GR5 Stage 1 Logbook
St Ginolph to Chamonix
Wednesday 18th August. Slept in at Geneva City hostel until 11am. French canadians sharing room were gone early to continue travels. Listening to music on new mp3 player which is the b****x and I should have got one years ago. Lots of Thunder and Lightning last night abd rain in stair rods. Went downstairs for coffee and went to find some gas. Walked everywhere and asked man in 'swiss army' shop where to get it. Miles out of town he reckoned. Tourist info told me to go to 'armes' on tram 13. Cactus mountain shop had the goods. bought three tins of msr gas. Tram 13 back to cornavin train station. Took 4 hours to find gas. 2 aussie guys arrived at hostel, one just got in from egypt and tthe other from austria. Had a class banter about egypt which was grand. We all dislike america. Got ticket for St Ginolph on southern side of lake geneva tomorrow at 9am and had a chicken pannini. French is improving as ordered tickets ertirely in french. RAJ!!!. Looking forward to crossing lake geneva/leman. Planning route in hostel. reminiscent of doing the same at waldhiem, tazmania but more people around and nothing on the roof!!. Seems to be a lot of going up tomorrow as of 2pm when the ferry arrives at st ginolph. Hoping to reach just below Col De Bise to camp beside springs, (so guide says). Some USA kid just blagged a cigarrette off me. Though that only happened in the toon.
Thursday 19th August Bit of a funny one today. Boat trip from geneva was fab on a paddle steamer which was a piece of swiss engineering, (Not swiss tony), and totally picturesce. Stopped all the way down the north side of lake geneva then round too st ginolph. Crossed border swiss/franco a couple of times because I could. Bought food at a shop in switzerland and walked to france to eat it. Found start of route after a wrong turnand headed up, and up it stayed. Approx 1/2 hour in to route it started lashing down so I couldnt stop to eat. Was starving too as no food all day in buoycot of mad boat prices. Continued up past mad adventure playground to a town called 'novel' in gorgeous setting surrounded by ginormous cliffs. Had a face off with a sh1t dog which was under the required '1ft to be scary' height. Considered punting yappy little bugger over cliff. Continued tyo 'planches'. Was offered a lift uphill on road and given directions by two girls on a horse and a man in a car even though i knew the way. Reached just under col de bise(height gain 1200 metres) when mental lightning storm kicked off directly above. Not usually scared by it but this was lightning plus+++. Sitting p*ss wet in tent having further walked 2 miles or so to find muddy water which I'm going to have to boil for a week. Quite a crappy start really but i'll count it a success if I dont get killed by lightning tonight. Time for a brew and some food finally. Very scary lightning. The guide reckons this weather pattern can last for several days which is nice. It was thundery when I arrived in geneva so hopefully this is the end of the pattern. Thus far the guide has been extremely accurate unlike andrew harpers Tour de Mont Blanc one. I have insulated all metal objects. Really hoping theis weather breaks as it is a p****r. However it is great to whinge at this small red book in the absence of nelly and the cover is really trippy in the head torch. Have filmed some lightning. I think it will tell a story. (a brown story). Feet in good condition but must get some talc in next town. funny that i forgot to get any. Slight rubbing on legs through being soaked. Crash! boom! flash! Quiver!.
Friday 20th August Survived lightning which was pounding ridge all night. Nearly at col de bise-ting. Its amazing how quickly you realise how much weight you shouldnt be carrying. Ive too much food, gas and little bits and pieces. Good clear out required at next bin. Stopped for lunch of beef stew, fried salami, brie sandwich + 2 cups of tea to fend off cold. This sterling effort is brought to you by 'lose some ass' and 'too much'. Must be carrying a couple of extra pounds in rain water too. Cleared col de bise and passe de la bosse so well chuffed. Have rubbed skin on inside leg quite badly though and it bleeding. Also got an ant bite on foot after taking off boots to dry feet. A lot of up and down today. Listening to world service radio on SW. Very tired so going to sleep asap. mobbed by goats earlier.
