Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Stage 19 -- Nevache to Les Granges de la Vallée Étroite

Short summary -- you can have anything you want...

We were all pretty stiff and tired yesterday evening after the hike to Nevache, so we all went to bed quickly after dinner. All, that is, except for Jorge, Valentin, and Erik, who played Carcassonne until midnight. But that was OK because Valentin was not hiking the next day (he and Reinhard having come to the end of their marathon participation -- 12 stages!). And Erik had decided to take the shorter pass with Ioana -- a mere 2.5-3 hours. And Jorge... well, he doesn't need sleep, or food, or proper hiking gear (he hikes in jeans... I'd die if I tried to hike in jeans... but Jorge doesn't sweat... and so he doesn't need showers either)... basically Jorge is a bit of an enigma: is he really human?

In the morning around 9AM we said goodbye to Reinhard and Valentin, and then Jorge and I, following the advice of our hostess, bushwacked up to a balcony trail, followed by a steep climb to an isolated area where she assured us we would a) be alone, and b) see chamois deer. Neither turned out to be true, but the views were excellent and who can be unhappy about adding an extra 150m up and down to a hiking day?

<Irony off>

After that escapade we hiked up the valley called "the valley" to the pass called "the pass of the valley" at some 2670m or so. A dramatic hike, overlooked by huge rock walls and majestic scree slopes, and it was another lovely day, although a bit windy and increasingly cold as we got to the top. Actually, windy doesn't quite describe it -- it was blowing a gale and we were freezing, so we spent all of about 10 seconds at the pass before going down the far side.

We had a few snow patches to cross but it soon warmed up again as we descended into the sheltered valley of the Three Kings (as the mountain peaks on the other side from us are called). The high point of the day was probably the conversation, as we talked about many things (Jorge, of course, being able to converse even while climbing a steep slope :-).

And we arrived at our mountain refuge around 4PM... well pleased with our day... to find both Erik and Ioana asleep... well pleased with their day. The H3H is a little like Alice's Restaurant at times :-).

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