Re: Three Meters Above The Sky 2 Myegy
Casandro Diveley
Kevin K, George, Fay, Eileen, and I teamed up for a nine-day traverse through the Picket Range last week. The Picket Traverse is widely regarded as the most difficult of the various classic traverses that have been established in the Cascades and Olympics. Like many parties attempting this alpine high route, we initially wondered whether we would be equal to the rigors of the trip. However, what we lacked in terms of technical skill and youthful vigor, we hoped would be offset by our mountain experience and crusty zeal. Ultimately, we found the traverse to be long, arduous, and challenging but never unreasonably difficult. All in all, it felt like an epic journey through an incredible alpine landscape!
In order to get an early start on our trip, we all met the evening before at Newhalem Campground. This was a good strategic launching point, and it gave us all some time to make final packing decisions.
After overnight rains, we awoke to a warm and sunny morning. By the time we reached Whatcom Pass (6.4 hours from Camp 1), it was downright hot. We traversed out Whatcom Arm, then crossed the Whatcom Glacier. Snow coverage was very good.
From the pass, we booted 1000 feet down the Solar Glacier, then turned southward and began a long traverse over to Phantom Arm. Steep, hard snow on the arm itself prompted the use of ropes, flukes, and pickets.
The crux of the Picket Traverse is often reported to be the descent from Picket Pass. We began our morning with a roped down-climb of the very steep snow slopes immediately below the pass. This is no-fall territory.
The reached the summit of Rhino Butte at 5:30pm (9.8 hours from Camp 5) and set up Camp 6. A cold, moist layer of marine air moved in during the evening, which made for some dramatic fog and cloud textures.
By late evening (11.3 hours from Camp 6), we were cold, tired, frustrated, and still almost 1000 feet above Torrent Pass. We ended up squeezing our three tents into a tiny spot on a 5700-foot bench above the pass. It was a comically crowded situation.
We awoke to more cold, marine fog and had a somber breakfast before packing up. From our bench camp, we descended southward to the snowy bowl of Torrent Lake, then followed a series of game paths over to Torrent Pass.
Everything seemed to improve as we climbed out of Torrent Pass. The snow cover got better, the terrain got better, and the weather got better. We booted along the scenic crest of Stetattle Ridge, crossing over the summits of North and South Stetattle Buttes in the process.
The second stage of the GR5 shares about 40 km trail with the Tour du Mont Blanc. I skipped a crowded part on an alternative, higher trail above Les Contamines. After two days I left the TMB, turning South into the breathtaking Beaufortin. There I crossed the Col du Bresson, another highlight of the GR5.
For this trip report of the GR5/Grande Traverse des Alpes I use the 7 stages as defined in the Cicerone guidebook. The second stage (3 days) starts in Les Houches and ends in Landry, the gateway to the Vanoise National Park. For more general information about the GR5, read my Planning the GR5.
Day 6 of the GR5 was the second longest day in hours or distance, but it won a gold medal for the record high elevation gain of 2.305 m (7,562 ft) in one day. I followed a variant TMB/GR5-route via Col de Tricot and continued on a high route to Refuge Tr la Tte, to avoid TMB crowds in the valley. Eventually I would join the TMB hikers on beautiful bivouac spot at the Bon Nant river.
The next morning (day 6 on the GR5) the breakfast room of Gite Michel Fagot was as crowded as the evening before, so I and my fellow solo hiker Gatane decided not to wait for the scrambled eggs and we set off at 7.30 a.m.
It took about 15 minutes of road walking before we turned left on a wooden stairway up the mountain, away from the village. It was dry, but cloudy. The Mont Blanc and many other peaks were hidden in a white veil. The trail was still quiet and empty. The first part of the trail to Col de Voza was familiar to me, and still steep at stages. As usual, Gatane was hiking much faster the way up and soon I lost sight of her.
Just like the weasels I left the railroad trail and entered a forest, following a steeper trail. The fog was so thick now that you might as well call it rain: I was getting soaked with tiny droplets accumulating in my hair, on my face and on my clothes.
The trail began to fill with TMB groups now. Dozens and dozens of hikers emerged from nowhere so it seemed (I understood later they all had just arrived with the train that passed me close to Bellevue). Especially at the suspension bridge above the Torrent de Bionnassay there were Mount-Everest-style waiting lines to cross. And this was a less popular variant of the TMB!
