Having booked my more-or-less annual Summer sojourn to The Alps to team up with ‘my’ guide, Tim Blakemore, I was told by my most recent climbing partner, Judy, ‘I can’t make those dates Paul as they overlap with my cycling trip with ‘The Belles”. Plan B was an instant thought ‘could Dorina take Judy’s place now that we have a quieter Cafe?’. Dorina………..? ‘Yes please my Darling’ came her enthusiastic reply. This was going to be her first summer holiday with me for 13 years, yes that is correct & that sums up the commitment she & Gaby gave to our Cafe in Capel Curig for so many years.
We set off on Wednesday 3rd July with Dorina’s car & it’s roof box jammed packed with travelling gear, camping gear, running gear & mountaineering gear, indeed just packing for the trip felt like an expedition in itself. An early detour into Shrewsbury Audi to sort out a key problem (that’s another story altogether) went better than expected but the M25 was worse than feared making total journey time to the Ashford International Hotel circa 9 hours. Time for a quick evening meal & read before lights out before 10pm ready for a 2:30am alarm.
The journey through France went smoothly with none of my usual yawns & as ever the lunch stop at the Bresse du Poisons service station did us proud. After a relaxed & un-rushed 8.5 hours we reached our planned camp site at Les Bossons a little after 4:00pm, this would be our base for the next dozen days.
The next day, Friday, saw me taking Dorina on an acclimatisation ‘run’ up to the Bellachat hut which overlooks the Chamonix valley with breathtaking views of the Mont Blanc Massif. We stopped here for a well deserved drink before heading onwards towards the summit of the Brevent, 2,525 metres, however it soon became clear that the remains of the winter snow were far more extensive than normal for this time of year, a good sign for the week ahead. With no spikes in our bags there was only one sensible option, at about halfway we cautiously abandoned our plan & turned around, no need to mess up the bigger plans with an avoidable early slip.
A cautious descent back to Bellachat & then a steady trot for the never ending 1,000+ metre descent. We’d had a good jaunt of over 12 miles in perfect weather & had made a sensible decision to boot.
Later that evening we met up with Tim in Les Houches & discussed options for the following week where Tim would be guiding us for 6 days. I had already come up with a couple of ‘get to know Dorina’s abilities’ options for the first half of the week together with another option for the second half, all subject to weather & conditions, I was more than pleased that they met with Tim’s approval. We left with Tim to look into booking huts if available having made sure he could contact us via something called Whatsit. This he did soon after saying Option A, Refuge Albert, was fully booked so it’ll be Option B, Refuge Vittorio Emanuele in Italy, I would be revisiting my first Alpine 4,000 metre peak from 11 years ago, Gran Paradiso, very fitting that it could possibly become Dorina’s first 4,000er too.
Before that we had two more days to prepare, relax & pack the rucksacks.
We had been considering a second acclimatisation run on the Saturday but with the Bellachat descent in Dorina’s legs made another sensible decision & restricted ourselves to low level runs along the L’arve valley with Dorina doing 8K & me clocking 15K. Dorina had got back to the tent just as the serious rain arrived whereas I got an absolute soaking which strangely I thoroughly enjoyed! The rest of the afternoon was taken up with reading mostly inside the tent avoiding the now intermittent rain. Then we made another decision, well a pre-planned one in truth, & walked a few hundred metres to the renamed ‘Blue Sky Hotel’ (by co-incidence the same name as the hotel I stayed at in Skardu on my way to & from GII 2 years earlier) to watch England v Switzerland. This time the decision was a bad one, need I say more?
Thankfully the pain ended & we headed back to our tent for evening snacks & wine & were fortunate to reach it just before the predicted thunder storm kicked off, quite exhilarating in a tent as long as you are at a low level campsite which we were.
Dawn broke still with overcast skies with slugs here & there on the tent including one or two who had broken inside but the rain had passed & we could breakfast outside. Today, Sunday, would be a rest day & simply see us walking to & from Chamonix, total of 7 miles, to get cash for the days ahead & give me the chance to sus out the boots department of Snell’s, Chamonix’s most famous Outdoor store. Let me make it clear that my boots are nearing their end so this wasn’t carefree retail therapy but I resisted for now despite liking what I saw. We had an obligatory Beer sat in the sun with a cool breeze overlooking Mont Blanc to set us up for the walk back to our camp.
Gear & bags had been sorted pre-walk, so we could now simply relax & read before the evening saw me cooking followed by more reading & wine for me whilst Dorina abstained in readiness for the bigger days ahead. Camping really did add something to the trip & kept the costs down for most of the it, sadly Switzerland, as ever, was going to put a serious dent into our bank accounts. But our beloved Italy first which I’ll cover in Part 2.
The kind Lady at the Campsite allowed us to keep our tent pitched & car parked for just 7 Euro’s a night whilst we planned to be away for two sets of 2 days, simply great of her!