We were on our feet for 17 days and slept in the tent for 18 nights. On average, each day we climbed and descended the equivalent of Poludňový Grúň from Vrátna — twice. Even though we had 11 km more to cover to reach that altitude.

Our original plan was to just do the GR 54 (around Écrins National Park) and then wander around a bit afterward. We had a big buffer in case of storms, and also because this trek is considered one of the toughest in the Alps. But the weather was on our side and our fitness was genuinely good, so we managed to finish it in just 7 days. We can confirm: GR 54 is definitely tougher than the TMB. In case we had a few days left over, we’d considered heading into the Vercors range, but it just felt like a waste not to put 10 free days toward something better.

So we decided to head into Vanoise National Park. And it was a good call. You can’t just pitch a tent anywhere in Vanoise, so we tried to sleep just outside its borders and once booked a bivouac spot by a mountain hut. Vanoise is really beautiful, and the climbs were less demanding. We always planned about two days ahead. Our days ended up a bit shorter, mostly because of the weather, but I think our tired bodies appreciated it too. Once we’d wandered across the whole park, we still had a few days left, so we decided to cross the Massif des Cerces, back toward GR 54, to Le Bourg d’Oisans, the town we’d started from.

And it really didn’t fall short of the national parks. If you ever happen to find yourself in that area, don’t skip Mont Thabor — we didn’t get better views in any direction anywhere else on the whole trip. To finish things off, we treated ourselves to something every cyclist would envy: the Col du Galibier (last year the Tour de France went over it twice — we’re currently watching the Netflix series about it). It was the last proper climb on our itinerary. The final stretch was genuinely steep, and it was there, for the only time on the whole trip, that thoughts of “why am I even doing this to myself” crept into my head. But once we reached the top, it was all good again — like it always is once you drag yourself up some peak or pass. Driving up to Col du Galibier isn’t much of an achievement. Cycling it, now that’s something. And walking it is the peak of madness.

Coming home

Coming home is tough. Slotting back into society is never exactly a favorite activity. In Grenoble we wanted a coffee, but right by the station was a Muslim neighborhood with a market going on and a million people around. So we ended up in a bakery, and even went to McDonald’s, just so we wouldn’t have to bother finding food at the airport. At the airport we repacked our things so Jozef’s backpack would come to 10 kg, and wrapped it in plastic film. We went to drop it off at check-in and the woman told us it couldn’t be wrapped like that — by the way, there was a paid wrapping service right there. We then read the rules and apparently it’s not allowed to be wrapped in film from home. Honestly, I have no idea what the actual difference is. So we took the film off and secured it some other way with straps, but we’ve had it happen before that they’ve damaged the backpack a bit. On top of that, they sent us over to the oversize counter (even it weighed only 10 kg). The staff there had no idea why we’d been sent over, but they took it anyway. We flew to Kraków. We weren’t seated together — I ended up next to a bunch of kids, Jozef was sitting next to a Frenchman, with whom he even spoke in English during the flight. So he does know English after all. In Kraków we wait at the baggage carousel, wait until it stops completely. No sign of our bag. There’s another girl standing there too, who says she was also sent to oversize with her backpack. So off we go to fill out a lost luggage form. They’d left it behind in Lyon. It’s supposed to arrive on the next flight, on 2 August, and then they will send it to us. Because of all that, we miss our train and don’t leave Kraków until almost 8pm. I handle the navigation. Part of the route takes us down a genuinely narrow road through a forest, but Google showed it as the fastest option. By quarter to eleven we’re in the Kysuce region. We eat something, chat a bit, and go to sleep in an actual bed! The next day we head off at 9am to Partizánske with 6 buckets of blueberries. We don’t even stop at home first, straight to distributing them among the family. We get home at 2pm. Once everything’s unloaded from the car, the apartment looks like a bomb went off in it. We hadn’t been home in almost a month. Jozef cooks pasta puttanesca while I sort out what I need for work tomorrow. In the afternoon I fall asleep on the couch, and toward evening we go for a bike ride. Our fitness is fantastic. Róbert Fekete’s is closed, so we grab a beer at Osemdesiatka instead. And that’s really the end of our journey. It was amazing. There were harder moments, easier ones too, but we got through it together. Hope you enjoyed this diary, and that at least through the photos you got a little taste of the French Alps.

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Col du Galibier – Le Bourg d’Oisans

→ 13,39 km ↑ 219m ↓ 875 m

We get up around 7am, no rush today. No more mountains waiting for us. We just want to link this section back up with GR 54, so it’s all nicely closed off. Breakfast is mushroom soup and coffee. Glad the gas canister held out. It’s a clear morning, so the glaciers are on full display.

We pack up slowly, finishing the soup on a bench. We head down the switchbacks, watching the last of the marmots along the way.

