Refuge de la Croix de Pierre to Les Contamines (16km, +278, -1066)
Today is a short day, and as usual, I feel a combination of elation and sadness, happy to complete the trail and at the same time sad to let go.
From Refuge de la Croix de Pierre I'm on my own for the first hour or so. The day is bright and the trail is muddy. There's ton of butterflies, and the smell of yesterday's rain is still in the air.
Today is also my last col of the hike - Col du Joly. As I near the pass, I'm suddenly not by myself, with groups and families coming on from the other direction. It's a bit of an up and down until I reach the pass, and I'm in the middle of the Les Contamines ski site.Although I was never very far from civilisation in the past week, it's a shock to see so many people around.
I head over to Refuge de Roselette, they are just opening for the day, so I order a coke and dedicate myself to scratching the back of their border collie, who came sniffing me the moment I sat down. I can take the cablecars down, but I'm in no rush. So I pick a trail that takes me slightly to the right, taking me away from my destination of Les Contamines. But in return I get a trail that is not directly below the cables, so that's a win for me. It's a few hours down back into the valley, back the same valley path I took on the first day.
In Les Contamines I buy something to eat, and spend precious time looking for the bus stop to take me to Saint Gervais les Bains. While there's a clearly signed stop on the other side of the road, on my end there's nothing but a sidewalk. I'm not the only one, which leads to a funny parade of confused looking people going back and forth on the main street. Of course, the bus finally arrives and just stops opposite the bus stop on the other side. The journey is beautiful through villages. Saint Gervais les Bains is a large town with train connections. It's also the last stop on the Mon Blanc Express. The train station is small, and after 30 minutes the train arrives, taking me back to Chamonix, where I started a week ago.
Would I recommend this hike? yes.
What I would have done different:
On day 2, going from Col la Souce to Refuge Presset via Col du Grand Fond. This means taking variant #3 out from Bonhomme into the road, taking a left toward Cormet de Roseland, arriving at Refuge Presset via Col du Grand Fond.
On day 3, potentially take variant #4. It looks interesting and will make a short day longer.
On day 3, sleeping in Chalet de l'Alpage, making it longer. Then on day 4 sleeping in Queige, effectively cutting out 1 day.
Plan to sleep in Queige, and not in Molliessoulaz, which is about 45 minutes above Queige. Queige has a camping site that also has tiny huts, so it looks like an interesting alternative (not sure about places to eat though. You can always take the free bus into Albertville, eat dinner and come back...)
Condense the section from Queige to Refuge de Roselette from 2 days into 1, taking the bus from Queige to Les Saisies and starting from there (as I did). Alternatively, skipping these two days completely as that side of the valley is basically one large ski site. Still beautiful, but full of people, and a lot of the hike is along gravel roads.
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