Thursday, July 21, 2022
Tour du Mont Blanc – Day 11
Refuge Lac Blanc to Chamonix!
Starting elevation: 2,352 m
Ending elevation: 1,008 m
Elevation gain: 318 m
Elevation loss: 595 m
Distance: 4.9 miles to cable car, 4.2 miles on valley floor
Last night the rains rolled in, first before dinner, and then off and on through dinner. There are only 40 or so places in this refuge, and only in dorms, so we didn’t know what to expect. There must have been 2 bunk rooms, because ours was 4 cubbies of 5 beds each, and each cubbie had a window. We promptly opened ours and hoped that our 5th person would be ok sleeping with it open.
Dinner was served at four enormous booths for 10 each. We had 8 at ours, and me and a French-Canadian turned American had the windows at our booth open, chilly wind be damned. I think Pat and Andrew were a bit chilly, but after having been cooked and sweated to death at the last place, wearing a jacket in the chilly wind for dinner was so welcome. How better to demonstrate my Colorado-ness?
Dinner was three courses and served with a smile. Soup, delicious stewed chicken and rice, and yogurt with blueberries for dessert. After dinner, everyone was pretty quick to bed, and our 5th person never showed up, so we slept the four of us in bunks with the window open.
Breakfast this morning was about the saddest we’ve encountered. Bread, jam, butter, coffee, powdered milk, cereal, and hot water. Not exactly sure about that, but Nathan had his cocoa sugar bombs in hot water…
We got ready and left the refuge, fully immersed in a cloudy fog. We hiked down to La Flegere, and got coffee and pastries. The plan was to hike down to Plan Praz, and take the cable car. Being so close to civilization, I would have been ok to take the cable car from La Flegere and call it a day, but…
So we hiked across the Grand Balcon Sud, to Plan Praz, and took the cable car down, but not before my disposition had soured. By this time I was done, done, done. I gave my usual warnings of ‘my personality is about to go south’, of which NO ONE heeded. You know Nathan knew what was about to happen, but properly ignored the impending implosion. Nearly to toddler temper tantrum status, once we got off the cable car, we got coffees, and proceeded to walk from Chamonix to Les Houches. I was just faking it.
We got about a block away from the bottom of the cable car, hot, sweaty, and I was like no way. Whatever Google maps says for a walk time, it’s just not happening here. I left the group to find our hotel and check-in. The rest of them walked the ENTIRE REST OF THE AFTERNOON to Les Houches. I’m showered and clean, having checked into the hotel, have had 3 glasses of rose, half a saucisson, with cornichons and bread, and those poor souls just walked up after walking and then catching the bus from Les Houches.
Normalment.
