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| Leaping Julia |
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| Tour des Muverans |
Julia has been working at a Swiss boarding school being an assistant house parent and taking the children on various expeditions, walking, skiing, canoeing and all things outdoor.
Julia
organised a walking tour for us, over four days, staying in huts for the three
nights.
The Tour des
Muverans follows a high level route around the impressive peaks of the Muveran
Massif (which Julia can see from her balcony at the school). It is apparently one of the wilder parts of
the Swiss Alps, and we’ll be walking through a couple of nature reserves en
route.
June and I left
a very soggy UK on Sunday and were told to bring Clothes for all weather
conditions. Things were looking up as we flew south across a sunny France but
the clouds thickened as we started our decent into Geneva. A very pleasant
train journey around Lac Leman to Aigle, followed by a bus ride up the mountain
to Villars sur Ollon at 1300m, we were met by daughter Julia. It was raining but we were prepared.
We
were staying with George and Carol Logie, who are the parents of Julia's fiancé
Mark. They are house parents at the same school as well as teachers. Normal
school life had finished for the academic year the week before and Summer
school was about to start.
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| Acclimatisation |
It
was funny seeing the baby slope again, where George had tried valiantly and
very patiently, to teach me to ski 18 months previously. I did eventually sort
of master this slope after a week but I am not a natural to say the least and
did not progress to anything more technical. I think my main problem is lack of
confidence caused by a fear of heights. Is walking in the Alps really a good
idea?
On
Tuesday, Carol kindly gave us a lift to the start of the walking tour at Pont
de Nant (1253m). It wasn't raining but cloudy, which was a bit of an
improvement on Monday.
Day one of
the walk took us from Pont de Nant, up a lovely valley, through forests, open
pastures and crossing snow patches up to the Col des Essets (2029m) then
dropping down into Anzeindaz (1876m) for a coffee stop. From here a gentle climb up over the Pas de
Cheville (2038m) and finally a fairly steep descent to Derborence (1450m) where
we were to spend the first night. We got there in the evening sunshine, dropped
off our bags and went to test the water with the idea of having a swim. It was
very cold and there were some large snakes near the water, so we decided on a
paddle and wash rather than a swim.
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| The Hut at Derborence |
The
first hut was an interesting mix, with a fantastic menu, great wines but no
showers and one shared dormitory which was basically split into one large lower
and one large upper bunk. Fortunately, the dormitory was not full and there
were no loud snorers, so we got a good night’s sleep.
Ascent: 940m Descent:
750m Distance: 13.5km
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| Marmot |
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| Giant Swiss Flowers |
The
second day started sunny and warm but ended with a violent thunderstorm chasing
us up a glacier to the Rambert Hut at a height of 2580m. We met our first
serious amounts of snow during the day.
Now, I don't mind horizontal lying snow but when it is at an angle, I
start to panic. Julia and June went ahead of me and made deep footsteps for me
to follow and as long as I didn’t look up or down the slopes, I was just about
OK.
On
the final scramble up to the hut, with the thunderstorm chasing, we thought
that June was hallucinating when she reported seeing three monks in their
habits running up above us. However, her sighting was confirmed later that
evening by a couple that saw them climbing the Grand Muveran earlier.
The
delicious evening meal was soup, stew with rice and fruit salad for pudding,
with a bottle of red wine to wash it down. We ate our meal together as a group
that included a German / Mexican couple, two Dutch lads and eight Swiss. The
Swiss parties’ age range must have been from about 20 to 70 and they kept us
entertained during the evening with their singing. They were walking in the
opposite direction to us around the tour and I was amazed to find that their
following day was to take them well beyond where we started that morning.
The
facilities were even more basic with a drop toilet and no running water but the
dormitories were a little more private.
Ascent: 1240m Descent: 150m Distance: 9.5km
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| Ibex |
The third day
started downhill, all the way to Petit Pres (1598m), and then a climb up to the
Col de Fenestral (2453m) with a picturesque view down to the Lac de Fully. We headed down to this lake (2135m) and then finished
the day with another climb up to the Col du Demecre (2361m) for the last night
on the Tour.
This hut was
run more like a youth hostel where we cooked our own meals with supplied ingredients
(spaghetti Bolognese) and did our own washing up. The warden made his own bread
and jam which we had for breakfast. Julia asked how they got their provisions
up from civilisation and the answer was by helicopter.
Continuing
the toilet talk, this hut had a very modern but distant composting one, with
solar powered lighting and we were given a bowl of warm water for washing, which
was very welcome.Ascent: 1120m Descent: 1400m Distance: 13.5km
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| Hut at Col du Demecre |
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| Outside Hut |
Day
four started and ended wet, with a cloudy middle. We were advised not to take
the high route that Julia had planned because of the amount of rain and the
likelihood that the narrow and precarious path would have been washed away.
This meant a long detour down 500m and then back up 500m to a hut for lunch.
This was a fantastic newly built hut, with an amazing view over the valley and
it had flushing toilets and a shower! However we weren't staying and after a
steep climb and the crossing of the scariest snow slopes so far, the rest of
the day was a 1200m decent back down to Pont de Nant, where George was waiting
to pick us up.
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| Scariest Snow Slope of the Tour |
The
only other problem on the way down was crossing the stream in the valley, which
normally would be possible with a couple of stepping stones but because of
amount of rain we had to go quite a way up-stream to find a crossing point.
Ascent: 900m Descent: 2100m Distance: 15.5km
Back at the
school and having had an enormous feast and a shower for the first time in four
days we all felt re-vitalised and ready for a trip to Montreux the following
day.
We were
fortunate with our timing, as the Montreux Jazz Festival happened to be on all
week, so we spent a very sunny and warm Saturday being entertained by free
music, entertainers, exotic food, a swim in the lake and an all-day paraglider demonstration.
The paragliders were leaping off a distant mountain, doing loops and tricks
above us and then trying to land on a floating pontoon in the lake.
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| A Successful Landing |
All in all a
wonderful trip, slightly beyond my comfort zone in a few places but that’s probably
not a bad thing. The weather was a nice temperature for walking, it’s only a
shame that some of the views were hidden in the clouds; we should have been
able to see much more including Mont Blanc.
Oh well, next time.
