Chamonix and Aosta Valley
We landed in Geneva and picked up our rental car on the French side. All of our gear had arrived thankfully. With a jetlagged day to kill we thought driving through Annecy to see the lake and having lunch was a good idea. Our meal at lakeside Yannick Alleno was excellent. Probably the best overall on the trip. The cheese room, the ice cream trolly, friendly but professional service, and probably the best lamb dish we’ve ever had were all memorable. After lunch we drove on to Chamonix. It was an early evening in our hotel. The following day we got up early and did a bit of the balcony sud hike, taking the chair up to Flegere and down from Brevant. Beautiful views from alpine single track trails. Easy to see why trail running is popular here. We had lunch in the hotel in their courtyard which was quite good, some delicious canales with a rich sauce. We wandered around the marathon facilities and shops of the town in the afternoon and meeting up with guide before heading to Auberge du bois for dinner, had to interrupt dinner to step out onto their patio to watch the sunset over Aiguille du midi.
The following day we drove through the tunnel and after an espresso headed up skyway bianco, where we had another espresso. The skyway, which connects onwards to aiguille midi is highly recommended even if not climbing, stunning alpine views. We dropped some gear in the rifugio torino, and geared up for marbrees. A short approach across the glacier (have to love chairlifts) onto the rock, where there were many parties already (rethinking love for the chairlifts) . It was scrambling with a 5 fun style pitch near the crux. We traversed out along the route, passing a few parties along the way. Back on the glacier we watched a huge group go completely off route, thankfully they managed to leave some gear and rappelled off uneventfully. We had a edible meal at the hut and an early bedtime. The next day we were up at 5 for aiguille entreves. It was an overcast day with an erry view of the massif coming in and out on our approach. We passed a couple parties and ended up being first on the route. Towards the end the entreves certainly is a step up from mabrees in terms of exposure and difficulty. There is an au cheval move and very exposed traverse perhaps worse than the actual climbing. A lot of rotten snow on the decent had me nervous as well as I have a habit of crushing through it. The views were non-existent but the misty solitude of the rock was impressive in its own right. We were back down to the valley in time for lunch, then spent the night in Courmayeur, a quieter mountain town instead of taking the tunnel back to Chamonix. The next morning after the rains lifted we did a short multipitch sport climb in the Valgrisenche, very pastoral setting with wildflowers, and cow bells. Afterwards we headed up to the rifugio chabod another beautiful green valley.
We had an alpine start the following day, I had trouble getting into gear but persisted onwards. The weather forecast was completely wrong, we hiked up through the whiteout, in borderline conditions surprisingly with many other parties. Near the end there was a bit of a traffic jam, but our guide pulled out some ninja guide moves and somehow we were on the top with the sun out, alone. After descending down we had some gnocchi and polenta for lunch, and relaxed up in the mountains for the afternoon. The hike down was scenic with some beautiful streams and chamois. Did another single pitch of sport climbing before my toes gave up on me. Had another tasty panini before saying goodbye to our guide and heading back to France to start the relaxing part of our journey en route to Provence.
