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Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
After 7 days almost without rain (the couple of showers the previous day didn't really count), today the weather turned bad again. Not really bad -- it was still quite warm -- but rainy and that's bad enough when you hike.
Fortunately the hike today was relatively undemanding: a long downhill into the deep valley of the Isere (same Celtic root as the Isar River that runs through Munich), followed by a relatively easy climb up the Peisey-Nancroix valley to the Refuge de Rosuel where we would spend the night.
In addition, the following day was to be a rest day, and that always makes untoward weather easier to bear.
We set off quite late, seeing no reason to rush out into the rain, shortly after our dinner companions of the night before, both of whom were planning to go further that day than us. In point of fact, I think that neither did: he ended up staying with us at the Refuge de Rosuel, and she was last seen in the valley at a bus-stop, looking sort of damp and saying something about there being no buses going to where she wanted to go. Rain makes traitors of us all.
We had a nice lunch in Landry, marred for me by a blistering broadside from Sally in response to my fairly innocuous observation, having checked the news, that yet another publicly homophobic Republican Senator had gotten himself into trouble by consorting with homosexuals. Sally more or less accused me of being bigoted since after all Democrats also got into scandals. My attempts to explain that I was drawing attention to the hypocrisy were vigorously ignored (yes, it is possible), and the rest of the hike was done without much communication. I blame the weather... and the fact that given the zero visibility I listened to more of Dune.
We met our other French friend from the previous evening -- Pierre Schwartz from the Alsace, a name that will amuse German readers -- a couple of times during the day. Although he was hiking at least 40% faster than us, he ended up taking about the same time, primarily because he stopped to collect some 3kg of Cepes (Steinpilze, and I don't know the English translation, to my shame), as well as taking trails that added at least another few hundred meters of ascent and descent vis a vis the route we took.
Pierre was a very nice fellow, and he not only shared the raw Cepes with us on the trail (excellent taste), but also prepared and cooked them in the kitchen of the refuge that evening, to go along with a superb meal prepared by the Gardien. This was, I think, the best meal we have yet had at a mountain hut, surpassing even the excellent repast at the Gafadura Huette in Liechtenstein so many weeks ago.
We were only six at the refuge that evening -- a combination of end of season slowness plus poor weather -- and so we all ate together, sharing three bottles of wine and much humourous conversation. It was a very nice atmosphere, and, as said, a superb meal. With such cuisine and table conversation, who cares about a little rain? Not me.