We meet a grandma with a genuinely stylish haircut, walking poles and a hiking backpack. She starts talking to me in French, but I pull out my trusty line, “No parlé francias” (translation: “I don’t speak French”). And, as usual, that’s followed by simplified French and a lot of expressive gesturing. She asks if we hiked up to the pass on foot. I say yes, and she replies in English, “very good.” Genuinely lovely grandma. And there really are a lot of older people out here — at least half the hikers we’ve met were over 50, often well over. After that we’ve still got a short climb up to the busy Col du Lautaret (2057 m). We grab a coffee and charge our devices for a bit, since last night our power bank died completely at 15% — something we’ll need to look into once we’re home. Today’s destination is Villar-d’Arêne, which we passed by on day two. Still 7.5 km to go.

We follow the GR50, which loops around the Écrins national park. It’s longer than the GR54 but with less elevation gain. First along a mowed path through meadows, then on asphalt all the way to Villar. This is where the main road to Grenoble runs, and we want to hitchhike to Bourg d’Oisans, which is on the way. Along the road Jozef mentions he read somewhere that hitchhiking in France is notoriously bad, so we’ll see. We find a decent spot and stick out a thumb — the very first car stops. It’s only going as far as La Grave though, so we keep hitchhiking. A minute later another car stops, also headed to La Grave, and a minute after that, another one. Finally we flag down one going further. It’s a tiny Škoda that Jozef barely manages to squeeze into. An older French couple gives us a lift, and they speak a bit of English, so we attempt some conversation. The woman teaches me how to say Bourg d’Oisans since she couldn’t understand me when I asked where they were headed. Turns out you just drop half the vowels and say it as fast as possible. The result comes out something like “BOODOZAHN.” The ride takes 40 minutes and it’s genuinely a bit dangerous — lots of tight bends and narrow tunnels. Every few meters there’s an avalanche warning sign, some even with light signals. This place must get pretty rough in winter. At 1pm they drop us off at the edge of town, close to a campsite, so we head straight there. We were deciding whether to go or not, but we do need to unwind and clean ourselves a bit before the flight, and they’re forecasting thunderstorms for this evening.

It’s very muggy out. After showering, pitching the tent, and sorting out our gear, we head into town. First stop is a shop, where we grab a pasta salad with crab sticks since we’re starving, then we go send some postcards. We’ve got time to spare, so we get coffee and later pizza too. It’s starting to get dark and we can hear thunder in the distance. On the way back to the campsite we stop to buy Prosecco — I really want some tonight. As we step out of the shop, it starts drizzling. Looks like it’s going to keep raining for a while, so we hurry back to the campsite as fast as we can. A proper downpour breaks out over the last 200 metres, so we run back to the tent. I finish writing yesterday’s blog post and we drink some Prosecco. Jozef goes to have a shower again, but when he goes to put his shoe on, he finds a huge slug inside it. Pretty disgusting.

Later that night, when we’re heading to bed, there are actually three of them in there. I guess the amazing smell drew them in. Just to be safe, we bring absolutely everything into the tent. It’s still raining pretty hard. Glad we’re not somewhere high tonight. Tomorrow all that’s left is the trip home.

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Les Grands Lacs – Col du Galibier

→ 29 km ↑ 1601 m ↓ 1818 m

We get up at 8am. We slept over 10 hours. No rush this morning. Today’s the last full day of walking ahead of us. Breakfast is leek soup, which is about 42% mashed potato, with added pasta. Dark clouds are gathering over the hills behind us. We’ve got no signal, so we can’t check the forecast. For now, it’s sunny where we are.

We set off at 9:20am. First we descend into the valley toward the Refuge du Terre Rouge hut. They’ve got a small hydroelectric plant there, so Jozef explains to me how hydroelectric plants work and what we have back in Slovakia. This comes up on our hikes all the time, since we usually pass powerplants somewhere along the way. One of these days it’ll actually stick.

There are plenty of marmots again today, so here’s the next chapter of yesterday’s marmot facts. They have 4 fingers on their front feet and 5 on their back ones, since they only dig with 4 fingers and the fifth gradually shrank away to nothing. Most of their burrows are dead ends, only about 1.5 m deep, and serve as quick hiding spots. Then they have their actual home, a whole system of tunnels — one main chamber for hibernating, another for going to the toilet, and in winter even a ventilation tunnel, since they seal off the main entrance. In winter they need snow as insulation, otherwise the frost would get into the burrow and they probably wouldn’t survive it. And they’ve got this funny whistle — whoever’s on lookout duty warns the rest of the group about danger. This kind of thing I remember instantly. We’re walking through a green valley, climbing toward the Pas des Griffes pass (2548 m). The other side is a complete contrast — rock and sharp peaks.

It’s 350 m down and 350 m up to the next pass. We descend a bit and stop for lunch — a baguette with salami and cheese, plus a pain au lait. I catch up on yesterday’s blog while Jozef calls a colleague. He tells us we’re crazy, though I don’t really see it that way myself. Jozef sometimes calls me a crazy woman too, though I take that as a compliment. We carry on toward the Col de la Plagnette pass (2525 m). The map shows us joining a cycling route, so we figure it’ll be a comfortable climb. We were quite wrong.

