TMB Day 3: Trient to La Fouly - June 2023
Waking up at the Auberge du Mont Blanc, we knew we would have another big day ahead of us, but first we would need to make a route decision. From Trient, there are two main routes you can take to reach Champex-Lac. The more aggressive route, the Fenêtre de L’Arpette, is a high route, in which you traverse into the Mont Blanc Massif and ascend up and over the mountain range. It offers magnificent views of glaciers, the mountains, and the surrounding area, but is much more strenuous and less traversed. The alternative to this option is the Bovine route, which loops around the end of the Massif at lower elevation along rolling prairies. Our decision was largely made by the late snow pack we experienced on Day 1 and reports the week prior of the Fenêtre route not being advisable by the Chamonix Search & Rescue team. We knew tackling this loop in the early season (mid June) that we may run into challenges or obstacles like this, but given the effort of the day prior and the long week ahead, we didn’t need much convincing to decide on the Bovine route anyway.
Logistics
We hiked following the AllTrails TMB Loop from mile marker 78.4 to mile marker 58.4 on this day. We accumulated 5,500 feet of vertical gain over 19 miles, which proved to be a new daily record for everyone in the group. Our moving time for this day was 8 hours.
Hiking
Knowing we had a big day ahead of us, we ate breakfast quickly at 7:30AM, and set out to embark on another long day hike. One member of our group elected to meet us at Champex-Lac taking the first half of the day as recovery. For this reason, we were motivated to move through the first 10 miles of the trail to reconnect with him, share lunch, and enjoy the second half of the trail together. First things first, we needed to start our day by ascending out of the valley in which Trient lies and up along the prairies neighboring the town. The start to Day 3 was refreshing given there was no early morning sun to contend with and we felt more confident about food and water having learned from the day prior. We were able to pack a “to go” lunch from the Auberge, which would be a common theme moving forward to ensure we had sufficient nutrition each day.
Looking back on La Fouly as we started our day with an early morning ascent!
Our first landmark was reaching the Fort de la Forclaz as the midpoint of our first climb of the day. From there, we would need to continue ascending, but the steepest section of technical, forest trail was behind us. As the morning warmed up, we started to feel the humidity of the day and ultimately chose to take a quick break after finishing the majority of the forest ascent and opening into the prairie section. Here, we had a short conversation with two trail runners doing the same loop as us. This happened to be 2 of only 5 people that we ran into in the first 6 miles of the day!
Once opening up into the prairies, the morning hike became easier. We were able to take in the views, walk at a pretty comfortable pace, and our biggest challenge at this point was navigating other hikers and stream crossing given the early-season water levels. After about 8 miles of hiking and starting our initial descent into Champex-Lac, we were very motivated to reach the lake where we would be meeting our other member of our group and enjoy the view and food awaiting us. Champex-Lac represented a natural breaking point for the day given it was our meet up location, it was the point where the Fenêtre option converged with the Bovine route, and was close to the midway point for the 19 miles we needed to hike that day.
We strolled into town searching the local shops for fresh fruit, protein, and any other snacks that popped out to us. We ultimately ate an early lunch on the shore of the lake, caught up with our friend, and finally decided it was time to knock out the second half of the day’s hiking.
One of my favorite lunch spots, eating local cheese and charcuterie while catching up with our friend!
The interesting part about this day was the diversity of hiking each half of the day provided. The section from Trient to Champex-Lac was pretty remote and in prairies, whereas our upcoming section from Champex-Lac to La Fouly took us through nature parks (mushroom and wood carving exhibits), as well as, small mountain towns like Issert and Les Arlaches, Switzerland.
An example of the art along the trail on our way from Champex-Lac to La Fouly.
Towards the end of this day, the mileage and climbing started to wear on us. It was back-to-back long days hiking, and this time our first time ascending more than 5,000 feet in a day. Fortunately, as we approached La Fouly, we had some relatively flat hiking for the last 3 miles or so. After having pushed through our final major ascent for the day, we walked through an open valley on our way into town. Our accommodation for the night, the Auberge Maya-Joie actually rested just outside of La Fouly, so we needed to push past most of La Fouly in order to put our feet up for the day.
Accommodations
Auberge Maya-Joie was a beautiful refuge with better sleeping and showering arrangements than our first night. We were fortunate being a group that we were given a 4 person room, so some added privacy was greatly appreciated given the state we were in having hiked so much in the past two days. This night we had a little more time to clean up and charge our devices, which really helped lighten the mood. Dinner here was Raclette, which was a new experience for each of us. During dinner, our friend decided he was going to take one more easy day before committing to hiking the final 50 miles with us continuously. This was the last solid option he’d have to make this decision and it ultimately paid off in the long run. To conclude the night, I was able to practice my new French skills by coordinating his taxi over the phone, which made for an exciting personal experience for me having decided to try to learn the language about 6 months prior to that day!
The best view I can recall from a hotel room window!
Photos
All photos were taken with my phone at the time, the iPhone 12 Pro.
