It’d been about 6 weeks since my last day real bit of vacation, so I decided it’d be a good weekend to get away and head to the mountains. Given I had a few friends down in Switzerland, it was an easy decision on a Wednesday afternoon to purchase a Thursday morning flight down to Geneva, rent the car and book the flight out of Zurich 5 days later. With a favourable weather forecast for the next several days, I was off.
Day 1Since I didn’t have any concrete plans other than heading up around the base Grand Combin, I took my time and soaked up the Swiss transition from summer to autumn, which included a brilliant metamorphosis from verdant greens to deep oranges, reds and yellows. However, I knew wherever I decided to ultimately set up camp that night, there was going to be a load of snow as the area had just received a 50cm "dusting" (flying in I saw Mont Blanc and all the surrounding mountains were completely covered in white).
On the dicey 3 hr+ approach (with blocks of ice falling down the mountain for the first hour and a half) to the Chanrion hut, I was completely alone, and with the snow on the ground, the surrounding theatre was mesmerizingly absent of sound, save for the occasional whisper of wind. With the snow, sometimes knee deep, and no snowshoes, the hike was tough and a rather slow slog, and following the route to Chanrion wasn’t easy since the trail had disappeared with the snowfall. But I managed.
About 30 minutes from Chanrion, I decided to stop and make camp under the gaze of two ibex perched on the edge of a buttress, and with the sun disappearing behind Grand Combin towering above, I settled in for a cold but peaceful night and with an absolutely stunning view of a star littered sky.
Day 2
Today I was meant to meet my friend David in Martigny to head up the valley to Les Granges to get in a nice 10 – 12 pitch climb, and to get to Martigny by 10 a.m. entailed an early start. So at 7 a.m. my alarm went off, and I struggled to get out of the sleeping bag at 7:30 a.m. Realising I was running late, I quickly broke down the tent, stuffed all my gear in my backpack and took off back down towards the car.
Fortunately, the decent only took 2 hours, and the normal hour drive from Mauvoisin to Martigny was about 45 minutes. So, I quickly swung by and picked up David, and we headed up to Les Granges.
The climb was about an hour’s walk from the small ski village (will have to come back over the winter to ski as the area looked fantastic), and we couldn’t have asked for a better day – clear skies and a nice breeze. The walk over to the base of the climb had some super sketchy traverses and a few down climbing sections that were about 10 meters assisted by only a knotted rope...definitely a good way to get your nerves going.
The route was a really nice with spectacular views of the Rhone valley and the Grand Combin massif. Although some of the slab sections made your palms really sweat owning to the 150 - 200 meter drops below.
We finished to climb in about 4 hours and decided to head down to Martigny for a beer or two. However, two beers quickly turned into about 7 pints (or something like that...lost count) over some great conversation. David is a full time Swiss mountain guide, so the places he's travelled to and climbed makes for such a fascinating discussion. He's climbed 8000m peaks, all 50 of the 4000m peaks in Switzerland (he said this summer was slow - he ONLY climbed the Matterhorn 14 times / last summer he climbed it 26x!), been to Antartica, Madagascar, pretty much the entirety of Patagonia, all over the U.S. (he travelled for 2 years only climbing) and Europe... skied and ice climbed all over the Alps....pretty much you name it...he's been there and climbed / skied it.
Anyway, we had quite a few drinks, met up with a few of his buddies for some more beers, then decided to head back to Sion (where he lives with his girlfriend) and hit the bars. We also managed to grab a bite to eat (similar to Relais L'entrecote if you've ever been there) still donning the clothes we climbed in while everyone else was dressed up for a nice dinner. Fortunately, he knew all the waitstaff and even sent back a bottle of wine....hilarious!
Needless to say, I was hammered by the time we wrapped up the night...the next day was going to be painful.
Day 3
I woke up with a pretty nasty hangover, said adios to David and started to head towards Zurich, where I was meeting up with another friend for a Halloween party.
It was a really nice drive through the Swiss countryside - seeing all the small, perfectly planned / constructed villages, and after a 3 hour drive and nearly running out of gas, I rolled into Zurich about 7 p.m. - just in time to get dressed for the Halloween party and start drinking....again.
Jennifer, the girl I was staying with, and her boyfriend were already in the process of getting their costumes together...she completely covered herself in white, including white contact lenses, and was probably the creepiest person at the party.
Anyway, we all ended up having an absolute blast at the club in Zurich and made it an 9 p.m. - 5 a.m. affair...shockingly the Swiss put on a kick ass Halloween bash. Had the best time...and met so many interesting people with the most diverse backgrounds. Would definitely go back again...
Day 4
My last day in Zurich was spent walking / cycling around the city and lake....very hungover and completely wiped out.
Beautiful city. The standard of living there really has to be tough to beat. Would have no problem whatsoever living there...
Day 5
Up early....board plane....back in London...back to work : (
Until next time.....
We finished to climb in about 4 hours and decided to head down to Martigny for a beer or two. However, two beers quickly turned into about 7 pints (or something like that...lost count) over some great conversation. David is a full time Swiss mountain guide, so the places he's travelled to and climbed makes for such a fascinating discussion. He's climbed 8000m peaks, all 50 of the 4000m peaks in Switzerland (he said this summer was slow - he ONLY climbed the Matterhorn 14 times / last summer he climbed it 26x!), been to Antartica, Madagascar, pretty much the entirety of Patagonia, all over the U.S. (he travelled for 2 years only climbing) and Europe... skied and ice climbed all over the Alps....pretty much you name it...he's been there and climbed / skied it.
Anyway, we had quite a few drinks, met up with a few of his buddies for some more beers, then decided to head back to Sion (where he lives with his girlfriend) and hit the bars. We also managed to grab a bite to eat (similar to Relais L'entrecote if you've ever been there) still donning the clothes we climbed in while everyone else was dressed up for a nice dinner. Fortunately, he knew all the waitstaff and even sent back a bottle of wine....hilarious!
Needless to say, I was hammered by the time we wrapped up the night...the next day was going to be painful.
Day 3
I woke up with a pretty nasty hangover, said adios to David and started to head towards Zurich, where I was meeting up with another friend for a Halloween party.
It was a really nice drive through the Swiss countryside - seeing all the small, perfectly planned / constructed villages, and after a 3 hour drive and nearly running out of gas, I rolled into Zurich about 7 p.m. - just in time to get dressed for the Halloween party and start drinking....again.
Jennifer, the girl I was staying with, and her boyfriend were already in the process of getting their costumes together...she completely covered herself in white, including white contact lenses, and was probably the creepiest person at the party.
Day 4
My last day in Zurich was spent walking / cycling around the city and lake....very hungover and completely wiped out.
Beautiful city. The standard of living there really has to be tough to beat. Would have no problem whatsoever living there...
Day 5
Up early....board plane....back in London...back to work : (
Until next time.....
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