GR 54 – day 6
18.7.2023 Tuesday
Valjouffrey – Col du Vallon
→ 22,8 km ↑ 2688 m ↓ 1640 m
Today we want to at least try to avoid the heat, so we get up at 6am. It takes us quite a while. Breakfast is mushroom soup and, of course, coffee.
We start walking at 7:25am. First is Col de Côte Belle pass (2290 m). So what we descended with such difficulty last night, we climb straight back up this morning (1000 m). It’s a green pass, probably shaded well by the surrounding peaks, not as dry as the others.
Climbing doesn’t go well for me, my legs are heavy after yesterday. After just half an hour I have a cookie, and we eat a few strawberries along the trail too. Even though it’s morning and we’re in shade, it’s pretty muggy, weather’s still uncertain. After over two hours we reach the top. The other side of this hill looks completely different, all shale and rock.
Next comes a 500 m descent over 4.2 km. Nice switchbacks, so it goes well. On the way down we watch a scary-looking pass ahead of us, Col de la Muzelle (2613 m).
At the bottom we have baguette with cheese and ketchup, and we filter water. Flies are trying to eat us alive meanwhile, we must smell pretty bad by now. At 11am we start climbing another 1100 meters over 4.5 km. It’s terribly hot. The higher we go, the windier it gets, the more water we drink and the pack gets lighter. Well, Jozef’s is lighter, since he took my water too so I could keep going. The last 250 meters go through dense switchbacks over a steep shale rock wall.
It’s really windy up here, so I have to watch out that a gust doesn’t knock me over. I try not to look down. We try to get to the top as fast as we can, so I keep a constant pace without stopping. At the top a view opens up over Lac de la Muzelle, where we’d planned to sleep tonight. Still 500 meters down to it. We jog down, passing a group of trail maintenance workers. On the way down a view opens up over the Muzelle glacier too.
We dip our feet in the lake, for only 30 seconds since it’s freezing.
I want to finish editing photos, so we go up a hill where there’s signal and have tea. My phone dies, so I put off uploading the blog for later. We decide to push on a bit more today, it’s only 3:30pm. We climb toward the last pass on the route, Col du Vallon (2531 m). Once our legs warm up, it goes fairly fast. We take a photo at the pass.
We wanted to reach Lac Lauvitel, but don’t know if there’s a sleeping spot there. Plus it’s another 1000 meters down over 4 km. We catch signal up here, so I finally get the blog together and Jozef watches the Tour de France. The map shows sleeping spots just below us, so we stay here, at 2350 m, with a lovely view.
There’s already a French guy here. It’s still early and we shouldn’t pitch the tent yet, so we just lay out the tyvek groundsheet and rest. After a bit the Frenchman comes over and we chat in poor English. He has a friend from Slovakia who runs a farm in the Tatras. We also talk about how Slovak bears ended up in the Pyrenees, since a few years back there were only three left there, so they brought some over from us. He’s a botanist, so he’s traveled to a lot of national parks and reserves. He tries to give us some hiking tips for the Alps, and we try to explain what else we have planned, but the language barrier’s big. Or rather, my understanding of French pronunciation and his understanding of non-French pronunciation. After 7 we pitch the tent and Jozef cooks pasta with our dried mix and cheese. There’s something bitter in it, so it’s not as good as yesterday, but I eat it anyway, because I’d wake up starving at night otherwise. Tomorrow we just have the last 16 km back to Le Bourg d’Oisans. So we turn off the alarm and enjoy our last night on the GR54.