We can’t imagine who could actually cycle up terrain like this, given how much we’re struggling on foot. On top of that, some storm has clearly wreaked havoc here, leaving behind a channel full of washed-up rocks. Marmots are everywhere as always, and we stumble on a proper marmot battle. They don’t pay us any attention, so we film them. Once the fight’s over, we move on. We cross the pass and a view of lakes opens up ahead.

If we weren’t at 2500 m altitude, we’d go for a swim — the lakes look so inviting. It’s getting fairly late in the day now and we should probably pick up the pace a little.

First we wind down the switchbacks to Les Mottets, where we grab a coffee, and then comes today’s main event: Col du Galibier (2642 m), a mountain frequently featured on the Tour de France. We first try the orange trail that mapy.cz marks as the Trail du Galibier, but we simply cannot find it anywhere. It’s supposed to link up to a yellow trail marker, so we just follow the contour line in that general direction.

Once we join up with it, there’s a nice path. From here we can already see the busy paved road that runs up to Col du Galibier. The weather looks a bit uncertain, so I check the forecast. I switch off airplane mode and a text comes through — someone from ZKW, where I’d interviewed before we left, had tried calling me over an hour ago. I open my email right away and find out I’ve been offered the project cost estimator position, starting 1 August, if I want it. My phone starts ringing right then, I pick up, but the signal is genuinely terrible and the call drops. I find a spot on a rock and try again, and it’s better there.

So I accept the offer, and we’ll sort out the rest on Monday. Marmots whistle away somewhere in the background. It starts drizzling lightly, so I put on my rain jacket. We keep climbing, climbing gradually through the road’s switchbacks. Marmots everywhere, still. The final stretch is genuinely brutal, to the point where I start asking myself why I’m even doing this.

We finally make it to the top, and people give us odd looks — why on earth would we walk up here instead of driving like normal people. We take some photos and head over to the viewpoint.

We don’t have a specific spot picked out for the night, planning to just settle down somewhere on the way down. As we descend, a stunning view of the glaciers opens up. We find a decent enough spot — tall grass, but it’s got a bench.

We pitch the tent, Jozef cooks dinner, and I go for a very light wash-up. There’s a fairly cold wind blowing, so it’s not the most pleasant. This is our last night out here beyond civilization. For the past few days, you find yourself looking forward to the end of the trip — but once it actually arrives, you realize how great it’s been and that you’d honestly stay a bit longer.

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Valfrejús – Les Grands Lacs

→ 22,47 km ↑ 2016 m ↓ 1046 m

The morning is not good. I drank too much Prosecco and got too little sleep. Honestly, I didn’t even want that Prosecco yesterday. When Jozef first asked if I wanted some, I said probably not. But he asked again, and since there was a shop right there and we’d walked so far already, he went and bought it — thirty centiliters of Prosecco won’t kill me, right. Except it was drier one and Jozef didn’t really like it. He had one glass with me and then switched to the beer he’d been carrying up from below, saying he’d help me finish it later (in the end he just took a sip from my glass). I liked it, I go for the drier Prosecco and it tastes great after forty kilometers, but it was completely the wrong call. When we’re walking this much, I need to actually sleep at night so my body can rest and recover — not to give it more work by having to process alcohol on top of everything. And there’s a difference between half a liter of beer for Jozef and half a liter of Prosecco for me. Especially when you only get ten hours of downtime (meaning, not walking). On a shorter day, when we finish by 5pm and have a drink then, the body can process it before sleep and you usually get more rest anyway. In the morning I can still walk fine, the body’s gotten used to that part, but the fatigue catches up eventually. Last year on the TMB we drank a lot more often. It was a bit of a vicious circle — we’d be completely exhausted, so we’d have some wine, and then the next day I’d almost always end up napping in the afternoon because I just couldn’t function. And back then we weren’t even doing distances and elevations like we are here. Today is a genuinely beautiful day. Not a cloud in the sky, pleasant temperature, no storms in the forecast. Completely perfect, and the only thing on my mind is why on earth I drank so much yesterday, and why I drank at all. Instead of soaking in the scenery, my head just keeps circling around this and it’s all mushy in there. It’s dangerous, too — if something happened today, some kind of emergency, you’re just not fully there, and that’s when mistakes happen. Naturally, first thing this morning I snapped at Jozef about why he even bought the Prosecco in the first place, since I hadn’t wanted it and then he barely drank it either. And then I got annoyed at myself for not just saying a firm no, and for finishing it anyway. So the mood was pretty sour. We got up at 6:45am and went into town for breakfast, to the charging point, since there was water there too — we just packed up the tent and headed there. I also did some laundry in the bathroom. We spent a long time there, needed to charge the power bank. We set off at 9am and I feel awful. Not physically — mentally. I’d rather just lie down somewhere and have a cry. My legs keep walking, sometimes I say something to Jozef, and slowly my thoughts start sorting out.

