Haute Route Highlights D1

Trient to Champex Lac, via le Fenêtre d'Arpette.
15km 1150m ascent

It's a tough first day, but it's the option the clients chose. They're both having a pré dinner power nap whilst I blip this with my feet in the Lake.

I used my powers of persuasion to get Nick the lovely taxi driver to deliver us to Forclaz, so we started with a long amble along the bisse before the climbing began, because when it does, it does so in earnest. At first a pleasant enough climb up the lateral moraine, fortunately still in shade (today was hot hot hot) then onto the new path cut round the latest landslide, you wouldn't want to be here in the rain.
A rest at the high Shepherds hut, then 500m more of steep ascent to the fenêtre, a break in these high rocks. Arrived just in time for lunch.
Much much less busy, most of the people here doing a variant on the TMB.
However, it's the descent that brings the infamy. The first drop off the Col is horrendously loose, then it's a few hundred metres of boulder hopping. After that a long long walk out in a beautiful valley that we mostly had to ourselves. The promise of a cold beer by the lake almost enough to counter the blazing heat.
The last mile or so into the village is a glorious little path through the trees next to a fast flowing waterway. Here we picked up a lost wanderer and delivered him (enroute) to his campsite. Then on to the hotel for that well earned cold one.