Day 3 - Les Crêtes

Round the Egg Station, Meribel

This was an "easy" 250m walk. But I wanted to see what Meribel looked like across the valley.

Meribel from the South

And we also got a great view of Mont Blanc.

Mont Blanc from Meribel

Day 4 - Rest Day

Sore legs …

Day 5 - Les Glières

Another low-intensity walk (supposedly, about 450m), along the valley from Pralognan towards the Refuge des Glières. My bridge partner, Francis, had enjoyed a walk up around the Grande Casse glacier, some of which feeds this valley - so in the end, he didn't come on this one. Thus missing the bus ride from hell …

Waterfalls from the La Grande Casse glacier

Mountain cattle - Beaufort on the hoof!

Marmot rock

This rock was where we saw our first marmots. The zoom function on the camera isn't powerful enough to show them, but we could make them out with the naked eye.

Michel, Marie-Christine and Annie having our picnic

Le refuge des Glières

The mountain with the glacier of La Grande Casse

Just above the refuge is a dried-up lake. I shot the photos for this panorama from the middle. The Donron de Champagny runs behind the dark green shoulder of rock on the left.

100m waterfall, Pralognan

The 1000m group had walked up the side of this waterfall. For scale I have to say (since no one had enough gas left in the tank after their walk to go stand in front) that it must be at least 100 metres high. As an aside, this photo gives a very good idea of the colours you see in the Alpine meadows.

In the evening, we had an amusing auction at the bridge table. I dealt and bid a diamond. My partner didn't hear my bid, and "opened" 1 (strong) NT. I rebid 3NT to show I had 17-18, and could bid the game even if my partner was minimum for his "response". There was no way we should be able to make a slam, with flat distribution and a combined maximum of 29 points (I'd actually got 19). And since we had 37 points between us, we made 4 overtricks ….

Day 6 - Le Refuge du Saut

This walk starts at the Lac de Tuède. After a few hundred metres climbing, we walked along the course of the Donron de Meribel. The glacier water is a greeny white. Like the water from the clothes wash cycle. But there was another stream, as clear as crystal. This is one of the lakes that feeds it:

Lac des Fées, Meribel

Vallée du Donron de Meribel, vers Le Fruit

The weather was looking rather grim. And the rock was very grey. We hoped we'ld have time to get up to the refuge (about 650m supposedly) before the rain came down.

Refuge du Saut

Up the hill, immediately on the right, is an abandoned silver mine. I climbed up to it, but the roof was too low to go more than a few feet. Those who ignored this simple fact mostly bumped their heads.

Refuge du Saut, seen from the mine

Across the valley floor, you can see a path to the lac Jean Rouge, another 200m up from the refuge. As the alternative was to stay at the refuge and get cold, I went along with the others who climbed up. The reward was a carpet of golden blooms on the plateau.

Le Fruit seen from above Lac Jean Rouge

Our guide, Cécile, took off her boots and waded thigh-deep in the lake. While on the other side some of the younger minds horsed around on the snow whose meltwater feeds it. But I seem to have lost that photo.

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