Climbing Via Ferratas in Annecy Region

This will be a short compilation of days 6, 8 and 11 in Annecy France which were not flyable, but none the less stellar in appearance. They were overcast days filled with excitement and possibly terror if you're the one who had to follow Jeannine and climb these vertical Granite walls! Throw in a dark looking rain cloud and she moves twice as fast and is impossible to keep up with while climbing...

DAY 6

The first overcast day started out totally clear and cool with a Balloon rising up from Talliores up and over our Bluffy Chalet. Trying to beat the storm we knew was on its way, Jeannine and I drove off to Ugine, then hooked a quaint little rural farm road up thru the forest to Col de L'Alpettaz which is situated under Mt Charvin on the spectacular Aravis Range, at the col the road turned to dirt and we continued paralleling the Aravis Range until under Mt Charvin where we parked to start our 2,000' uphill grind to reach the Via Ferrata. It was an easy hike on the normal well groomed trails you consistently face in the French Alps, it only took 1 1/2 hours to hike up 1800' foot trail to the Pas de L'Ours where we had a break for lunch admiring the amazing vista's down the Aravis Chaine and off into the distance toward La Col des Saisies where we once camped and watched the Tour De France peddle by couple years ago.

I gave Bill and Jim a call who went off on their own excursion to the Grand Bornand to take the lift up and scout out flying opportunities on a better day, While we were talking Jim stated that he just heard a loud crack of thunder! He said its about to storm big time where they were and rain was starting to fall. I could see toward there destination and it looked very dark and dingy. At that point our sunny start to the hike in mild thermic conditions 1/2 way up turned to overcast and now finishing lunch we heard our first huge crack of thunder!!! The wind was gusting to 30+ up high on the pass with nasty clouds on the approach, so we decided to pass on the Via Ferrata which we were on the base of while having lunch and high tail it down before the storm raged in on us.

We only made it 15 minutes down and the skies unleashed the biggest droplets of rain I've ever seen with more clacks of thunder to make Jeannine don her rain gear in 5 seconds flat and continue racing down the trail towards our car. We always carry gear for high mountain escapades so it was actually fun to hike down in the rain which only lasted a short while as the clouds were blowing furiously down the Range, It only took 1 hour to hike down and now it was just a nice overcast day. So we drove off to Faverges to do food shopping and took the scenic way home as now it was clear and sunny again but windy, we drove the back side of La Tournette thru Serraval to Thones and back to Bluffy to enjoy Porto and pupu's on the balcony, later visiting Don and Yolie in the Garden for sunset cocktails.

DAY 8

Today we packed up for a Via Ferrata adventure in Thones which is very close to us just 15 minutes around the back side of Dents Lanfon, Thones climb is a straight up granite wall rated hard that starts out with a cool 2 line bridge! I'm sure its not called a bridge but one wire for your feet and the other for the hands to hold as you scoot across a 500' drop to town below. Then a 1,000' climb up to the top of the ridge that we fly on... Then a short walk back down in the forest. This was a fairly short, hot climb of one hour, good thing it was total overcast because we sweat like crazy with massive exertion on this fun climb. Then we drove to La Clusaz, walked town a bit and drove up to Col des Aravis to check out another Via Ferrata to do on another day.

DAY 11

Today started out cool, sunny and clear but on the satellite we could see a huge swath of clouds coming to cover us for the day, sure enough by 11am in came the cloud cover and off we drove to La Clusaz and to do the Via Ferrata of the Col des Aravis, this is an amazing granite structure rising above the Col. From the parking lot to top of the climb was 2,000' elevation gain. A 20 minute hike up to the climb, then a fantastic 2 and 1/2 hour Via Ferrata up and across the cliff face with astounding views from all the way up and especially the top where we had lunch. Views consisted of Col des Saisies and Mont Blanc in distance, Pointe Merdassier across from us which is the other side of the Col des Aravis that we are on, Plateau Beauregard next to the Col de la Croix Fry which we are way higher than and also Mt LaChat ridge that I flew down on my way to Chamonix, Way above all was La Tournette in all its splendor.

After a 45 minute hike back down and almost a 4 hour round trip we relaxed at the Col des Aravis with a couple Pelforths that we had in the cooled on ice. Driving back to Bluffy we took the scenic route as you could expect up and over Col de la Croix Fry and around the back side of Plateau Beauregard stopping at a pasture in Manigod for a sit as we amazed ourselves with the splendid views across to Mt Sulens and the Aravis Range towering above. Driving back thru Thones and home to the very comfortable Bluffy Chalet relaxing on the balcony with a sunset wine and later a walk in our pasture in the back yard to watch the moon big and bright in clear skies rise over La Dents Lanfon... Another Fantastic day in the French Alps of Annecy!

Wish you all were here! Aloha from Mad Dog et La Peste