Gran Paradiso; Or, Cow Clashes Of Cogne

I had seen Gran Paradiso, the mountain, a couple times from the Mt. Blanc environs, and wanted to see it closer up. It is Italy's 7th highest and the highest completely within its borders. It is also the hub of a large national park, Parc Nationale Gran Paradiso, originally King Victor Emmanuel's royal hunting grounds, which he gave to the nation (Mussolini) in 1922, ostensibly to provide for the preservation of the nearly-extinct ibex. It is also Italy's first and possibly largest national park. Anyhow, its gateway is Cogne, scarcely an hour from Courmayeur. We drove over on a Sunday afternoon, quickly satisfied my curiosity about the mountain, viewed a local spectacle, stayed overnight in Cogne's large sosta (aire), and then drove the next morning to Lillez, a nearby village, to see its waterfall.

Cogne's big sosta, room for perhaps a hundred campers; fewer
there now at season's end

The Big Mountain from Cogne

Church tower in Cogne, which apparently has
the same affliction as San Capistrano

Cogne is one of those civilized Italian towns
that has an elevator or escalator from the
big sosta or parking lot up to the town proper;
here, we were reminded that Bovine Culture is
Very Big in the Val d'Osta (from which we get
Valdosta, GA, USA, a place no more like
alpine Italy than, say, Mars), a fact that would
be indelibly impressed on us as soon as we
viewed the fields west of the town...

At first we thought we had wandered into a livestock auction

But no, these are the Reines des Alpes, the cow clashes,
the bovine battles of Aosta

With preliminaries in every little town, quarter-finals in bigger
towns, and...well, as you would expect, it's very much like
March Madness or the Super Bowl

Thus; I have a pretty good video of all this which I'll upload
to YouTube and link here; someday, probably not in Italy,
when we have decent internet connections

Reines du Mont Blanc; in the guidebooks it is described as
"humane" 

Last year's losers

Anyhow, the entire affair is fueled by a variety of carburants

Another view of the mountain 

Schist happens

In the geological park in Lillez, next morning; well, para-schist,
the sign said; but the gneiss was nice

Lower bit of the waterfall

Other mountains look on; it was 36 degrees
overnight in Cogne; we felt the need to move
on, further south, lower down...

Courmayeur, 2013

The last time we did the Mt. Blanc tunnel transit, it was Courmayeur that had the awful weather and Chamonix that was sunny and dry. Just the opposite this time. But the same in one respect: Courmayeur too is shutting down. Already no bus service up to the Val Veny where we'd planned to do some hiking. Rifugio Elisabeta closes this weekend. None of the lifts is working. Well, the Funivia is, but it's not for hiking. Bus service up the Val Ferret only goes as far as Planpincieux. There are still a number of tourists around, but they are all indies, quite a few on foot doing the TMB or some stretch of it. On a hike up to Rifugio Bertone we met a couple from Alaska doing the TMB who had already had a few surprises about diminished or closed facilities. No other camping-cars at all in Courmayeur.

View from our "campsite," Parcheggio Il Forges, about 300m
from the TI and station in Coumayeur (pictured later)

Us at the trailhead to Rifugio Bertone in the Val Ferret...a new
and much better route for us

Monte Bianco from Val Ferret

Grand Jorasses

Looking up the Val Veny, the Miage Glacier and its moraine

Lots of construction going on on the Italian side; I think
this is going to rival the Aiguilles du Midi telepherique and
provide a shorter and more direct route to the summit

From the Val Ferret trail we actually had to drop down a few
hundred feet to Rifugio Bertone...where we lunched, had a
glass of wine, watched a couple of toddlers play...

In the center there is our camper, at Parcheggio Il Forges,
which on Wednesdays becomes the city market

Still blooming here and there, and a few raspberries remain,
but the leaves on the birches are starting to turn, and there
is a distinct chill on the air; people are splitting and chopping
firewood all around

Last view of Monte Bianco this year

Friday night we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our
relationship...teenage flirting at a church camp in
Miami...with an Aostan repast at our favorite Courmayeur
restaurant; above, the crepes Mont Blanc  

A sweet occasion

Chamonix South Balcony, 2013

We'd done bits of this trail before, but never all of it, nor together, nor in the proper direction. It was a glorious September day, and everything was just right.

We took the Montenvers train up to its overlook above the
Mer du Glace and climbed the trail up another thousand feet
or so for this view...looking back up the "sea of ice," more a
lake of ice these days, toward the Grand Jorasses and Italy

Climbers out for a walk

Us, before Dru, the great pinnacle climbed direct
by Walter Bonatti in 1955

Vicki builds a cairn

Now we have turned a corner and are out on the balcony
trail, Chamonix below and the Aiguilles Rouges beyond, and
all the trails we have done in previous years

A parapente on final approach at Chamonix International
Airport (landings only)

You round another corner, and there's the big mountain

And when you're not looking at it or the valley  below or the
mountains beyond, there always are the Chamonix Aiguilles
towering directly above and behind you

It's a great trail, in great shape, Vicki adds

As long as the weather stays nice

And calm

And there's a cable car waiting to take you back down the
3,000 feet to terra firma

Chamonix, 2013

From Bourg en Bresse we drove on, getting as far as St. Pierre en Faucigny and its aire. Next morning we got to Chamonix and parked among the 20 or so campers at Grepon. We spent the day walking, shopping, even riding the bus up to Le Tour or so and back. Sightseeing. It was clear to us that the place was shutting down. Apparently, there is no shoulder season here. Conversations at the TI confirmed that all the telepheriques but Aiguilles du Midi were indeed closing that weekend. News to us, since we've never been here before in September. We went to the market Saturday morning (traditional poulet roti repast) and got in one really good day's hike (next post) before the weather closed in, cooler, lots of rain, and then--what a thrill!--the first snow of the season, thankfully only down to about 5,000 feet and not the valley. Just about all the other campers left. We lazed about a few days, me mostly at the South Bar, blogging, and Vicki at the camper at Grepon, reading and relaxing; and did the wash and some final French provisioning; and then, as soon as the weather looked better on the other side, we crossed (under) the Alps and landed in another favorite place, Courmayeur. But we did have a few good days in Chamonix.

I actually prefer the other side, from the Val Ferret in Italy, but when you're in
Chamonix, it's hard to take your eyes off the Mountain

From the vicinity of the Saturday market; I know I have
posted this shot many times before; so I'll spare you all
the usual shots from the market

Aiguille du Midi peaking through

New construction in Chamonix...neo-Maginot Line?

We have never seen snow on the Aiguilles Rouges before; nor did we want to

Chamonix Mont-Blanc Chamber of Commerce: this shot is
definitely for sale!

Cloud tricks

Glacier des Bossons

One day, between showers, I walked down to Les Houches,
stopping at the very nice Les Galliands park complex, trails,
fishing ponds, ropes course, and practice cliffs; here is what
4th grade PE in Chamonix looks like

A ruin by one of the ponds

Part of the extensive ropes course

Across the valley from Les Houches, Pax