After an hour, we stop for a peach, I snuggle a bit, but I still feel like crying over this whole wrong decision of mine. We push on, telling ourselves we can have lunch in an hour and I can lie down for a bit. It cheers me up when we spot a marmot. The world is right again. Jozef read up on them yesterday, so he tells me all sorts of interesting facts. The old Slovak word for them is “hvizdoš” (whistler). A lot of the young ones die over winter because they don’t eat enough during summer and don’t build up sufficient reserves until spring. And their population is declining because they only mate for a few hours a year, in April, once the snow melts and the first high-pressure system rolls in — meaning good weather. But that’s exactly when a lot of people show up in the mountains too, disturbing them, so there end up being fewer baby marmots. We sit down in a meadow with a nice view and Jozef gets the baguettes ready.

I write. I need to get it out of my system so I can move on. Because we’ve still got big things planned for today, and I don’t want to worry about things I can’t change. I rest for a bit longer and then I feel fine. So the lesson here is: when you don’t want something, just say no. And when you don’t know whether you want it or not, the answer is also no (that one’s from Naval Ravikant’s Almanack, highly recommend it). The next 5 km is a pleasant climb up to Lac du Peyron, where some guy is fishing. Who knows what you can actually catch at 2500 meters above sea level.

After that the trail gets tougher, both in elevation gain and terrain. At the Col des Méandes pass (2718 m), we stop to eat before the hard climb, and I even squeeze in a nap. Ahead of us: 450 meters of elevation gain over 2 km. We climb slowly, the landscape shifting into a desert-like terrain with patches of snow.

At 3:30pm we reached the summit of Mont Thabor, at 3178 m. It’s actually the only proper peak we climbed on our whole route, and also the highest point of the trip. For me, it’s also a new personal altitude record.

And then there are the views! We can see all of Vanoise and the Écrins park. We got absolutely perfect weather for it, with excellent visibility.

We stay up there a long time, taking lots of photos. I hand my phone to a French lady and ask her to take our picture, giving her a few pointers so it comes out well.

Then we take photos of her whole family. To our surprise, all four of them speak fluent, lovely English. We hang around a while longer, watching an elderly gentleman — we nicknamed him “uncle” — walk to every edge of the summit and stand there for a moment, then come back and do it again. Eventually he comes over to Jozef, and it turns out he’s actually looking for his glasses. Sadly, we hadn’t seen any, so we start heading down.

The descent to the Col de la Chapelle pass (2937 m) is still fairly fine. “Uncle” overtakes us, cutting straight down diagonally from the top — he clearly knows the area and comes here often. From the pass, two paths lead onward: one along the right side of the valley, the other along the left. We take the right one. We’re not entirely sure where we’re going, there’s a lot of rock and scree, so we navigate by cairns. We let “uncle” go ahead of us, figuring he’ll know the way. We follow him for a bit, but then he veers off the path and cuts straight down through a snowfield. We stick to the trail. “Now that’s a mess,” Jozef comments on the descent through the rockslide, where there’s no real path — every step you take, you sink in and drag a chunk of rocks down with you.

At one point he even declares he’d actually welcome hiking boots for terrain like this. Every now and then we look around to see if we can still spot “uncle,” but he’s vanished. We take another break on a hilltop and eat the chips that got puffed up from the pressure change back at the first pass. Adding a photo in light of yesterday’s discussion about overloaded backpacks.

Just a short stretch left to our destination, Les Grands Lacs. Right at the end we’re hit with a surprisingly steep climb, but we stop by the lower lake, Lac Caspi, because it’s filled with tadpoles and there are already little frogs too. I’d happily camp right there, but we push on. We arrive at 6:30pm. Other people are already camping here. We find a flat spot and pitch the tent. The sun’s still high, so we go wash up in the lake. It’s quite shallow and muddy, so you can’t swim in it, but we manage to have a decent wash with our mess tins.

Jozef cooks dinner — mashed potatoes, of course. Once we’ve eaten, washed up, and are lying in the tent with the sun still warming us, we just nod off completely.

We wake up sometime after 10pm and go brush our teeth. Outside it looks stunning. The moon is out and you can see the mountains reflected on the water’s surface. But it’s cold, so we quickly crawl into our warm sleeping bags.

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Val-Cenis – Valfrejús

→ 40,16 km ↑ 2573 m ↓ 2382 m

We get up at 6:30am. Finally a calm night, just a bit of rain and no wind at all. We slept well. For breakfast is instant soup with extra pasta. We pack first, then eat. We set off at 7:45am. First today is 700 m of climbing over 3 km. There’s low cloud cover, and it looks like there’ll be a inversion up top. We climb slowly, first through forest, then across a meadow that instantly soaks our shoes. For a moment we see the mountains we walked yesterday. There’s a dusting of snow on them. Even the air smells like snow. Cold, sharp, the kind that stings your nose nicely. There must have been a settlement up here once. We pass a lot of ruined houses, and lower down there was even something like a cargo lift. Going up we’re still in short t-shirts, but once the terrain eases off we put on jackets and gloves.

