Category Archives: Adventures 2014 The Haute Route

Beautiful Chamonix

From the balconyWow what a great start. We’ve a great room with a balcony looking directly up at Mont Blanc and the weather is beautiful. Letitia arrived safely and besides having to get reception to help her get into the room (as i was already asleep at 7.30pm) she is stoked with the town.

We are lucky to have a bed too as the town is packed out by super hardy trail runners! Turns out this is the week of the Ultra-Trail Du Mont Blanc. Five races through the rough high trails in the alps ranging from a mere 53kms, through 101, 119, 168, and 300kms!!! And each race has over 1500 entrants except for the 168km run which has 2300 entrants!! Phew and the high tech ultra light weight gear they use has to be seen to be believed.

Yesterday we headed up to about 4000m by a series of cable cars to the amazing Aguille du Midi. It was a favourite of mine from when Rod and I were here a couple of years ago and i wanted to be able to show Letitia. On the last occasion we’d travelled up there from the Italian side (Courmayeur). I was a bit worried about suffering from altitude sickness as the last time we’d had a week of walking over many high passes before scaling these heights. But as it turned out i didn’t have to worry about altitude sickness as i came down with a case of food poisoning which had me scrabbling for the nearest bin to throw up in. YUK!  I think it is the sickest I’ve been for a long time. I’m on the mend today but still feeling weak and touchy in the tummy. Not the ideal way to start a 200km walk in the alps. Gorgeous Letitia is sightseeing by herself today while I hang around the room feeling sorry for myself.

We’ll tackle our final pack this afternoon. Last chance to try to lighten the load before we are committed to dragging all that we have in our packs up hill and down dale for two weeks.

I’m hoping we have internet access in at least a few of the places we stay so i can send updates. Next post will be from up in the mountains somewhere.

The mud map of the Haute Route

Route Mud Map

Off on a new adventure – The Haute Route

So much stuff!!!!

So much stuff!!!!

Only two more sleeps and I’ll be jetting off for a new adventure.

My friend Letitia and I will be tackling the highest walking (non technical) route in the the French/Swiss Alps -The Haute Route.  I knew I should be a bit afraid when the fellow we paid to book our mountain refuges and little auberges along the way asked if we were “really sure” we wanted to do this after we’d informed him of our previous walking experience.  To top it off I’ve had the dreaded lurgy for the last week and a half so my training regime has gone out the window.  Oh well, Letitia and I console ourselves with affirmations like – “just one step at a time”, and “we’ve got all day to get there”, etc.  It is just that we have to tackle altitude gains of 1000 to 1500 meters and back down again each day.  Phew!  it is not super high though. The passes are only about 3000m at the most.  And what beauty we will see.  I can’t wait.

I’m a bit sad my best mate Rod is not coming.  He is sacrificing himself to stay home and supervise the house building at Noosa – the gorgeous man.  Not that I would have tempted him anyway.  As much as he likes our walking trips, there was a riding trip through Spain on offer through the bike shop at the same time that he would have dearly loved to do.  He’ll have to wait for next year for a ride now as we’ll be riding the length of England (Lands End to John o’Groats) as a celebration of his “significant” birthday that is coming up next year.

Well I’m off to do some last minute shopping for my pack.  I’ll try to send through a least something of the trip when I can but I know I won’t be able to keep up Rod’s high standard of travel log.  Wish me luck!