Avoriaz Snow Report: 13th July 2011
We have been basking in the sun and high tarmac melting temperatures for the last week, brilliant. Gotta love the sun and all it does for playing in the great outdoors. And we’ve been doing plenty of the latter, lots of mountain biking, a little on the road bike and something a little different for me – hiking!
Generally speaking I’m not really a one for walking when I could ride there quicker. But I’ve come to appreciate the attraction, especially after an epic hike this last Saturday conquering the second highest summit around here, Mont Grange, all 2432 meters of it (second only to the Hauts Forts at 2466.)
We used the Chaux Fleurie chair lift out of Linderets to access the Col de Bassachaux but aside from that all the vertical gain and loss was by foot power. Initial the route follows the well marked GR5 walking route before turning away and upwards along the spine of Mont Grange leading to the summit. The GR5 section is mainly under the tree line but shortly after making the turning towards the summit the landscape becomes more exposed to the sun.
From approximately 2000m upwards the trail is open and grassy interspersed with rocky sections which become increasingly frequent with altitude, the odd one being a bit of a scramble. The exposure is relatively low, at least compared to most of the peaks around here and would be no trouble to the majority. Even the summit is sprawling rather than a small peak, there is more than enough room for a table of orientation to illustrate the peaks around and a weather station.
The view as you may expect is stunning, a proper 360 degree vista, Mont Blanc and the Dents du Midi were particularly impressive, in the distance the peaks of the Eiger and the Matterhorn are visible, more serious summit propositions for sure. We stopped for a good while enjoying the sun and eating our picnique, very enjoyable after all that hard work, approximately 4 hours hiking in.
Returning down the ridge was hard work for my soft cycling legs and feet but we all made it eventually, things were a little easier retracing our steps to the Col de Bassachaux for the final decent into Linderets dismissing the still running Chaux Fleurie lift as only the true hard core rambler would.
It was a great day out, really enjoyable, I’ll not be giving up the MTB day job just yet but will be throwing in the odd hike here and there. One thing I will admit is that walking affords you plenty of time to look around and appreciate the surroundings.
The weather has taken a turn for the worse today with lots of heavy rain but to be honest things needed dampening down a little after all that baking sun, the trails were getting a little too dusty. The outlook is for a return to sunshine tomorrow and Friday.
Bon Route!