We’d originally wanted to sleep here, and I felt a bit sorry we went down instead, but now I’m glad we did. We’d have been wet and cold, maybe even with snow on the tent. We join the red trail, which is surprisingly busy. We passed about 30 people in total. We don’t understand how people manage to hike with packs like these. We know that not everyone can afford lighter, more expensive gear, but having a backpack I could almost fit inside, with a tent strapped on top and plastic bags hanging off the sides, is a bit extreme. We’re still in cloud cover and it’s pretty cold.

But at least we move fast and don’t stop much, since there’s nothing to see anyway. After 3 hours, once we get away from the high mountains and glaciers where the fog lingers, the sun finally comes out and it’s a bit nicer.

I’ve been hungry for quite a while now, but Jozef keeps pushing the break. By the end I’m pretty grumpy. Good thing we’re going downhill, I couldn’t manage uphill right now. During the break I have three little Nutella buns, and then it’s better. We already have nice views, our shoes are drying, and in an hour there’s a hut where we get coffee.

Just before the hut I’m running out of energy. We drink coffee fast, we still have a lot ahead.

The coffee perks me up a bit. Before the hill I have the last pieces of chocolate. It’s quite a struggle. My calves feel completely dead. Once I get them moving it’s better, and then it’s a gentle climb up to Col du Barbier pass (2295 m).

We take a break in a meadow after the pass. I eat two more buns. Jozef gives up his too. He can handle being hungry. I really can’t (or rather, he’d rather be hungry than deal with hungry me). And we still haven’t seen a single marmot today.

Ahead of us is a descent back to Modane (where we started Vanoise), 1250 m over 7.5 km. We’re down by 5pm, half jogging the whole way. We go shopping at Casino. Since we’re starving, we massively overbuy, way too much food. We walk a bit into a park and pitch the tent there so it can dry a bit. We have our first dinner. I start with a peach, then baguette with smoked ham, Beaufort cheese, tomato and anchovy olives. We have a Pilsner with it too. We can barely finish it all somehow. We wanted to camp outside town, but we can’t find an outlet to charge things for the next three days. So we decide to push on to the tourist village of Valfréjus, 5 km and 470 meters of ascent. We climb pretty fast even with heavy packs. A guy even stops to offer us a ride, but despite the temptation we decline. I’m well fed now, so it’s fine. At 7:45pm we’re up top. There’s some kind of horse show going on. But our path leads to a bike charging station. We drop our things and charge our phone and power bank. I sit there and write the blog. People give me odd looks, since it’s a pretty upscale village.

Jozef first buys prosecco, from the Savoie region, then goes to the toilet. He texts me that even the toilet is fancy, with hot running water. We take turns and I go wash up a bit there too. Then we just fill up water and head back a short way to a spot we’d picked out for the tent. We thought no one would come by, but a few people go for a walk to the Notre-Dame-du-Charmaix de Valfréjus chapel.

Everyone’s very kind though, complimenting the good spot we found. So our paranoia about someone kicking us out fades away. That’s exactly why we chose France, since nobody really cares as long as you’re not in a strictly banned spot and don’t make a mess. Dinner is canned chili con carne with baguette. Tomorrow’s forecast is genuinely amazing, so we want to make the most of it. It’s going to be great.

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L’Illaz camping – Val-Cenis

→ 31,23 km ↑ 1633 m ↓ 1960 m

At 1:45am, I wake up to constant lightning across the sky. It’s not raining yet, so I go take down the laundry. Within 10 minutes, it starts raining. Judging by the thunder, the storm’s still 6 km away. Lightning flashes every few seconds. The storm gets closer. It’s pouring and blowing hard. Since the tent walls are a bit see-through, I see every lightning. I cover my head with the sleeping bag, but I still can’t sleep. I don’t remember ever experiencing a storm like this, let alone outdoors. Jozef, of course, barely remembers it, since he slept through it. It passes around 2:30am. So I fall asleep for a bit, but then another one comes, weaker, but it still wakes me up. It stops raining at 5:30am. Our alarm was set for 6am. We turn it off. No point getting up when I’ve had so little sleep and everything’s wet. I get up at 8am, really not feeling like going anywhere today. Once I have sausages and coffee, it gets a bit better. We pack very slowly. We need to clean things that were in the vestibule and got covered in mud and grass from all that rain. In addition, our washed clothes and the tent are still wet. While things dry, I write the blog. We don’t set off until 10:30am, clothes are hanging on our backpacks.

It’s not as hot today and a fairly cold wind is blowing. First we walk 2 km on flat ground. I dawdle, really not feeling it today. Then a climb starts. I change into still-damp clothes, since they dry fastest on me and I don’t want to sweat through my clean “town” t-shirt. We have a fairly steep climb ahead, over 400 meters over 2.2 km. We’re at the edge of Vanoise park and the trail nicely follows a contour line.

Fresh snow is visible on the surrounding peaks. The wind’s strong and cold, Jozef even pulls buff scarf over his ears.

After two hours we stop in a sheltered spot, I upload the blog and Jozef sorts out some work stuff. Meanwhile we eat a whole hazelnut Milka, gone in no time. Good thing we bought a two-pack. Today we’d originally planned 40 km, but because of the late start we changed it to 30 km.