The many hiking groups (Korean, Russian, Italian, American and what have you) were an incentive for me to hike faster. I challenged myself to pass as many of the groups as I could. Which was not easy because in front of every series of multi colored hiking jackets I found another string of Goretex advertising, all aiming for the top of Col de Tricot.
At 11.15 I finally reached the Col de Tricot (2 hours from Col de Voza). The amazing guidebook views were absent, although as I descended towards the Chalets de Miage the the fog slowly dissolved. The descending track was extremely muddy, trampled by millions of boots. It was so slippery it occurred to me that it would be faster and safer to run down from one rock to another clump of grass. Which I did, passing many a startled TMB hiker and within 30 minutes I was down at the valley floor.
From this point we proceeded on a two hour long and exhausting ascend. We encountered a couple of French locals who advised us to take the high (left) trail to the refuge, that might be just a bit longer, but offered an escape from the hot and viewless forest. Another 350 m. of ascent, but with beautiful views now, followed. And then the refuge emerged from the mist, sitting on a ridge ahead.
The area was already quite full at the other side of the river, so we picked nice spots close to the water on the east side. The area would be filling up with more and more little tents all evening. The next morning I would count 35 tents! But for now I was happy to sit in my light weight folding chair, boots off, my body drying from a dip in the Bon Nant, my new warm puff jacket on and cooking one of my self made rehydrated meals, while sharing chunks of cheese with Gatane. We contacted our friends Christophe, Vincent and Max, who were all spread out in different places around the valley. We planned to meet the next day at Col de la Croix de Bonhomme, where we would also finally leave the TMB crowds behind us.
Day 7 on the GR5 was a day of mist, snow and rain. Leaving the Tour du Mont Blanc trail we hiked into the thickest fog, obscuring an otherwise excellent view. But we stuck together and found solace in our little hiking group.
The sound of a light but constant drizzle on my tent woke me up at 5 a.m. After six days on the trail I was not quite alarmed anymore by a few drops of rain and I turned to my other side to have some more sleep. When I woke up again, I noticed it was dry. A look outside told me that another shower would soon be upon us, so I started packing immediately, keeping one eye on the clouds above. Gatane was also awake and collecting her stuff. We decided to postpone our breakfast and get going as quick as possible before we would be soaked in another cloudburst. I stuffed al my belongings in my waterproof bag liner, closed it carefully and stuck my wet tent above it into my backpack.
It was only a short hike (about 45 minutes) to Refuge La Balme, where we sought shelter under a broad plastic shelter in front of the building. How lucky we were: as soon as we arrived a serious downpour started, and we sat down at one of the dry picnic tables provided by the hut owners. While we prepared a breakfast, filled our bottles and visited the public bathrooms outside of the building, the rain subsided.
We left La Balme, abandoning our idea to pay a visit to the off-trail Lacs Jovet, one of the highlights of my TMB tour in 2019. Because of the fog there would be no chance to observe the beauty of that place. Instead, a steep 600 m. (2,000 ft) ascend lay ahead of us to Col du Bonhomme, the first of three mountain passes today. As usual Gatane was much faster when we were climbing, so I lost sight of her quickly.
The snow field that I crossed below Col du Bonhomme four years ago had melted away this year. It was early in the morning, but already lots of hikers were to be seen on the trail. The tracks just below the col were seriously damaged and in some places the meadows were completely destroyed by too many off trail hiking. The overuse of the TMB trail is nowhere as obvious as here. STAY ON THE TRAIL, folks!
It was getting so crowded in the refuge now (the warden kept calling: no shoes, no hiking poles inside the refuge!), we decided it was time to leave and get ourselves on top of the Crte de Gittes: a narrow ridge with steep drops on either side. On sunny days this should be one of the highlights of the GR5. On this snowy day we were mostly worried not to slide down the steep sides.
The crte was shrouded in thick fog so instead of inspiring views ahead all we saw were the steep drops on our sides. A fierce snowstorm was blowing so we all walked in silence, considering every step with great care. Although this part of the trail was not what we hoped for, hiking along the ridge together was exiting en memorable.
The weather was getting worse and at one point hail stones were blowing in my eyes and I had problems moving on. But soon the path was descending with a few hairpin curves and suddenly we had arrived at Col de la Sauce, which happened to be one of those cols again that was at lower elevation than were the trail started.
From Col de la Sauce we descended further on a broad gravel track, called piste blanc in French, as I learned from my hiking companions. That was one of the nice things about this hike: I was picking up on the French language that I learned at school so many years ago. After a week I was beginning to understand most of what they said in their native tongue (speaking it myself is a whole different thing).
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