Of glaciers, marmots, wild raspberries and a yurt: a longish wander in the Alps

Travelling abroad wasn’t easy last summer. In fact, Liesbeth and I counted ourselves lucky to get to the Alps at all. We’d already had to abort our planned Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB) trip two years running, firstly because of injury, and secondly due to a pandemic that made international travel almost impossible. It was still touch and go in late August 2021, with confusingly different and constantly changing rules about certificates, tests, masks, quarantine and registration to be negotiated. But here you see us, on top of the Tete Nord des Fours, the highest point of our trip at 2756 metres, surrounded by the incredible backdrop of the Mont Blanc massif in all its glaciated glory. Superb!

Eleven days of walking, staying at a different hut or B&B each night, climbing between six hundred and a thousand metres every day (except one day when we cheated with the cable car), and down the other side. This was my longest alpine hut-to-hut hike to date, we carried everything in our packs, and it was tough! About half way through I was all but ready to give up, thanks to painfully swollen knees; but rest, ibuprofen, and encouragement from Lies got me through. And am I glad!

Eleven days of constantly changing mountain panoramas. Glacier vistas, cols oozing mist, endless rows of peaks stalking to the horizon, the steely reflection of clouds in isolated lakes tucked into the shoulders of the mountain; curiously eroded rocks in cliffs and streambeds; meadows of wildflowers, bilberries and raspberries. Some sights were less welcome - the scars on the landscape inflicted by skiing infrastructure; the unmistakable shrinking of many of the glaciers - signs of the times and difficult to ignore.

Eleven days of footpaths of all sorts. Steep, lonely screes with ravens wheeling overhead; broad tracks scarring the slopes, with constant hiker traffic to match; peaceful trails climbing through welcome forest shade; slippery rock slabs; several ‘interesting’ river crossings, one on a swaying suspension bridge, another on a bridge half washed away by floods. Perhaps the most memorable for me was the Crete des Gitte - a two-kilometer-long ridge with a sheer drop on one side, and in places on both. Some might call it ‘airy’, and Liesbeth was in her element. I was petrified for its whole length - but what a sense of achievement when I got to the other end.

Twelve nights of hospitality, with varied levels of comfort but a unique character to savour in each place: bunks in basic dorms shared with several other hikers, in the classic alpine hut style; cosy wood-panelled alpine chalets with flowered balconies and logs stacked outside for the winter; an old wooden farm shack converted into a tiny house, complete with heavy wooden beams and a giant iron door lock; even a gypsy caravan and a yurt! Food portions were always generous and sometimes gourmet level (yes, I’m thinking of you, Le Peuty). And in the busier places we had fun exchanging stories with hikers from all over the world.

Of course, hikers are not the only ones in the mountains. It’s a place of work for many local people - those who work in tourism, of course, but also those who make a living from the land. I was mesmerised by the skill of the shepherds and sheepdogs herding flocks across the slopes at Plan Jovet, and our trudging was frequently accompanied by the music of cowbells. Many wild animals also call this place home, like the busy marmots scurrying around their burrows, and the herds of ibex and shy chamois we spotted grazing at high altitudes.

We created our own customised route, walking the French and Swiss sections of the TMB and adding a few days exploring the Beaufortain trails that sometimes overlap it. The plan worked out perfectly, allowing us to appreciate the grandeur of Mont Blanc and the camaraderie of the main trail, and to experience a sense of exploration and tranquillity on peaceful trails off the beaten track.

So what’s next? We’ve caught the bug and if all goes to plan, we’ll be back in the Alps at the end of this month, walking the Montafon Huttenrunde in western Austria. Watch this space!