At 3pm we have lunch. Baguette with pâté and onion. I eat it too. Next is another climb. I have plenty of energy from lunch, so I move fast. There are also a lot of forest ants, and I really don’t like those. Once we reach the top, stunning views open up over the glaciers.

It’s genuinely cold here, but we don’t feel like putting on more layers. So we push on quickly another 5 km to the Auberge de Bellecombe hut. We’re there at 5:30pm and there’s a kitten.

The hut looks like something out of an open-air museum, and they make us coffee on the stove in a little moka pot. Outside the hut we put on long trousers, gloves and a rain jacket too. A few drops already hit us. We wanted to detour to Lac Blanc, a 2 km trip, but it’s raining there right now.

We decide to head straight down, hoping to stay dry a bit longer, and the sun ends up shining on us for almost the whole walk down.

We descend almost 1000 meters, but it goes fast. First through the national park with glacier views, then through a pine forest with limestone rock formations.

It reminds me quite a lot of the Slovak mountain Choč. We find a few sleeping spots already, but we’d rather go all the way down, so we can climb straight up tomorrow. We camp next to a paintball field and a stream. We pitch the tent, take a quick wash in the stream, and dinner is mashed potato again. It rains a bit, but luckily no storm. We plan the next few days. We only have 4 days of walking left.

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Refuge des Evettes – L’Illaz camping

→ 20,69 km ↑ 169 m ↓ 1042 m

Frost yesterday, a hailstorm today. That’s how the mornings go now. Jozef was out before 2am taking photos and tells me how warm it is outside. Then one storm came, then another, maybe even a third. I lost count, I just tried to get a bit of sleep. The wind kept slapping the tent hard. I woke up at 5:30am and the sky was clear. We went back to sleep for a bit. Then a storm and hail woke us up. The tent held up, we stayed dry and relatively safe inside. Once it stopped, sometime before 9am, we packed everything at lightning speed and went to shelter in a hut 500 m away. More clouds were coming. At the hut we had coffee and watched what was happening outside. The storm went around the hut. So after 10am we headed down.

After a few kilometers we stopped to eat, and I finally managed to upload the blog. It started drizzling again, so we hurried to the cable car station.

As we got closer to the cable car, thunder started again. There we had a choice, either go down into town, where we were yesterday, or continue below the ridge. We chose the town route and hurried down the switchbacks. Rain caught us for just the last few minutes, and then we sheltered by the closed cable car station. Within 10 minutes the sun was out again. But I’m glad we’re down.

The forecast says showers or rain all day, which at these temperatures means a storm 90% of the time. In town we wanted pizza, but it only opens in the evening. So we go to the bakery instead. We buy 2 blueberry pastries, a baguette and a croissant. This region’s fairly known for blueberries, though I don’t think this particular pastry is anything exclusive.

The Kysuce blueberry cake back home is better. We fill ourselves with baguette and continue. We decided to only reach the town of Bessans today, where we’ll go to a campsite. We’re starting to smell, I want to wash my hair, and the weather’s very unpredictable. Since we’ve decided to stay low, we take a very easy route along the river.

We meet a lot of people, since it’s a nice walk with beautiful views. Easy walking, but it keeps switching between raining and not raining. We keep putting on and taking off our rain jackets. When it seems like it’s raining harder, we put on our rain skirts too, testing our rain gear for the first time. People give us odd looks, who knows why.

In Bessans we get coffee since we’re both tired from last night, then go shopping for the next two days. For dinner we buy a can of sauerkraut with meat and sausages. We’ve run out of Nutella and mashed potato. For now, a peach, chocolate dessert, baguettes and a blueberry beer. We reach the campsite around 5pm. We ask the lady for one night, pay, and head fast to spot number 13. Drops are already falling again. We pitch the tent fast, stash our things inside, and go straight to shower and do laundry. We string a line by the tent and hang up our clothes.

Jozef heats up the sauerkraut. It’s pretty good and there’s a lot of it. Today I paid attention to my diet and tried to eat more. I finish yesterday’s blog, drink the leftover wine from two days ago, and Jozef checks tomorrow’s route while drinking a blueberry beer. Because of the rain we take down and hang up the laundry about three more times. We leave it out overnight, at least there’s some chance it dries.

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Refuge de la Femma – Refuge des Evettes

→ 31,64 km ↑ 2069 m ↓ 1899 m

We wake up to a cold morning. It’s below zero and there’s frost on the tent. The sun’s still behind the mountains. Breakfast is mushroom soup and coffee. Dessert is pain au lait with Nutella. We start climbing before 8am. Pretty cold, so I put my green merino leggings and insulated shorts.

After about a kilometer, we stop to brush our teeth and take off a layer. Now I’m all in green, looking like a little frog. We climb gently to Col de la Rocheure pass (2911 m). We’re still walking through marmot territory, so every now and then one of us points at a marmot.

From 2800 m the landscape starts turning into a rocky desert.

