25th July

Up at 6.45 to a nice blue sky morning. Still some issues with breakfast and packing up so we had another slow getaway! We had a short stop too while Chris and Adam visited the local (daylight robbery) shop to get the £5 baguettes!

A few kilometres of trekking took us up the road to the base of the 4x4 trail which led up and up and up to the Alpage du Pulaz for a quick toilet and snack stop in the heat. From tere we set off up towards the Italian border!

As we got closer there was an increase in snow on the ground and as we got near the Col and Italy  we started seeing people in full waterproof and warm gear…. This didn’t bode well! It wasn’t until we reached the sign and crested the col when the wind, snow and cold hit us full on!

A very quick photo later we started the descent and although some snow continued to fall lightly the temperature definitely increased thankfully.

A very picturesque trek down to the Refuge Elena followed and despite the ‘No Pic-Nic’ signs we made good use of the facilities and picnic’d ourselves silly! When it was time to go we descended into the valley and because it was early (and illegal to camp in Italy) we spread ourselves out near a random carpark and dried out the tents, towels etc while attempting to fix Adam’s thermarest.

The girls returned from an exploration with the very nice surprise of a box of ice lolly with some quite strange flavours… Mint and liquorice?!?! But very nice nonetheless!

We eventually headed back out of sight towards the river and set up camp before cooking another meal of couscous, tuna, sweetcorn and mayo. Another fairly early night and out first illegal camp seemed to work out just fine!!!

Dave

For once… a sunny morning!

I woke up at 6.30am, the others were up too. We got ready whilst enjoying some strawberry ham porridge that everyone agreed made it taste better.

After doing our teeth we were given some more group food to carry. I carried the baguettes again, they are good for me to carry as my bag has long straps. We set off knowing we had 1000m height gain ahead of us. The warm sun tempted us to loose our layers several times.

When nearing the large mountain Ben came up with the stop and go tactic. This caoused Adan, Chris and Dave to become the slow and steady rivals (in my head anyway!). We worked together and the time flew by until we met the snow. It was at this point where I was seriously regretting shorts and a t-shirt, I wasn’t the only one to acquire some layers either! After much shivering we were welcomed to the Grand Col Ferret- with more shivering!

A team photo forced my hands to go blue, but soon enough I had managed to quire some much needed layers. We then set of downhill into the Italian valley where we hoped to meet a refuge when we could get rid of some group food by having lunch.

As we ate our picnic by a sign that said ‘no picnics’ we went into the refuge to stock up n crisps, pricey chocolate and water. Soon enough it was time to set off, while we tried to adapt to the basic Italian language!

We eventually met the valley floor and found a nice sunny spot where we could dry stuff, fix Adam’s thermarest and eat ice cream (thanks Hannah!)

We eventually found ourselves a little camping spot- in the nation where camping is illegal- but it is ok because we didn’t know! After going to the loo wit the guys (not together) we had a nice couscous, tuna and sweetcorn meal which we all gladly ate. The girls washed it down with Hannah’s birthday wime!

Mel kindly cleaned our bowls as Ben, Adam and I were contemplating the idea of jelly- which sadly didn’t happen.

Awards resulted in Adam and Ben both for being good sports and helping me. The da ends with me sitting down in my sleeping bag writing this diary, Callim on my left listening to some music and Adam on my right on his phone. My back is itchy now, so I have to go…. BYE! Xxx

Jack

24th July

Hurrah! Finally a decent night’s sleep! However this was interrupted by not rain falling on my tent but snow / sleet! We had a hasty breakfast with snow capped peaks behind us and set off ready for the final climb of Alp Bovine.

The ascent wasn’t too bad because we had done most of it the day before and pretty soon we were on relatively flat paths which contoured around the hills which is always good! Snow continued to fall intermittently which was pretty cool although we all decided the weather needed reminding it was July!

We then start the descent down towards Champex which took us through cow fields. The 1^st was not a good experience and we were all convinced we were going to suffer death by bovine as they all proceeded to chase us aggressively down the hill!

Disaster averted, we continued down the hill and finally the clouds lifted and we were fully able to appreciate the stunning views. Also did some pretty cool river crossings although we did meet some very grumpy walkers going the other way!

On the woodland path, Mel sent the boys on ahead to sort out food before the shops shut (it was a Sunday).

Eventually we all met up in Champex by the lake to find that the only shop there wouldn’t open for another 2 and a half hours! Adam, Jack, Ben and Chris decided to hire a pedalo and Ash, Laura, Hannah and Callum weren’t far behind!

