We took today as both a rest day and an approach day. we spent the morning exploring up the Durance valley as far as the road would let us, before stopping for an early lunch and preparation for the jouney.
I also took the opportunity to whip out the bagpipes and give the local wild life a couple of tunes.
It never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the pipes sound in the mountains and you get all the sub harmonies rattling around with the echoes. Not sure if the avalanches were caused by my playing or not.Back into the van and off to Chable .. the town at the bottom of the lift system with a huge car park. The initial plan was to park around the corner, but this did not seem sensible as it was home to a large group of travellers, so we paid up and put the van in the middle of the carpark.
Riding all the lifts to the col des Gentianes .. the very top was open, but with only a mogul field to descend and us with heavy packs we opted out, and cut down the piste back towards La Chaux. We had ridden the lift above the hut so had been afforded a good look at the route.
We could have walked up tot eh hut at La Chaux, but the lift ticket cost was no difference, and it did give us a good look at the first col on the route - col de la Choux - and the approach we would do in the dark tomorrow (all being well).
The piste was soft and heavy ... we had probably left it too late in the day, and should have been here a couple of hours earlier, but had not taken the south facing slopes into account.
Gradually we could see the hut take form down the valley, on the piste. At this point it just looked like any mountain restaurant. The route followed the track contouring around right to the hut - if you get the correct turn off, otherwise it would be a climb back up.
At the hut we joined the skiers on the sun terrace, and played the game of trying to identify who would be on the same route as us tomorrow.
The hut did not open for business until the lifts closed, so we settled down to wait, taking in the brilliant position, and the warm weather. |
| The Lift complex below the hut at La Choux |
On the other side of the valley we could see the descent from the Trient hut to the Champex valley, that we had completed the year before. .. Down behind ridge in the top centre, and over the col into the valley right of centre, and back left and down.
As the sun went down the crowds left and the hut opened. We were allocated our room, but declined the shower - the first hut I had been at that offered a shower!