Snowfields appear more often, and the wind picks up. I put on my wind jacket and Jozef his fleece. We descend 350 m to Refuge du Fond des Fours hut. This side of the pass is completely different from the other one, green and blooming.

We walk down through a moon-like landscape. Only close to the hut it does turn green again.

At the hut we have coffee and pain au lait with Nutella. From there we climb again, this time to the highest pass on the route, Col des Fours (2976 m). Right past the hut we witness a marmot fight, firstly two, then three of them. It’s hilarious how they stand on their hind legs and try to hit each other with their tiny paws. My legs don’t really want to go up the hill, so I stop often. Luckily it wasn’t that much elevation, so we’re there within an hour. It’s really windy, so we don’t linger. There are a lot of people here, on a short 3 km hike from a nearby car park. On the way down we jog a bit here and there, and sometimes cross a snowfield.

Soon we’re by the road that runs over Col de l’Iseran pass (2800 m) to the famous ski resort Val-d’Isère. A really busy road, with cyclists, motorbikes and cars all mixed together. Our route heads to the same town, Bonneval-sur-Arc, but steeper, without switchbacks. Over 5 km. We really don’t feel like it anymore, so we at least have some candy. Grape sugar for energy, and hard candy to pass the time.

In town we sit by an e-bike charging station and charge our own electronics too. Mostly the camera batteries. Our charging cable must be faulty, since it keeps disconnecting from the power bank, and I think that’s draining the batteries. So from now on we’ll take photos on Jozef’s phone. We wait for the shop next door to open, so we can buy food for now and for dinner. I check the weather, and tomorrow morning it forecasts heavy rain, so we’ll see how that goes. Tonight we’re heading to sleep near the Italian border with a glacier view. First the trail follows the L’Arc river. There are signs everywhere warning of flash floods. A very busy trail, especially with families with kids and dogs. It follows the river gently for about 3 kilometers. This part, passing so many people, really wears us out, mostly mentally. Near the end, a Frenchman even asks if I’m okay. I must really look bad. Once we start the last 500 meters of climbing, there are fewer people. We’ve had quite a lot today, and I didn’t eat much, so I’m hungry again. We slowly manage to climb up and beautiful views open up over the glaciers.

Because of the forecast, we try to find a good sleeping spot, but, of course, it has to have a view. After about 15 minutes we finally settle down. I open a bag of chips right away and edit yesterday’s photos. Jozef pitches the tent. Today, of all days, when we’d really need it pitched well because of the stronger wind, it won’t work even on the second try on the uneven ground. So we fix it with a rock, weighing down one side to keep it taut. I’ve already edited the diary, but there’s no signal to upload. I really don’t have the energy to write about today. I go at least wash up a bit. That perks me up a little. We’re having mashed potatoes again today, but my stomach’s a bit upset, so I can’t really eat much. I’m also a bit worried about the weather. I fall asleep pretty fast, it’s still nice out.

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Pralognan-la-Vanoise – Refuge de la Femma

→ 27, 62 km ↑ 2212 m ↓ 1287 m

Alarm’s at 6am, but we really don’t feel like getting up. There’s low cloud cover, so we don’t know what it’ll be like in the higher mountains. Breakfast is hearty, sausages with baguette and a tomato-onion salad with olives. We really overate this morning. Good thing too, since the first climb is over 1000 m over 4.5 km. We start after 8am and go slowly up through forest. The wind blows the clouds through the mountains, it’s kind of magical.

From about 2200 m the views get really nice.

We manage the first pass, Col du Grand Marchet (2490 m), in 2 hours 20 minutes. We take a photo up top and eat peaches.

Next comes a steep, unpleasant descent. First over sharp shale, then over smooth rocks worn down from lots of tourist traffic. We drop 500 m and right after that climb to another pass, Col de la Vanoise (2522 m). We meet almost no one on the trail. When we cross the dried-up Lac des Assiettes, it’s dead silent.

We only have a short way left to the pass, where there’s also a hut. We cross one last small hill and suddenly dozens of people appear. We’d taken the harder route. We’ve been walking 5 hours since morning so far.

We have a lunch break, baguette with brie cheese. Under 15 km left to our destination. But with little elevation gain, 350 m up and over 500 m down. The trail runs very nicely through a wide valley with lakes, surrounded by tall mountains.

It’s a fairly busy trail. A river from a melting glacier is winding through the middle. We need to go down a few switchbacks when, suddenly, we spot an ibex, finally. It’s a protected species that mostly lives in this park. There are about 400 of them.

We take photos and continue down. We’d originally planned another route, but since we ended up at a campsite yesterday because of the weather, we had to adjust it a bit today. We have a bivouac spot booked next to Refuge de la Femme. We’re in the middle of the park, where a lot of trails cross.

We turn onto the yellow trail leading to the hut. We walk about 4 km on an asphalt road used by farmers. A path then joins it, leading us all the way to the hut. I really enjoy this walk, blooms are everywhere in the meadow and beautiful views of the hills.

