Tour du Mont Blanc Day Nine – Champex to Trient

When we step outside to boot up for day nine of our Tour du Mont Blanc there are ominous dark clouds drifting through the valley. A blanket of grey covers the mountain tops and mist hangs ethereally around the pines surrounding Auberge Gîte Bon Abri. Just as we are about to start walking the heavens open and a torrential downpour sends us for cover under the giant gazebo in the grounds of the Auberge. It’s going to be one of those days.

It was a good night at Bon Abri. What it may lack in location and dramatic mountain views it more than makes up for in charm and character. The staff were the friendliest we have encountered and the whole place had a relaxed, feel good factor about it. After a hot shower I sat outside in the garden enjoying a couple of beers and writing up my journal in the evening sun. Dinner was fondue, the first of the trip and we chatted to our fellow hikers at round tables in the bright communal dining room. It felt at times like a wedding reception and I was waiting for the after dinner speeches and disco.

We shared a room with Kyle and Jo again along with a couple of tanned, cool and confident sixteen year old guys from Sacramento California. We’ve met so many Americans on this trip I wondered if we would have to sing the Star Spangled Banner before bed.

Back to the gazebo. After sitting for what seemed like an age the rain eventually eased and we decided to make a move. The young Americans had been considering doing the Fenêtre d’ Arpette variant today but the downpour and poor forecast had changed their minds and they decided on the Bovine route instead.

Steve and I were always doing this traditional stage, known as the Bovine because it crosses high pastureland where cattle graze in the summer months. Its reputation suffers a little from being in the shadow of a more exciting and challenging variant but it’s still walking in the Swiss Alps through sublime scenery and it has a certain charm of its own. Not that I think we are going to see the best of it today with the weather.

Heading into the woods Kyle and Jo press on with the young Americans and Steve and I take a more leisurely pace. It’s sunshine and showers weather, heavy bouts of rain interspersed with occasional blue skies. After passing through some hamlets the trail curves around the forested lower slopes of Clocher d’Arpette on forest tracks before starting a steady and sustained climb upwards towards Bovine. As height is gained the tree cover thins and we reach a large cross overlooking the Rhône valley by Buvette Plan de L’au.

Continuing upwards we follow the contours of the hillside, in and out of river eroded ravines and crossing streams coming down from the heights. The path turns rocky for a while and the terrain is more exposed to the elements. Eventually we come to the largest of the streams, the Durnand de La Jour. Today it was just a question of watching our footing on the wet rocks but I imagine in full spate crossing here would be a problem.

As we approach the pastureland the rain clouds start to give way to blue sky and everything brightens up. The sun, now unfettered by cloud sets about burning off the remaining mist, bringing light and warmth into the grey and cold. This is excellent timing as we are approaching the highest and most interesting section of the day. Not to mention our lunch stop.

The Bovine is a large and sloping area of alpine meadow land and our arrival is marked by the clanging sound of dozens of cow bells, all attached solidly by thick leather straps to the necks of their bovine owners.

The Alpage de Bovine is not only a working dairy farm right in the middle of the pastureland but also a very welcome lunch stop and with perfect timing the sun is out and the sky is, in the main, blue. It’s very busy and Steve and I perch ourselves on the edge of a long but empty picnic table with a ‘reserved’ sign on it.

Five minutes later a French guide and his group of about eight turn up. He gives us the evil eye but Steve and I don’t fancy sitting on the grass and stay put. Entente cordiale is restored when we all manage to fit in and a table cloth, cutlery and boxes of food are produced. The French do like their food fresh. I was on Helvellyn once in not the best of weather when a French family proceeded to prepare lunch in the shelter. Slicing fresh bread, cutting up cheese and tomatoes, spreading lettuce and then producing a bottle of wine from a rucksack whilst the rest of us looked on with a mixture of envy and bewilderment that anybody would go to such lengths at such a location just to eat lunch.

Steve and I eat our own lunch, certainly not as fresh as the group and minus a table cloth and cutlery whilst enjoying the sunshine and listening to the clang of cow bells and chatter of hikers all around us. There are some superb views down to the Rhône valley and Martigny, which I’m pretty sure is the biggest town we have seen on the walk.

After lunch it’s a short climb to the high point of the day, Collet Portalo 6,700 ft (2040m). The top is marked with a wooden cross and a long inscription in French which Google translate tells me is about life, love and loss.

From the col a stile is crossed and then it’s downhill all the way, four and a bit miles and 2,600ft to our accommodation in Trient. The path is a good one and the walking is very pleasant, walking through pretty pine woodlands with clusters of Alpenrose lining the trail and glimpses of Martigny and the high mountains across the valley through gaps in the trees.

Steve gets chatting about Nepal to the guide of a group of Saudi men who we first met at La Fouly but I hang back and enjoy my own thoughts in the quiet solitude of the forest.

At Col de Forclaz we take a break and I check the map. Here we are at the most northerly point on the Tour du Mont Blanc and also the furthest away from the summit of Mont Blanc itself.

It’s still a long drop down to Trient and the promenade footpath we take provides us with a spectacular birds eye view down to the little Swiss town with its prominent pink 19th century church, the Eglise Rose.

After a knee cracking steep descent through woods, spent trying to avoid tripping over numerous exposed tree roots we pop out onto the road and walk past the church and down to our bed for the night at Auberge Mont Blanc.

Route Map, Walk Stats, Geolocated Picture Gallery and 3D Flyover Video Below.

Click ‘Learn more’ on the map.  Note: you won’t see the map if reading in WordPress reader but click on the little world at the top of the page to view it on the browser.