With Lockdown restricting activities more and more (I'm only really allowed out for exercise and shopping for essentials, and given the serious risks re transmission of virus I'm not inclined to stray far from home), I'm revisiting some trips from the early 2000's that just have jotted diary entries and downloaded photos.
I'm starting with the Walker's Haute Route between Chamonix and Zermatt, which on this occasion (I wonder whether my previous visits will ever be recorded here!?) was with a few friends whose point of connection is the Johannesburg Hiking Club, with whom I'm connected through Jacqui, a University contemporary and former flatmate.
I'm reporting verbatim, so feel free to skip the tedious bits...
Walker's
Haute Route - Phase 1 - 4 to 11 July 2005
Monday 4 July - Travel to Zermatt
Hasty web updating before Mike calls at 9:30 to take me to Liverpool John
Lennon Airport
(10:15) to catch easyJet's Airbus A319, 12:00 to Geneva.
Efficient trip above the clouds. Geneva
as rainy as Liverpool. 14:50 after losing an
hour. Queues at passport control and a wait for baggage didn't stop me from
finding a ticket machine (long queues at ticket office) and getting a ticket to
Zermatt by 15:25, for a train leaving at 15:30.
I got on it - then it left - I could have been going anywhere but I knew all
trains go to Geneva Central so I could change there if necessary. In the event
it was the right train and by 17:55 I was in Visp, still in a t-shirt, after a wet
journey past the lake and gradually improving weather after that. I don't fancy
wearing shorts today though.
Distant mountains shrouded in cloud, with large snowfields high
on the slopes. As we had passed through Martigny, happy memories of the Tour of
Mont Blanc flooded back. It's a shame Sue can't join me on this trip due to
having to go to work!
Thick rain in Zermatt
(19:25) made my quest find my hotel - Tannenhof Garni - a wet one. Eventually I
donned my fleece - waterproofs buried deep in rucksack - asked directions, and
found it. I have a more than adequate small quiet room near the centre of town
with a toilet next door and a shower nearby.
A five minute turn around saw me jogging back to the station
to rendezvous with Dave Lonsdale (text messages had been flying around) and
head to the north a little way to the apartment occupied by Dave, Sue, Dave,
Betty, Rod (Dave's brother) and Doreen (Dave's mum, 83). From here we adjourned
to the nearby Holiday Hotel for a good meal before I returned for an early
night by 11:30 pm, 10:30 UK
time.
Tuesday 5 July - Around Zermatt
An easy day before our backpack was in order, so the six of us (me, David, Sue, Dave, Betty and Gaynor) rendezvoused at
'Mont Blanc', the Emmetts' rented apartment,
and left soon before 10 am in cloudy weather to get the underground funicular
to Sunnegga - 1600 to 2288 metres in about five minutes. We were doing a
variant of Route 5 on page 168 of Kev Reynolds' Chamonix to Zermatt
guide (2001 edition). Some of us donned waterproofs in the tunnel, as the
camera at Sunnegga showed all to be very damp and miserable, and nobody else
was going up.
Sculpture near Sunnegga
However, the waterproofs came off immediately and shorts and
t-shirt were soon in order, though the breeze was cool at times. We disobeyed
Kev and headed up (my error) rather than down, but the path was signposted to
the Stellisee and it ran at a comfortable gradient close to the cable car above
Sunnegga.
Eventually Stellisee was reached (above) - a nice spot with lots of
sprats (tadpoles, I think), a few minutes walk from the Fluhalp Hut (2607 m) (above, in the distance) where it was draughty
outside so we had hot chocolates, etc indoors. On leaving, we noticed many
people lunching on the cool but sunny terrace.
We headed down and on, scenically, to another small lake -
Gruensee, with superb views towards the now virtually clear Matterhorn.
The Matterhorn from near Grindjisee
We
then, four of us as Sue and David had headed down before Gruensee to do preparations
for the backpack, strolled on past another mountain hut before descending the
left bank of the Findelbach stream, very scenically.
Gruensee
Typical houses on stilts in Old ZermattThe path eventually crossed the cog railway and brought us into Zermatt from the south, where Betty's scenic route took
us past some religious grottos.
I wandered around Zermatt before rejoining the others at the
Mont Blanc apartment for a meal - a bit
cheaper than last night's, before adjourning back to the Tannenhof.