Finally the shop opened for us to discover how ridiculously expensive Switzerland is! 120CHF did not go far and we also then spent another 100 Euros! Waiting for the shops and doing the longer variant the day before had put us behind our schedule and we investigated catching a bus from Issert to La Fouly our planned stop for the night as it was Hannah’s 18^th Birthday. We had to decide whether we were going to get the bus from Champex or walk on for a while like Mel wanted. No one could decide but the group’s faffing made them miss the bus anyway so we walked on. The walk was pretty easy all down hill and then we had to wait another hour for the bus to arrive, which was nice chill out time in the ghost town of Praz de Fort.

After a short 10 monute bus ride we finally made it to a lush campsite where everyone had showers for the first time since Chamonix. We celebrated Hannah’s birthday in style with a cheese fondue and beer! Happy days! The party celebrations however meant it was a very late night and tomorrow is a very long day with a 1000m climb to Italy….

Jess

Last night was uncomfy but I was so tired I slept like a baby! We were on a hill and every five minutes we woke up spooning at the bottom of the tent!! We awoke to snow, quite heavy snow which covered the mountain hovering over our camp. The fog came in and we packed our bags to leave. I swear everyday Faye and my bag gets a little bit fuller!

We set off into the foggy wilderness at 8.45, late but not too bad compared to yesterday! We bravely climbed up the mountain in record time, in snow now, to the top which looked stunning at it was snow covered. A while later we got chased by a herd of cows with bells because Ashley sounded her mating call, ha ha! They all went mental and chased us down the gill. We soldiered on down further until we reached the botton and corssed a huge waterfall. A crazy French woman shouted ‘veet, veet’ at us as we crossed the river and some of us nearly fell in!

After hours of walking we ended up at Champex lake but the supermarket only opened up at three. We have hours to wait. I also forgot to mention we are now in Switzerland! (Bless Laura! We had been the daybefore too!!!) Things are very expensive here by Ash and me had a larger on the edge of the lake! We also went on a pedalo for Hannah’s birthday occasion, it was rather cold though and the boys in the other pedalo splashed us!

We carried on downhill til Praz de Fort and then got a lovely bus a short way to La Fouly. We are now showered up, sat in a hut at the campsite all cosy and warm. We have had risotto, fondue and Hannah’s birthday cake. Off to bed soon, love Laura!

Laura

My birthday!

We woke up to snow falling. Hard start but come the afternoon the Swiss sun came out for us. We had lunch by a lake after a few of us did a tour round the lake in Champex on pedalos. We discovered that Switzerland as VERY expensive but marched on further to the next village after some fab group pictures with birthday badges and banners. The bus took us to La Fouly and we camped and cooked our meal in a lovely campsite. A very late night but a wonderful day with a birthday cake with sparklers to top it off!!!

Hannah

23rd July

Didn’t sleep well last night- uncomfortable isn’t the word! Sliding down the hill all evening provides constant exercise as I tried to sleep. I guess there’s no rest for the almighty Tour de Mont Blancers! To top off my sliding down the hill, every time I went to reposition myself up the tent Laura and Ashleigh grew closer together and I gradually couldn’t even get to my proper sleeping position without virtually knocking them out of the way! Also not too sure what was louder…. The rain or Laura’s snoring!!

Anyways, I thought waking up extra early compared to everyone else would help me get ready quicker but to my surprise I was yet again the last to be ready! Fantastic!

It was raining too but at approximately 9.25am we crossed the border into Switzerland and it began to snow! Great summer we’re having! Like all good things go, so did the snow, and the rain decided it would be a perfect time to pelt down for the rest of the day!

Despite the rain, Switzerland was very beautiful! However, the beauty soon went as we had to have lunch in the rain too! The tomato soup was lovely and we had left over baguettes with brie and pate from yesterday. Thankfully after lunch the sun decided to come out, but to our luck it didn’t last long! Woo!

When we had to decide on whether to walk on or sleep at the hostel that evening we soldiered on for another few hours and therefore managed to save 300 euros.

Due to the rain my clothes got completely soaked through. My waterproof trousers did a fantastic job, so definitely a good investment!

Faye

Woke up late because Ben set the alarm for English time! We got up and cooked breakfast in the rain and left for Col de Balme around 9.30 French time.

