So we got new neighbors last night at the campground and while these ones were much quieter, someone had a very loud sleeping pad that we could hear each time someone rolled over in the night. This morning it seemed like so many people around us were coughing with some illness. I was glad we were outside in our own tent. I really don’t want to get sick. For a few days Zoë had a cold, but she managed to get over it pretty quickly and still do all the hiking.
We left the campground and boarded the free bus back to where we ended yesterday. By the time we got to our stop at the end of the line, the bus was packed. We set out and passed nearly all the groups before the climb started, which is good since we’re pretty quick climbers. Sure enough, we left the bus crowds behind after about 15 minutes. There were some cows just inches off the trail as we passed by early in the morning, clearly not quite out of their beds just yet.
As we climbed higher, we reached other groups who must have arrived via other means, rather than the public transit. As we were making our way through them, we noticed some Ibex near the trail. That was a nice surprise. I don’t know if we had seen those yet.
I think we must have been lower today, because it felt much hotter. We had a glacier to accompany our views up the pass, which was nice. At the pass, we crossed back into Switzerland. Now we just had to get back to Champex-Lac.
The sun was out, giving us one final taste of summer before the anticipated rains and temperature swing that would start tomorrow. I tried to remind myself that this was the last hot day I’d have all year (hopefully), particularly later in the day. As we descended, we started seeing groups coming the other direction.
We reached a junction where we had the choice to take a variant or the “official” TMB route. Normally the variant descriptions and their appeal is clear but according to Zoë this one was not. We chose to take the official route and I would say this was our only mistake the entire circuit. The variant ended up being higher and took you closer to a glacier. We knew it was higher but we didn’t know there was a glacier. Instead we took a lower route through the valley and got more distant views of the glacier. I think this was a minor variant that only lasted a few miles and I’m certain our choices otherwise were absolutely spot on with regards to choosing the more scenic option.
We walked through the valley and baked under the sun. Occasionally there were trees but mostly it was hot. We took a lunch break in a grove of trees that happened to be quite windy. I was worried I was going to lose some of my lunch supplies.
After lunch, we made it to the town of La Fouley. The section from La Fouley to Champex-Lac was supposed to be the easiest day on trail. However we were doing it as the second half of our day, which, in my opinion, made it not so easy.
So it was hot, as you already know, and this accounted for a majority of the difficulty. We were also in a valley and while Switzerland is nice, this definitely isn’t the most scenic part of the trail. The signs in town said 4 hours to Champex-Lac and I groaned because I didn’t have the energy to beat that estimate down to 3 hours or less. I knew it was going to be a long day.
We saw quite a few people on this later section to Champex-Lac, many of them Americans. If you wear an REI pack it’s a dead give away you’re American. If you have a Hyperlite pack, I know you speak English and you’re either from North America, Australia, or Germany. Durston packs are also fairly identifiable and probably exclusive to English speakers as well. Anyway I don’t know why we were seeing so many Americans now. Someone else had Zoë’s pack, the REI Flash Air 55, which we’ve only ever seen maybe a couple of other times. There was a cute misunderstanding where the other person thought Zoë’s pack had only been on the TMB and so she thought her pack would look like that after 8 days. Zoë’s pack has been going almost 2 years and has quite a bit of duct tape covering various holes. That absolutely should not happen after 8 days.
Finally, we reached the town of Champex-Lac. We made our way around the lake, very happy to be back. This is the one lake you’re allowed to swim in along the trail so I stripped down and took a celebratory dip. It was glorious! It was so cool and refreshing. I wasn’t the only one in the lake but we might have been the only ones finishing the TMB as Champex-Lac isn’t the most popular starting location for the TMB. It makes the most sense for us though seeing as our next hike also goes through here.
Since rain was forecasted all day tomorrow, we did some research and ultimately landed on taking a day off before resuming hiking on Thursday. We took a bus and some trains to nearby Martigny where we will stay for 2 nights before officially starting/resuming the Walker’s Haute Route. But for now, we’ve finished the Tour du Mont Blanc! I would absolutely recommend it to people!