesn't seem to come no end to flock of sheep in front of us... Finally we get a first glimps of the refuge, but we are at the top of a steep slope. Foot by foot, using the hiking poles and sometimes sitting down, we carefully descend to the refuge. At one of the large rocks we climb over, Mark spots a snake crawling away. Nature's surprises never stop...
An hour later than hoped we arrive at Refuge de L'Arpont. Today proves once again that there are no tougher stages than the ones we think "Aw, easy!" beforehand. One advantage: we can pitch the tent immediately, since it is already 7pm.
It turns out to be a very lovely, but crowded refuge. It takes a while to find a flat spot for our tent, but then again we have a phenomenal view. How beautiful the Vanoise is! And when it slowly gets dark, tired but satisfied we enjoy our second freeze-dried meal (mashed potatoes with vegetables and pasta with mushrooms) accompanied by a good soup.
Wow, what an amazing trip again today!
