Stage 8 - Col de la Forclaz to Argentiere

Today was another great day on the trail. The hotel let us eat breakfast early (an hour before they opened) which gave us a good start to the day.  Unfortunately Leah misplaced her favorite hiking shirt but we are opening it turns up because it wasn't in the room or on the clothesline when she ran back to check. 

We retraces yesterday's route along the bisse for about 30 minutes. Along this same route they shipped out ice from the glacier in little carts along a track. I am not exactly sure what they did with it as the sign was in French but I expect it was used to keep food cold. 

We crossed the raging river formed at the base of the Trient glacier and worked our way up the side of the mountain. Along the way there was a very steep section along the granite face. I wouldn't want to use that part of the path in icy conditions. 

Eventually we reached the Refuge Les Grands under the Les Grands glacier. 

From there we hiked over to Col de Balme which would lead us into the Chamonix valley. 

There we met up with many of the people that we have met along the way. One group was Audrey and Rachel who we met in Courmayer. There packs were smaller than Leah's pack and they were camping. This amazed me. Turns out they made there tent from tyvex.  At Col de Balme they mentioned that camping was no longer their preferred option. They would prefer to stay in refuges or hotels. They also were going to take the next day off due to rain. We hope to catch up with them an maybe hike the last day together. 

The views from Col de Balme were just phenomenal. We could see the Glacier du Tour and many towering mountains draped in glaciers. 

We thought our climbing was done but we were mistaken. We dropped down and had views of the Lac d'Emosson and then climbed to the small peak of Aiguille des Posettes. Here we were directly across from Glacier du Tour and had phenomenal views of Mont Blanc. 

Below is an attempted selfie in front of Mont Blanc and Mont Blanc 

We then trekked down,down to Tre le Champs where we were unable to get a reservation. We continued down to Arhentiere were we would wait out the storm. 

We had hoped to go back to Tre le Champ to restart but the logistics would be complicated so we were happy to find a trail from Argentiere up to Lac Blanc and the TMB which we will take out. 

Our accommodation, Gite Belvedere, is nice and not expensive. We both got the best night sleep since arriving. 

Below is a panoramic with Leah in the lower left corner