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Sunday, Sept 2nd, 2007
Chalet Montana had closed for the season, so we hiked to Refuge du Plan Sec instead. Or rather I should say that I hiked there. As feared, Russ and Sally's injuries proved to be severe enough to stop them hiking, at least for now. The plan at breakfast was for them to hike with me for the first 4 hours, to Refuge d'Arpont, at which point they would decide if they could continue.
However, by the end of the first 10 minute (gentle) descent it was clear that neither would have any fun on the trails today. They therefore decided to go straight down to the village of Termignon, and from there take a taxi the 17km to Modane. I would continue on the planned hike, meet up with Mel and Christine at the Refuge du Plan Sec, and then come down to Modane the following day.
As it turned out, given their injuries, it was an excellent decision not to do the hike as planned. Although beautiful (a gorgeous balcony hike underneath a glacier, round two 3000+m peaks, above a 1000m deep gorge, and then along a trail high above the deep valley of the Arc River), the hike was very strenuous and very long. Realistically signposted at 10 hours, it would, I believe, have taken them at least that long, and even hiking at my top speed it took me over 7.5 (and I was as a result more tired afterwards than if I had hiked 10 hours at a normal pace!).
But it was a beautiful hike! Bright sunshine, although cold enough so that even at midday I could see my breath, with marmots everywhere, crickets and grasshoppers hopping in all directions, flocks of butterflies and mountain crows, two chamoix deer who didn't see me until I was 5 meters away from them, and all day long those stunning views. I was exhausted at the end of the day, but it was a very happy exhaustion.
And, as luck would have it, just as I turned up the last slope to walk to the refuge, who do I see but Mel hiking in front of me. Excellent timing! We walked the last 5 minutes together and arrived at the refuge shortly before 4:30PM.
After a shower (warm :-), always the first priority at the end of a hike, I wolfed down a sandwich (in order to avoid hypoglycaemia before dinner) and while sitting outside in the setting sun we caught up on what he and his family had been doing over the past couple of months.
As our butts slowly froze, I was also keeping a vain eye out for Christine, who had unaccountably failed to show up at the Modane railway station that midday to meet Mel. The following day I found out that she had missed her planned train and hence arrived too late to come up to the refuge. She had left me a message, but due to limited connectivity I did not receive it. She ended up staying in the hotel from hell in Modane... but that's another story.
Although saddened and concerned by Russ and Sally's injuries, it had nevertheless been another excellent day on the H2H.
