Les Contamines to Les Chapieux

6 September – Les Contamines (1164 meter or 3820 feet) to Les Chapieux (1554 meter or 5100 feet) : 20.47 km

From Les Contamines the route is almost flat for the first 4 km then it begins to climb for the next 10 km.  It was cloudy for the first 2 hours and then began to improve and turned into a fine day.

At the point where the trail turned up there is a famous old church “Notre Dame de la Gorge”. We took a few pictures and moved on.

After the Church the trail starts uphill, crossing bridges and moving closely to the water underneath. After walking uphill for 6 km we stopped for coffee break. Refuge La Balme is part way along and served great coffee! The area is part game refuge and part pasture land – we saw cows almost to the top of the pass.

We started steep and long ascent through mountain pastures to the Col du Bonhomme at 2329 meters or 7641 feet. 

At the top of the pass we met a young couple with a 6 month old baby. He was American from Durham, NC and she was from Brazil. This is the easiest mountain the baby will ever climb! There was someone flying a DJI quadracopter at the top of the pass – taking pictures all around.

From Col du Bonhomme a further hour on rough and rocky ground to the highest elevation of the day, Croix du Bonhomme at 2483 meters or 8146 feet. 

About here there is a refuge, Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme but we found it to be dirty, the toilets were a mess and the coffee was probably brewed last week.

From here on it is around 6 km and all downhill to Les Chapieux.

On the way down the mountain we ran into two hikers – one explained he had just cut his hand in a 10 meter fall but his buddy was laughing and said 10 cm possibly. Good for a laugh.

At the bottom of the hill, Les Chapieux, we were very happy to sit down at in the yard of the hotel Les Chambres du Soleil and raise our feet while waiting for our host Nico to come to pick us.

We had a comfortable stay in Nico and Blanka’s house (www.airbnb.com/rooms/14085328) and  enjoyed the evening with them and their daughters Caroline and Sabrina. Blanka’s dinner and breakfast were very good and at a very reasonable price. In the morning she dropped us back at the trail.