We crossed the Swiss-French border and carried along the path towards Col de la Forclaz as the rain finally dried off. We headed down the river when it started chucking it down AGAIN!! The higher in the mountains we got after the Col de Balme, the rain turned to snow and looked beautiful but as soon as we dropped down it turned to horrible rain again.

We had to make sandwiches in the pouring rain, Jack did a good job of keeping the baguettes dry. We then set off again to Col de Forclaz when the sun came out. We had a toilet break at Col de Forclaz at 1600m ish. We carried on walking though and set up camp in the glorious sunshine finally at the bottom of the hill just below Alp Bovine.

It was nice to have the sunshine for the late afternoon as it gave us time to dry out the tents and all of our wet clothes for the morning. It was sod’s law too that it came out just after we made lunch! Bit did lift everyone’s spirits though as everyone was so miserable and soaked through.

Chris

 

 

22nd July

A very lazy and relaxed morning as we were in no rush to get out of the campsite. Had a lovely warm shower and my last proper wash for a few days…

Everyone was eventually ready just after 12 although it was definitely difficult for some people to squeeze everything into their bags. (We had to leave the campsite before 12, another rule broken!!) 

Most of the clouds had cleared from the mountain tops so we had our first view of what we had in front of us and how amazing the two weeks will be.

We all hopped on a train after our group meeting in the station and arrived in down town Cham for 1ish.

All the bags were put down and we had our group photo in front of the statue which pointed up to Mont Blanc and we all did the same.

Dave, Chris and Ben waited with the bags and the rest of the group went off to get lunch and a few other bits.

For lunch we had a bit of French stick, brie, pate and tomato- lovely! Oh, and an apple each.

Then we had 40 minutes free time to et food, snacks and postcards and then we met back around 3.45. We rushed to get a bus to La Tour which was free. The bus was busy and everyone spread out between the three doors. Some found seats straight away and some stood up for a bit. The bus journey was about 15mins long but it was very squished!

So we started our trek around 1400m up and just after 4 o’clock. We all walked up the hill at our own pace and had a break half way up our 800m ascent at a ski lift station with an amazing view of the whole valley. Everyone walked on up hill for the final 400m.

Camp was set up with a brilliant view of the mountains and the valley with Chamonix in.

We all cooked together and had pasta, veg, chicken and tomato for tea. Over time the cloud was slowly crawling down the till towards us. Everyone had eaten and hot chocolate was served up with a cookie. Within this short time we were all eaten up by the cloud and visibility was nothing.

All the bits were cleaned and packed away. Two awards were given. One for bravery to Jack and one to Ashley for team work, the lion and the sheep.

It was finally night time at half tem and we all made it to our tents before the rain started to come down. A shocking 6 and a half hours activity since la tour we were in our tents ready for sleep which makes it sound like a short day but we had ended at 2162m. Tomorrow our alarm is set for just before 7. Nice!

Ben

Diary take 2

Day 2 started by Jack waking me up in the middle of the night as he had felt the need to roll onto my thermarest for an early morning cuddle! But I didn’t mind as we had a lengthy lie in and a leisurely pack up to start our day.

Bread and pain au chocolat for breakfast which filled me up for the day ahead. And we had sunshine!!! No rain like yesterday but a lovely hot day instead.

After we had packed up we took the ‘Mont Blanc express’ into Chamonix and stocked up with food for the next few days. We also took some entertaining pictures of ourselves which attracted some local attention.

Next, onto a ram packed chaotic bus for the journey to La Tour for the start of our walking. We only walked 3km to stat the trek but I think it was the hardest 3km I’ve ever done! It was definitely worth it just for the view back down into the valley however, plus the fact that it was considerably easier trying to guess Jack’s middle name all the way up which we found to be Barnaby and Palmer!

Then an excellent pasta dish for dinner followed by a cookie and hot chocolate to finish. Meanwhile a cloud seemed to envelop us which brought with it a huge drop in temperature! And then finally off to bed…

Adam

21st July

DISCLAIMER: The forewritten work of art was completed whilst on a certain Alypbus on route to down town Cham and the author cannot be held accountable for poor handwriting. FACT.

Once upon a time, as all good stories must start…. A long day of packing and admin and routes and internet research and laminating was finally finished with nothing else to do before our summer, hopefully sunny, holiday began but sleep!!! With an early morning (middle of the night) rise looming over us Ben and Chris decided at 8pm that it was time to sleep! OK, so technically it is actually the 20^th at this point but there is no way Faye is getting away unscathed from this one…!!

