Wednesday 10th September: Sunny morning, overcast afternoon, rain late afternoon:11°C to 15°C
Chamonix to Moede Anterne: 22k: 7.45am to 4.45pm: 9hrs
Accommodation: Refuge Moede d'Anterne
Mont Blanc at 7am
Mont Blanc in early morning sun
L'Arve River, Mont Blanc behind
Aguile du Midi - cable car stop on way to Mont Blanc
Coffee Stop just below TMB path
Follow that beer truck to PlanPraz
In awe of hang gliders
Like old times at PlanPraz
Col de Brevant at 2368 metres
And we're there at the top
Change of flora on other side
Lunch stop by a cold stream
Refuge Moede Anterne a long way
Muddy stony slippery squelchy
Barren gully below
Refuge Moede Anterne
View from Dining Room
Lunch in fridge outside window
Room for 2 only
It was supposed to rain all day today, but Swiss Meteo got it wrong! Our highlight was climbing from Chamonix to Plan Praz then to the Col de Brevant in the morning - a 1300 metre climb and seeing Mont Blanc in full sunlight. In previous years we've taken the cable car up as technically all the walks start at the top above Chamonix. Then on to a remote refuge in the middle of the moors - Moede Anterne.
We awoke to blue skies. The Hotel Le Morgane was a great place and we'd definitely stay there again. There's a jug to have an early morning cup of tea with a hunk of bread and small container of yoghurt. And the WiFi is so good we talk to home and check emails. We leave at 7.45am, anticipating a very long day. It's not raining so we've decided to go up to PlanPraz before picking up the GR5 at the top.
Through Chamonix, to the local Casino Supermarket which we know opens at 7am for the tourists going up the Aguille du Midi. A short stop to buy fresh bread, then along the L'Arve, gushing with water after last night’s rains, to the tennis courts which we'd earmarked as the turn off to a path up the mountain to La Charlenon. The climb is relentless then path joins a steep jeep track with a few 4xwheel drives and Heineken beer trucks going up and down. Every now and then we see Mont Blanc across the valley.
After climbing for two and a half hours, we see TMB walkers. Time for coffee and cheese sandwich. We watch in awe as hang gliders float past on the thermals some hanging for 20 minutes. Another 30 minutes and we're at Plan Praz, at 1999 metres, our starting point for our TMB 9 years ago in 2005.
Up to Col de Brevant, a further 300 metre climb. A Spanish couple follow and we wait a minute so they can take a photo at the top. The Col de Brevant is the junction of the TMB and GR5 and we're taking the downward route, the GR5. We're surprised that the Spanish couple follow. About 30 minutes later, he catches us up and asks where the Telecabin is. I drag out my map. No telecabin this side of the Brevant. They'll either have to walk 20 hrs down the valley to Gervais, or go back up the way they came to get the cable car from Plan Praz. I give them my map, just a one page photo copy, as by now we can see Refuge Moede Anterne far across the valley. We later see them climbing back up towards the Col de Brevant. Once over the Brevant, the landscape changes to heath with no villages. It's 2pm, when we have lunch by a stream. Mace, fresh bread, brie cheese, tomatoes and mayonnaise, followed by a piece of chocolate.
The track follows a contour around the mountain then down into a gully with a bridge across the L'Arve. Then a 500 metre climb on a squelchy muddy track towards the Refuge Moede Anterne in a spectacular position with barren mountains one side and the grassy Col d'Anterne behind. It's 5pm when we arrive. We've paid extra for a shower and a room for 2 with just 2 mattresses, nothing else. The shower is warm, not hot, and is press button style. Our lunch bag fits nicely outside on the window ledge 2 floors up. We thought we'd be the only ones here, stuck out on the moors, but there's a group of 20 day hikers plus Edward and Sue, an English couple who spend 5 months of the year in Chamonix to walk and ski.
Time for a luke warm beer. It would have been colder if they'd left it outside. We've been asked what we'd like for dinner - Polenta (mashed wheat), cheese fondu or spaghetti. Can I have a salad please? That's extra. No problem. At dinner, my salad arrives and I have to stop the other guests from thinking it's a shared dish. All 5 other people at the table then order a salad. Desert is a small bowl of stewed apples. It wasn't a cheap refuge so we all thought dinner was a bit skimpy. We chat to Edward and Sue then we're asked to move tables about 8pm - they're getting ready for breakfast which doesn't look inviting - cornflakes, stale bread and jam and even the hot water is prepared in 4 large thermoses - surely it won't stay boiling hot for another 12 hours! We're subtly asked to move on to our two person room - yeh!! and crawl into our sleeping sheets under 2 doonas