24th Aug 2013: Tour Du Mont Blanc Day 2

Today is meant to be the longest and hardest day of the trek. The TMB is traditionally is done in 11 to 13 days. We're doing it in 8.5, plus 1 day floating at the end.

To meet our tight schedule, our day 2 is a combination of the classic first 3 days, starting from ‘Bionasssay’, (mountain village) roughly midway on the recommended day 1 trail. Yesterday, we only planned for half a day's hike, since we only got to start in the afternoon. So the plan is to start from there, cut a small section of day 2 and arrive at the recommended refuge for day 3, if that makes any sense at all...

Since it's meant to be a very long day, we plan for an early 7 am start, after having had a very basic bread, butter and jam breakfast.

We snake down the twisty roads just off Bionassay, and somehow, miss a turn, and end up in a small village called Bionsay, some 200 meters lower (altitude) than Champel, which was our target intermediate stop!!!!!!
More distance, more elevation gain and loss on a day that was already packed...!!! Nice…

Ask for directions around, and the locals reroute us to a trail called 'Val de Monjoie', which still is a very enjoyable forest walk following a river upstream. 

Temperatures are very much cooler than on the eve, with overcast skies. We eventually rejoin the main TMB route to a small village called ‘Les Contamines’, where I manage to buy one of these fancy microfiber quick drying towels that pack into the size of a closed fist.

Nice walk up le ‘Col du Bonhomme’.
The landscape starts to get more interesting as we progress through the day.
Panini with raw ham, local cheese and onions on the go for lunch, from one of the small eateries on the way.

As we start to tackle Le Col de la Croix, weather starts to deteriorate and soon, a light drizzle follows. Picture time over, camera packed safely in the dry backpack, and the rain jacket makes its first appearance on this trek. Weather gets progressively worse, and at some point, mini thunderstorms, with pelting rain, and dense fog come down on us. We briefly assess the situation, and decide to carry on hiking up, thinking that we would be safe from a thunder strike with the high voltage power lines and towers higher up.

Miserable weather, with temperatures dropping to probably around zero. At some point we had to walk on very slippery extended ice patches.

Every now and then, some of the clouds would dissipate very briefly revealing the dramatic scenery and snow capped mountains and glaciers. No pictures… :( 
On top of le Col du Bonhomme, we find a small wooden shelter to hide from rain and wind. We meet a mother and her son also doing the TMB and we start discussing routes and alternative tracks on the TMB, whilst we recover from the effort so far and try to keep ourselves warm.

We resume the trek up le Col de la Croix. At this point, with the downpour, numerous streams of water cascade down the mountain, several of which need to be crossed, sometimes at fairly high risk.

We finally make it to the summit of the Col de la Croix, and somehow get lost again in the transition to the Col des Fours (highest point reached in the TMB). After 15 minutes of moving back and forth on precarious slippery angled terrain, we manage to find our way back to the main trail, and reach our final col of the day, some 40 minutes later.

Going down the very steep and technical terrain, made even worse by the rain, mild hypothermia starts to set in. We were completely drenched at this point, and going downhill is not as taxing to the cardio system, and therefore generates little heat to warm the body.

At some point, we reach a sign post indicating our next transition, la Ville des Glaciers. Snag is that all the arrows for all the other destinations point in the same direction, which cannot be correct. Upon further inspection, we notice that the anchoring of the signs to the post is all loose, and the signs must all have been aligned by the wind...!! Jeff guesstimates our probable route and luckily, we find some confirmation markings in the ground soon after.

Going down, we bump into 2 mountain bikers coming up. Crazy...!!! We were barely able to keep balance with the help of 2 trekking poles each, and these guys were holding their bikes in top of their heads whilst climbing the steep muddy slopes, in a rainstorm...!!!

We reach another one of those, by now, infamous, torrent crossings. This time however, the volume and force or the water seem insurmountable. We check it out briefly, and confirm that crossing that stream would be madness. Problem is that turning back would be near impossible due to the terrain, weather, and elevation profile.

Other option, which was not any better, would be to spend the night on the spot. Problem with that is several fold as well.
1: we were already drenched and on the verge of full blown hypothermia, and the rain and wind gave no indication that they would subside.
2: nightfall would bring down the temperature further down to well below subzero levels
3: no shelter for the night. We didn't bring any tents since people sleep in mountain huts on the TMB
4: no food, bar a few cereal bars, and we were already starving.

We spend at least half an hour discussing the issue and trying to come up with alternative solutions and routes, in vain. At some point, I went to inspect the crossing in more detail, to try to identify the potentially least dangerous path. With the trekking poles, I tried to assess the power of the water flow at different points of the chosen path and the respective depths, and just went in based on the information gathered.
Somehow made it through, for once helped by the weight of the very heavy backpack, which provided added stability in the fast moving water. Jeff followed in my footsteps, slipping in the middle of the crossing whist trying to rush a step. Luckily his spill occurred close to a fairly large rock that was protruding above the water line, and he managed to regain balance. Close call. I recorded his crossing, for those interested to see what his near early retirement from this world looked like... :P

More technical downhill to la Ville des Glaciers, which is really just a big farm in the middle of nowhere facing glaciers (which we unfortunately only caught glimpses of when clouds briefly receded).

Refuge des Mottets, where we are scheduled to spend the night is just 20 minutes away, on gentle uphill. Jeff points out to the buildings comprising the refuge, and blurts out:
I don't know where heaven is, but here in Switzerland it's right there...!!!
For info, we are still in France…:P

We unpack all our wet stuff and proceed to leave them to dry in a dedicated dry room provided by the refuge, and warmed by a wood fueled furnace.
Dinner is served. Menu:
1. Vegetable soup
2. Beef bourguignon
3. Cheese
4. Caramel flan

Not the longest hike I've done, but by far the toughest by virtue of the elevation gain and loss, weather conditions and weight of the backpack (arnd 23 kilos with water at the beginning of each day).

At some point on the descent, the cold and fatigue threatened to make my quads seize, and by the time we arrived at the refuge, our shoulder and back muscles and knees were gone. Hope we can recover enough by tomorrow for another long day.
Chicken legs (ref fellowship), you have served me well...

Stats of the day:
11 hours 22 minutes trekking
31.9 kms
7040 kcal estimate by hrm...!!!

2284 m ascent, 1693 m descent
https://www.polarpersonaltrainer.com/shared/exercise.ftl?shareTag=9baf355565132b85adbc7167ab5f4a46

Col du Bonhomme 2329m
Col de la Croix 2483m
Col des Fours 2665m
La Ville des Glaciers 1789m
Refuge des Mottets 1870m