There are marmots too, so Jozef doesn’t mind that I’m walking slowly. We reach the hut around 5:30pm. I go ask where we can pitch the tent. With hand gestures and a few English words, we somehow understand each other. Right now there are two older women singing, surrounded by cows. Tents should only go up after 7pm. So Jozef goes to buy a liter of wine for €15, since it’s much cheaper than beer, and we have plenty of time. We go grab a good tent spot. Soon, other people start pitching the tents, so we do it as well.

Then we go wash up in the stream. Maybe it’s day 10 talking, but it actually feels nice and refreshing now. Everyone else goes for dinner while we cook outside, chasing cows away from the tents meanwhile. They’re especially interested in the tarp. Dinner is mashed potato. Today’s an extra special version, so here’s the recipe.

1. Chop a lot of garlic into the mess tin and cut up some dried tomatoes from Lidl.
2. Pour in oil from the tuna can (if you happen to spill it in the tent, use the one you still have from home).
3. Put it on the stove and fry the garlic until it smells great and starts sticking to the titanium bottom.
4. Add a splash of white wine and let the alcohol cook off.
5. Add water (adjust the amount to how much instant mash powder you’re using).
6. Add one stock cube.
7. Once the stock cube dissolves and you see the first signs of boiling, take it off the heat (to save gas), wrap the pot to keep it warm, and stir in the mashed potatoes. Mix well.
8. Stir in the tuna and it’s ready to eat.

Tip for connoisseurs: add a heap of parmesan.

Tastes best with a nice view after a full day of hiking. Then we just sip wine, watch marmots, and shoo away the occasional cow.

Last year we followed Matúš Lašan’s trip online, and cows nearly ate through his tent, so we’re a bit nervous about tonight. Each of us keeps hiking pole ready on our side.

I try to write the blog in the evening, and Jozef’s still watching marmots running around the tent, but it knocks us both out completely. I wake up at 11pm and ask Jozef for water. We hadn’t even brushed our teeth yet, so we handle that now. I pour the rest of the wine into a spare bottle, for tomorrow. I go take a few photos of the tent with the night sky and quickly back into the warm sleeping bag.

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Ritord – Pralognan-la-Vanoise

→ 13,79 km ↑ 284 m ↓ 871 m

We get up at 5:30am and pack fast. We’re on a busy trail and don’t want to hang around here long. We set off at 6am without breakfast. We reach a hut 2.5 km on and make breakfast and coffee. Next part is uphill, and I really couldn’t manage that without food and coffee. I still feel a bit cold, probably from yesterday’s temperature swings. First a hot climb in the sun, then a late descent in high mountains, in the shade. Once we eat, we start climbing.

Today we chose the harder mountain route over the easier one through the valley. The weather looks uncertain, clouds coming from every direction. We climb slowly and the sky looks genuinely scary.

We pack everything into waterproof covers and get our rain gear ready. Suddenly thunder rumbles. I really don’t like that. We reach a small stone hut, but it’s marked private, so we decide what to do next. Either continue and pitch the tent if things get bad, or turn back. The thunders get stronger, but it’s not raining yet, so we head back down to the hut, about 1.5 km. We run downhill, and I feel like lightning strikes are really close, followed right away by thunder. Jozef says it was far, but I don’t know, I was pretty stressed. It’s already started raining. By some houses we put on rain gear. We’re just a short way from the hut, but I really can’t do it, I have to walk. I reach the hut completely soaked and out of breath. We get undressed, put our things away, change into slippers they have there, and I go ask for coffee. We don’t even finish our coffee and the storm’s already over, blue sky again.

We go outside and check the weather (YR, the Norwegian weather service), and it forecasts showers all day, which could mean more storms like this one. Behind the hill we already see more dark clouds. I was pretty tired already this morning, and this storm situation took away all my will to continue. So we choose the valley route instead (the original GR 55 trail). Next comes a gentle descent, about 7 km through a beautiful forest with views.

We walk slowly, I feel a bit sick, and if I lay down anywhere here I’d fall asleep instantly. We reach the village of Pralognan-la-Vanoise. We check the first campsite, but it looks expensive, so we go to a second one. That one’s fine. At 10:30am we pitch the tent so it can dry. Jozef goes to the shop. He comes back with sausages, prosecco, and a lot of peaches too. So for lunch we have sausages. Jozef has a combo, baguette, Dijon mustard, ketchup, onion, sausage.

I inflate the sleeping pads and take a cold and flu medicine. I go to sleep for two hours, and Jozef probably naps a bit too. Then I go shower and finish the blog, with which I need to catch up. Another hiker arrives next to us and have the urge to pick a spot about half a meter away from us (there’s plenty of room everywhere), so we even hear him turning on his sleeping pad. Jozef goes to put the prosecco in the stream to chill, then back to the shop for pasta, sauce and olives for dinner.

I keep working on the blog, and Jozef cooks. For dinner we open that prosecco, which we’d wanted the day before yesterday to celebrate finishing the GR 54. I think we rested enough today, the afternoon nap really helped, we got a lot of calories in, and tomorrow’s weather should be better too.

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