From Lac Blanc to Brevent via Lac Cornu
Last hut morning, last hut breakfast. Today's plan is to reach Chamonix by 16:00, giving me time to rewind and relax before my flight tomorrow.
Due to the Le Flegere renovations, following the TMB path will require me to retrace my steps back to the junction below the hut. Most people plan to head to Chamonix, ending their trip there. But I want to push on, and I really don't want to spend much of the day hiking in the ski slops above Chamonix. Looking at the map I've discovered another path, going high along the edge of the mountain range. Consulting with the hut operator, she tells me that it should take me about 3 hours to take this route to Brevent. I immediately increase this to 4 in my head.
Not sure if I'll hike all the way down into Les Houches, I want to leave myself the option of taking the Brevent cable car down, so I have to make it there before closing time at 16:30. I should be more than fine with time, but for some reason I feel nervous. Last day jitters.
I set out, and the first thing I see is a group of young Ibex crossing my path. Hooray, finally, on my last day ! They seem completely unfazed by my presence.
The trail takes me through a narrow path to the L'Index cable car station, from where it descents and then straighten out through an open, avalanche-prone scenery.
As I hike, the trail ahead of me disappeared into sheer rock face. Surely I've made a mistake, but no, the path leads me directly to the rocks. I've reached a Via Ferrata - chains, bolts and handrails secured to the rock allow me to progress almost vertically. At one point the drop is too much for my short legs, and I find myself removing my backpack, dangling it down into the ledge below, turning over and sliding down. Nothing too risky, but I'm completely by myself - I have not seen anyone other than a two-men work crew at the cable car station far behind me.
Yap, that's the path
As I reach the top of the rocky outcrop my breath is blown away. Behind me far below is the Chamonix valley with the Mont Blanc range towering above it. Ahead of me is a massive boulder field. There's clear trail marks, but they seem like a suggestion more than anything. I jump from boulder to boulder, trying not to imagine what will happen if my leg gets caught in the void between them. Soon I see a mountain lake, which the map tells me is Lac Cornu, and below it the next valley over, who's name I don't know.
Lac Cornu
It's a surreal, exposed and edgy scenery, full of boulders and rocks having almost no vegetation. I'm in love. I think I'm by myself, but as I progress along the field of boulders I hear voices ahead of me. There are people down at the lake, as well as what are clearly day hikers up from the Planpraz gondola.
Moving from one yellow blaze to another
I find a picnic spot, straddling both valleys. The sun comes out and for the first time in the past few days I have a full view of the Mont Blanc. It's my last picnic for this trek, last piece of bread, last of the cheese, last of the Nuttella.
I don’t believe in a higher power, but if I did, I’d go for the ancient cultures worshiping what’s around them. It’s in the rocks, the crevasses, the snow covered peaks. The sun, the heat, the cold, the fog, the quick change of weather that puts us at risk. But now it’s late, the last cable car for the day is leaving soon, and that’s my cue. Goodbye, not before a quick silent bow to the four winds. Until next year
I head down the trail, constantly making way for day hikers up from the cable car. I laugh at myself for my need to classify them - day hiker or thru hiker, checking each person to find the tell-tale signs of a day hiker - the shoes, the backpack, the clothes. I want to stop each one of them and tell them I'm in the last hours of an 11-days hike. But I just smile and say bonjour and move on.
Planpraz is teeming with people milling about. I don't stop here, but take the rather steep climb up into Brevent. My last col in nearing. Again through some cables and ropes, I climb up to the col as the wind picks up, then back down into the Brevent cable car. I have enough time for a beer, a last beer on a hut balcony, and then down down down with the cable car into Planpraz and then Chamonix.
It feels strange - where's the welcome committee? the medal? the flowers? something, anything, to acknowledge that I've accomplished the task I've set out to do. It's pandemonium in my head, as competing voices either congratulate me or tell me I haven't really finished because i'm not back in Les Houches. Soon all of these voices are silent, and all I hear is: how can this be over so soon? At the same time, the trail ends where it should for me - with a magnificent view of the mountains ahead of me.
From the cable car station its short walk down into my hotel at the town center. It's a fancy hotel, and the room is lovely. I head out in search of a burger, finding that it's not that easy to find in a French town at 17:00 in the afternoon. As in Courmayeur, I say hi to people as if i'm a local - so many I've met on the trail. Burger in my belly and beer in my veins I head back to the hotel planning a quick nap before I head out again. But I wake up at 05:00 am the next day, having slept through the evening, more mentally than physically exhausted. My ride to the airport will soon be here, but wearing my hiking gear (it's all I have), I want to go back out there for just one more hike, please, just one more. But I get in the van, put the backpack in the back, put on my earphones, and nap as we head towards the Geneva airport. Done.
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