Wednesday, July 20, 2022
Tour du Mont Blanc – Day 10
Auberge la Boerne to Refuge Lac Blanc
Starting elevation: 1,395 m
Ending elevation: 2,352 m
Elevation gain: 957 m
Elevation loss: 0 m
Distance: 3 miles
Ladders: 8 (?)
Last night was another shit show. We arrived at the refuge by 3 pm or so, and were shown our extremely claustrophobic bunk room. Nathan and I promptly showered and took care of chores, then sat outside to enjoy a drink and decompress.
Pat and Andrew arrived, and we worked out that Nathan and I would be on the top bunk, and Pat and Andrew would be on the bottom.
Our room essentially functions as the hallway to the balcony and clothesline, so there was no privacy as people were traipsing through our room with their wash.
Dinner was lovely though, and we enjoyed salad, bread, turkey and pork with gravy and rice, cheese and applesauce.
We saved our leftover bread and cheese in some spare Ziplocs I brought, with the intention to eat it for lunch the next day.
After dinner is when the true hell started. Our room has 6 beds, and two strangers are in there with us. We’re also on the second floor, and even with both our doors open, the top bunk registered a really sweaty and uncomfortable 86 degrees.
At about 10 pm, the hostess roused us from our attempted slumber to pay the bill. I had jammies on, while Nathan was in his underpants, so I took the card downstairs to settle up. I had to hang around while she wrote it all down and added everything a few times, and then I paid and went back upstairs.
I tried to settle back in, but it was so hot and gross, I couldn’t fall asleep. There is a group of 8 or so young teenage kids trekking with their parents, and they were loud and carrying on until someone in the next room hollered at them to be quiet.
I might have gotten 3 hours of sleep.
Today, we packed up our stuff, and had to hang around until 7:30 for the worst excuse for French breakfast to be served by the most sour of French women. We are not off to a good start.
Today is the ladder section, and we had nearly 1,000 meters of gain to climb in only 3 miles. Up, up, and up we go.
When we got to the ladder section, Pat put on Andrew’s climbing harness. I managed the ladders just fine, but at one point, Pat was trying to tell me to turn around for a photo, and I said no. The last ladder was the scariest.
Once we all got to the top, we sat to have our lunch of leftover cheese and bread.
From there, it was just a short uphill walk to some lakes below the refuge. We put our feet in, hopeful for alpine frigid water, but were greeted with rather warm, summer lake temps.
Nathan and I continued up towards Refuge Lac Blanc, while Pat and Andrew stayed behind for a swim. Two Dutch people took up residence near them, stripped down to nothing, and took a swim. No problem there, but there is this whole open lake and shore for them to find their own space, and there they were nude, practically on top of Pat and Andrew.
We got up to the refuge, and wandered around the lake, stopping to take photos. We managed to spot 3 Ibexes, and that is the whole reason we are at this particular refuge.
