Haute Route: Les Hauderes to Zinal
08/28/07 12:57 AM *Adventure
I bought Mrs R a knee brace at the pharmacy and that
seemed to help her a lot today. At breakfast there
were, as usual, several kinds of cheese set out. My
lovely wife reached out with her hand and grabbed the
slice that looked best to her... oops, that's not
cheese, that's butter... "yuck!" Two members of our
family got a big laugh out of that.
We all hopped on the bus Monday morning; I got off at Les Hauderes, where I had left off yesterday; Mrs Runalong and Bex stayed on to La Sage, a few miles up the road. It was a fairly easy hike until I met them at La Sage, then it got steep. The views behind us were wonderful (see pics). It was a steep climb of about 4000' to the Col de Torrent where we were greeted by more panoramas and a steep hike down to Lac Moiry with tons of wildflowers.
The cabin at the Lac Moiry dam was expensive so my two companions hopped another bus to Zinal while I went up and over another high Col to a big ski area on the other side. The sky was threatening but apart from a touch of rain mixed with snow flakes it turned out OK. Not having a pack I was able to run wildly down the long, steep, technical trail to Zinal, going as fast as I could without risking a disastrous fall. Thus we again completed two stages in one day.
On the bus from Les Hauderes to La Sage, an old (80-ish) couple got on, barely able to climb up onto the bus and totter gingerly back to their seats. They had backpacks and hiking poles and got off at a trailhead for a hike.
1) La Sage, (2) Hiking out of Val d'Herens, (3) Lac Moiry, (4) Zinal
We all hopped on the bus Monday morning; I got off at Les Hauderes, where I had left off yesterday; Mrs Runalong and Bex stayed on to La Sage, a few miles up the road. It was a fairly easy hike until I met them at La Sage, then it got steep. The views behind us were wonderful (see pics). It was a steep climb of about 4000' to the Col de Torrent where we were greeted by more panoramas and a steep hike down to Lac Moiry with tons of wildflowers.
The cabin at the Lac Moiry dam was expensive so my two companions hopped another bus to Zinal while I went up and over another high Col to a big ski area on the other side. The sky was threatening but apart from a touch of rain mixed with snow flakes it turned out OK. Not having a pack I was able to run wildly down the long, steep, technical trail to Zinal, going as fast as I could without risking a disastrous fall. Thus we again completed two stages in one day.
On the bus from Les Hauderes to La Sage, an old (80-ish) couple got on, barely able to climb up onto the bus and totter gingerly back to their seats. They had backpacks and hiking poles and got off at a trailhead for a hike.
1) La Sage, (2) Hiking out of Val d'Herens, (3) Lac Moiry, (4) Zinal
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