I persuaded the boys to stay awake for a few more minutes to wait for Faye so we searched hard on google for some last minute refuge and camp site information (Laura!!!!) 9pm came…. 10pm came… This called for some serious blog abuse to Faye who had apparently decided to pack her bag approximately 6 hours after she was due at mine! 10.30pm came and Dave and I headed out to try and find them lost in downtown Verwood! Just after 11pm we finally managed to escort Faye back to my house to find Chris and Ben in their boredom had started a game of Frisbee with my coasters!!! Finally sleep could be upon us, but one look at Faye’s bulging bag and the four carrier bags she had stuffed in her arms, made us realise that that was a far away dream as we fought for the next hour to contain her kit demons before ruthlessly evicting half her kit! Finally got to bed after 12…

Holidays soon… too soon! Under 3 hours was not enough sleep! Chris, Dave, Faye, Ben and I squeezed into the car at 4am, smug with the knowledge that the others had met at 2.30am! Not so happy though about the fact Jess would still be asleep! After only one false start (Dave!!!) we were on our way yeah!

The airport went very smoothly, we met the others who had been there an hour earlier, checked in and boarded without loosing anyone! How boring! (ps that was not to tempt fate; maybe discount that last statement!!

The first flight for Chris and Callum… Chris obviously distracting himself with all the giggling and dodgy photo taking from the gaggle of five behind us on the flight while we tried to catch some sleep.

Landing in France we strolled off the plane into the sunny heat… ok maybe not… RAIN!! Who ordered that!?! I’d definitely found a better forecast the day before! The challenges started with Ash completing a somersault on the ring of the shuttle bus, risked assessed by myself as Jess ran away! This got me thinking about the next challenge… Mr Transport Shelton, on finding the man holding up our sign at the arrivals gate had to embrace our welcomer with a friendly hug! The sense of relief on his blushing face was evident as he scored a hug with a petite young blonde instead of an old hairy Swiss man as anticipated! Point 1 to Adam! And then the Alpy Bus to Chamonix brings me to here and my surprisingly neat writing despite the disclaimer. Good roads in Switzerland and France! I thought it might stop raining if I wrote this diary and didn’t look out the window but it would appear the rain obviously thought I was neglecting it as it is now torrential… booo! It didn’t stop half the passengers in the bus snapping away though as the other half tried to sleep, of the rocky steep cliffs lining the roads, their peaks mysteriously hidden in cloud. The odd waterfall bellowing out the cliff face as hanging valleys that would make any geography teacher happy! Mmmm 27km still to Chamonix. Time for a snoozzzzzeeee…..

The scenery got more spectacular as we drove on, the road crossing steep gorges. Some did try and sleep but Chris was continually wolf whistling at everyone was we passed….! Bring on the marmots! Soon we spotted the Christ Roi statue on the hillside so we knew we were approaching our destination. The campsite was quite small but had a games room which was an advantage as it was raining still. We has the smallest pitch ever but managed to cram 4 tents on before banishing Jess to a different pitch next door on her own!

Scoping out the area next: Jack and Callum went to locate the train station while Adam the transport manager scoped out the table football! Everyone was impressed with Chamonix’s cuteness! We explored the town for a few hours sussing things out for tomorrow before a long awaited dinner at Midnight express! Mmm…. The dinner of choice was ‘steak frite fromage’ baguettes. Dave missed out though as he was feeling ill. We trained back and taught the concept of planking to Jack before trying to re-enact ‘Harry potter’s puppet pals with the awesome new fingers puppets I purchased!

Next came diaries, coffee, pick up sticks, duplo crowns and cards… I can’t believe we’re all still awake! Or most of us anyway! Day one done!

Mel

Diary take 2

Very early start, with Ashleigh’s lift leaving at 2.30am. We arrived at Gatwick at 5.15am with an hour to wait for Mel and her lift. To be honest at first I was terrified of the prospect of flying and became more nervous the nearer I got to the plane but it was actually okay as was a very smooth flight apart from ears popping when descending. After a perfect landing at Geneva, the group voted in favour for Adam to hug the Alpy bus greeter which he completed. After about an hour and a halves drive we were dropped off at the campsite, les ‘French for squirrel’. After setting up the tent in the rain we caught the train to Chamonix for a scouting trip to check out food prices and enjoyed a nomable baguette which was yummy! (Apart from Jack’s overdose of mayo). At 6pm we got the train back to the campsite for a long evening. Bring on the trek!

Callum