Le Lac Pierre Blanche

After a big tidy up (sans guests) we headed up to the lake for a swim and sunbathe. I'll miss these guys!

Mont de la Chambre

With today being the last one of the summer season that the Les Breyeres cablecar is running up Mont de la Chambre, I took the opportunity to get some sunny panoramas. Above is Mont Blanc in the background and below is the view the other way looking South.

Mountain Adventure

There being a bike hire famine, on my day off Emily and I went to Val Thorens and tried out the Montagne Aventure. This involved climbs, cargo nets and three zip wire runs. lots of fun (video)

In the afternoon I did chilling

Streams

A bit of team yoga followed by a refreshing dip in lovely meltwater revives the parts that other things don't reach!

Rafting The Isère

Running from a glacier known as the Sources de l'Isère, the melt waters provide an exciting opportunity to pit your paddle against the might of the fast-flowing rapids. Exiting the raft early on allowed me time to enjoy the river all to myself before being picked up again. The trip seemed to be an endless succession of lumpy water rushing over the rocks, creating standing waves and unseen hazards. The classification is 3 (out of 5) with one class 4 rapid included. Basically pretty tasty!

Claire absolutely loved the whole journey - except the compulsory jumping in bit.... this occurred in the middle of a hailstorm, complete with thunder and lightning crashing overhead.

Our guide Gill felt so confident that he left the raft at several points, rejoining us for the tricky sections! It was a truly superb day, one to remember, as seen in the video.

Le Cochet

We hired harnesses and hats and headed for a rocky outcrop above St Martin. After asking directions for the via ferrata and following a chemin de terre up the hillside, we lunched in a meadow before setting off for the base of the route. We crossed boulder strewn landslides and began to get an idea of what we were letting ourselves in for as the ground dropped away.

We worked our way up the face of Le Cochet, relying on the staples and other aids but also trying to use the rock whenever possible to make the climbing a bit more 'pure'. The views were absolutely and literally breathtaking. . After scaling what we thought was the summit we found we still had another 40 minute climb to go. In all we ascended well over 400m. At the top we stood under the big white cross for selfies and panoramic enjoyment of our endeavors. The video probably does the climb more justice than the stills from it!

Churches

Revealed behind The Church of Notre Dame this morning was Le Cochet, the rock we climbed yesterday. Down in St Martin, we marveled at the interior of the church there.

Mountain Streams

We have been sitting by rivers a lot... it's very relaxing, and you get a lot of reading done.

Marmots

We spotted marmots on the rocks near our bbq and enjoyed a short walk where we discovered Alpine Hobbit Houses!

Belleville Valley

We had a lovely walk down the valley on a perfect day. The walk back up was assisted by the free chairlift!