Saturday 21st August A morning of pain. I think it a day 3 symptomatic!!. Walked down to Cahpel de abondance like john wayne due to legs. Rough section down crappy road with no paths and lots of traffic then started to climb col de mattes(1910m). RTight leg just refused to cooperate unlike left leg that was behaving wonderfully. Told right leg the pretending to be strained wasnt going to get it out of the expedition. stopped for a much needed cuppa half way to Col and rested right leg. After anither hours climbing right leg finally started to loosten up. All worth it for the view from col as absolutely breathtaking as was the wind. Snow capped 'dents du midi' amazing. All pain of climbing forgotten in an instant. Got down out of the cold fairly sharpish and got a bit lost so maps came in useful. Bumped into a random farmer. Paths are as muddy as a building site in a monsoon. Managed to grit out another massive climb and a few more miles before sacking it for the day. Covered 16km in total which is great for this terrain. Just hope right leg is still here in the morning. Thus fsaar todat, no lightning which makes a welcom change!!!. Feet bearing up ok. Amazingly no blisters yet. Ascent 1000m+, Descent 600m today. Tomorrow is another day. Had pasta and dolmio sauce for tea. Yum!. Body seems to be very ready for scran. Its very cold up here. Right toenail has gone black but not too painful. Rub on right inner thigh still sore and bleeding. Socks bloody stink like death on toast. Going to read a bit of 'walking on thin ice' and drop off.
Sunday 22nd August Covered ground well today and crossed into switzerland and back on high passes. Passed les crosets which is a mountainbiking mecca!!!. I have become ill. Have developed the squits which is not very good in a small tent at altitude and very bad for dehyrdation. Am expecting an uncomfortable night. Will have to assess the situation in the morning. Could hopefully get to samoens and be relitavly comfortable until it passes. (literally). Realliy missing ginny tonight. Feeling a bit down. (Got a lot down).
Monday 23rd August (I'm writing this on tuesday as Monday was a bit of an epic). Spent more time outside of tent squatting than inside. Got very cold indeed. Thankfully it wasnt raining. Had to camp on rough slope as could not continue last night and when I was in the ten it was in a ball at the bottom of the slope in wet bag. Bad stomach cramps meant couldnt keep waist band on sack tight so it rubbed badly on shoulders. So, after a very tough night decided at 7am to get a move on to samoens ASAP to avoid heat of the sun and futher dehydration. Samoend was 5 hours further, 300m ascent, 1250m decent. Set off at 8 am after more squatting and concern about lack of tissues. Made it to cole de golese in good time before descent and out of the sun which was still behind spurs to the east. descended contouring mountain to forest. stated to get dizzy from lack of hydration and no food for 24+ hours. (what I ate didn't stay in). Got disaterously lost in ancient forest above samoens and had to thrash through trees with legs dropping through traps every 20m or so. Consious of making mistakes due to physical state. After an hour or so spotted a track a the bottom of a steep esacpment. Carefully lowered down to meet a french woman coming up. Must have looked a state covered in mud, pine needles, blood on legs etc. Another 2 1/2 hours , no water and an additional brief forest excursion I reached samoens. Dehyrated, weak and very emotional. Booked into campsite for 2 nights to recover. Rang ginny for a whinge and felt better for it.
Tuesday 24th August Definately got the right day for a rest as its been constant rain, thunder and lightning all day and generally unsafe hill conditions. Happy to be in tent reading book and listening to mp3z. Having weight sving exercise. Have cut uneeded pages out of guides, chucked out first pair of socks and undies and made a pack of surplus kit to send back to uk, Should save a few pounds at least. Went into samoens last night for food and drink to regain strength. Feeling a bit better now. Was very rough last night. Got More Tissues!. I'm reckining on 2 full days at least to chamonix if the weather improves and i'm feeling better. stitching on Mountain Hardwear trousers has failed but still usable. forgot to pack sewing kit. Must have had lucky weather on the Tour de Mont Blanc as this is atrocious. Amazed at terra nova tents groundsheet waterproof qualities as I am sitting in a swimming pool. Samoens is a nice town. Got drinks and nuts (Flat coke and salt for rehydration). Sent excess kit home and some chocolate for ginny. Keeping SW radio for world service olympics coverage. See how I feel about the extra weight by the time I get to chamonix. 'la poste' is very useful!!. Big toe on right foot has been numb for two days. Have cut out setion of nail to aveliate pressure against boot. Still no blisters on feet which is awesome for me and without doubt the product of breaking abd rubbing boots before setting off. Just got abrasions on toes and thighs. Thighs is due to being too tubby. However, the alpine belly is a piece of kit in my view. In addition it is unobtrusive!!. I am confused that the BBC world service say it is 21.00 and all my clocks are two hours ahead and I only put them forward 1 hour. Have the clocks changed???.
Wednesday 25th August A very pleasant day. Left samoens 9am and climbed for 8 hours to collet d'altern. Should reach chamonix tomorrow or early friday completing stage 1 of GR5 via Brevant. Very tired tonight as still not back to full strength but legs are performing much better after rest day. It is lashing down on the tent so hard that it is breaching the flysheet and inner. Saw an amazing eagle earlier. must have had a 4-5ft wingspan circling above. also saw a lush Marmot scampering away from me on collet d'antern.
