Deep Breath....

Day 5. Stage 4: Haut Asco - Bergeries de Vallone

Such a shame to leave the relative luxury of Haut Asco behind, but at 6:15am, Ben and I headed back onto the trail to face the infamous "Cirque de la Solitude".

The others had headed off before dawn to reach the Cirque early in the day and beat the crowds...

The day started gently - a stroll up a ski slope (no snow) following the ski-lifts. The gradient got steeper and steeper, until we once again began to double over with the effort of carrying the extra weight on our backs. Yesterdays day without them was a welcome change, but didn't make today any easier! In fact Ben struggled early on after running down the mountain yesterday!

As we reached the valley head, we looked back and saw that we had climbed above the early morning mist at the bottom of the valley - looking back through the sparse pine trees with the run rising and shining through the mist made for a beautiful scene. One which I very very nearly put as today?s blip (will change it by popular demand!!).

This proved to be the calm before the storm... or in this case the Cirque. As the crow flys -a 2km stretch across the top of a valley. The only snag was that to get to the other side, you had to go down 500m and then back up 500m the other side.

Straight down.

Straight up.

Coming over the ridge to the valley, the ground just dropped away - a virtually shear cliff heading straight down to the valley floor. In places, chains had been bolted to the rock to provide hand holds, and allow 'hikers' to effectively abseil down.

Best not to think about what happens if your sweaty palms slipped.

Having made it down in one piece, we stared back at where we had come in wonder. Turned to look at the next section and saw that it was a mirror image... Coming down is sort of scary to be honest, but at least gravity is on your side for the most part. Going up, you effectively have to pull your self up using your arms and walk up the cliff faces.

Gravity really isn't on your side.

As you may have guessed - i'm writing this entry as I did make it to the top in one piece!

The rest of the stage was down hill - much to my knees annoyance, but it at least was a 'hike'! That afternoon at the Bergeries de Vallone, I found the nearest river - it had some beautiful and deep rock pools, so went swimming. Not emerging until the sun began sink over the top of the valley.

This hike is incredible.