So we up and bailed to Chamonix a few weeks back in search of work. An absolutely beautiful drive that was only slightly tainted by the 100 Euro’s in tolls it cost us to get there. (The tolls in France are ludicrous however one may question if it is worthwhile taking the non toll roads to save some cash as you generally end up losing a good few hours in time. I’ll come back to that later.) Once we hit the Alps though, we found ourselves driving in complete silence, jaws dropped open, eyes wide and just grinning in astonishment. We drove through a series of tunnels and as we exited each one, the views just got better and better. Our silence was momentarily broken by random shouts of cursive disbelief and the smiles just got bigger and bigger.
We had been told by some British guys we met that Lac des Galliands had a pretty nice view, was safe to crash a night or two and was close to the main sport crag; so that is where we were heading. Pulling up next to the lake and stepping out to the site of Mont Blanc standing proudly before us is a moment I will not soon forget. We just sat and stared at it for an hour or so until it got dark then went to bed, still smiling.
Next day we hit the town in search of gear and guide books and to talk to some of the locals about work. The gear stores are insane. Every manufacturer you could think of in one street plus a couple of giant superstores. I wanted everything! Surprisingly, it wasn’t too expensive either. Due to the fact that ‘End of Season’ was in 3 weeks, there was sales in every store. I could have spent a fortune but definitely would have been worth it. End of Season however, also means end of work. Add to that the fact that we haven’t been skiing since before we could walk, nor are we perfectly fluent in French yet and our search for work came to an abrupt halt. It’s a shame as we had heard so many good things about the work there but alas it is just not our time.
So we decided to at least climb whilst we were there. One of the main sport crags was right across from the lake which was awesome for accessibility but also meant that it was super crowded. I’ve never had to ‘line up’ before to climb outdoors. We did a couple of climbs at the quieter walls but were super keen for an epic multi. Excited we scoured the guide book only to discover that every big multi had to be accessed by cable car plus an approach. And the cable cars are not cheap, especially for two people and we’d most likely pay almost double as chances are we couldn’t fit the in climb in one day and would have to bivvy it and finish the following day. We looked at hiking out which would have been epic but my ankle was still too swollen and tender from my 2 rolling incidents to attempt it. We did a mini hike to see how I’d go on the terrain. We hit about 2000mtrs elevation and the views were awesome, totally rad experience but man was I hobbling on the return. I was devastated and feeling a little deflated so we decided to continue our adventure further south.
Back to the tolls. We decided to try and skip the 100 Euro’s to get us back out and put ‘no tolls’ into the GPS. The first bit of the drive was great. We went through a bunch of the smaller more boutique ski towns which were just beautiful and the wooden houses that dot the rolling hills were just like out of the movies. It was so pretty. Then we had to haul the van over 3 km’s uphill. Winding and winding and winding on a tiny narrow little road. I honestly didn’t think we would make it. We hit the top with a sigh of relief and drove for about a km when we read a sign saying the next 9 km were downhill. ARE YOU KIDDING ME, we just got up here? So down and down and down we went again on a super windy road, so constantly having to brake and you could feel the air getting colder and colder and colder. It was actually a very cool drive and the valley was beautiful, just a shame it was so taxing on the car. For that reason, we now pay the just pay the tolls instead.
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