Thursday 26th August Snow on tops this morning. Fortunately camped just below snow line so just got very wet. Still raining 9.15. Waiting for a break in weather. Seem unlikely to reach chamonix today as weather is terrible. 11.16am still sat in tent in downpours and getting bored. However, I have no with to cross col d'anterne until weather clears a lot more. It is possibly snowing up there. In fact I can see the snow from here. 11.30am Got to move as river I'm camped next to looks set to flood delta im camped on. Better wet and moving than washed out. Was a half good call to get a move on. Not to bad a day overall but crap weather again. LOTS of rain. Headed off from delta and passed refuge d'anterne in heavy drizzle. Started climbing to lac d'anterne through streams that should have been paths. On reaching lake saw 15+ marmots on slopes which were bigger than I expected. They all legged it. Continued around lake heading for col d'anterne which was clearly snowy. Made good progress and topped col in a snow flurry so got down out of biting wind quickly. Carefully followed streams and mud down to refuge moede and onward through mnore mud to pont d'arleve, a raging torrent. Had a quick snack and decided to make the push for chamonix, via brevant. Set off at 4 o'clock. Harsh climb through fog and rain which turned into snow at about 2000m. Reached col in blistering cold snow about 6.15pm. Totally closed out so had to make good a descent to plan praz down scree. Very dodgy but not optional. tent would not have survived conditions on brevant. Twisted knee and slid a few times jarring wrist. Made very slow progress as forced to sow down and concentrate on foot placements. Continued as far as possible with natural light and got an awesome view over cloud to Mont Blanc whos summit was also closed out. Put on head torch when darkness fell and ploughed on. Very spooky moment when headtorch picked out canine eyes lit up in the forest. Paused for about 15 seconds to see if it moved, senses erupting. It made a noise to I was out of there wondering if the wolves were back. These eyes looming from the forest, almost demonic in appearance seemed symbolic of unseen dangers. They were eyes in a very big skull and now I also had the willies to content with. Finally reached chamonix after a gruelling decent and some checking over shoulder for rabid dogs at 9-9.30pm. was to knackered to think about timecheck. Made way to campsite used at end of TMB. Put tent up like a total zombie and crawled inside to wet kit. Total ascent 1400m and descect of 2300m. Distance covered 27km/18miles. Unfortunately I now have to conceed that the risk of travelling solo in such terrain and conditions is too high. Have had a couple of wobbles that could have ended badly. Itherefore have made a difficult call and am not continuing solo, although physically no problems. This is not an easy desicion but one my instinct is leading me to make. The mountains deserve and command respect. I would be foolish not to recognise this and not act accordingly. The weather has been bad but I have enjoyed the 120km covered. Above all I am intact and can come back to the Alps. Next time it will be with a companion. I have learnt from this Alpine experience that solo travel in the alps is fine 98% of the time with experience but the other 2% holds unaccountable risk factor that can only be made safer , more negligable, bny travelling with an accomplace. A leg out of joint or broken above 2000m or even much less would be disasterous with a companion but any such injury has a vastly greater chance of being fatal if your alone. This is obvious mountain-craft and is re-affirmed to me by the last 120km. We all have to keep making decisions. Better to make the right ones. I fly back to Edinburgh on Monday. The Alps have been Grand :0)
Friday 27th August A bit sad at decision but know it makes sense. Woke up repeatedly with pain around thighs and feet. Took pain killers about 4am to no real avail. Had a wander around chamonix and booked flights back to UK. Sat and read the end of 'walking on thin ice'. I think next time I will bring a book like 'the return of the tuesday dogs', a light heated romp in which nobody nearly looses a toe. Spoke to Dan at Berghaus earlier who says a german girl died of exposure here yesterday which made me feel sad but reaffirms my position. Watched paracenders this afternoon and fancy giving that a shot sometime. looks brilliant. Bus to geneva at 1.20pm tomorrow then 2 nights geneva city hostel. Chamonix campsite is full of usuall mix of french campers and multinational climbers. Just given a Polish lad one of my lighters to keep. He came over and asked 'can I have fire', gesticulating with his thumb. I could tell engaing in conversation would be difficult at best so opted for kiind hearted gesture instead. Turns out he is the guy that is doing the 'living mountain climber statue' that I was amazed at yesterday. gave him the rest of my gas aswell. in turn I got a few slices of toblerone. I can say 'glass' and 'thankyou' in polish. Its a nice end to the trip. The mountains can be a hard, cold and hostile place but they also posses a wild untamed beauty and sense of freedom within that mantle which once found is never easily forgotten. It is when you leave a place like this that you miss it the most.