Phew, what a scorcher of a day. And with 1000m of ascending and 2000m of descending it wasn't exactly an easy one either. Yet waking up to stunning panoramic views of Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, and then summiting the 2526m Brevent to get even closer to the glacier decorated sides of the mountain made for a magnificent walk beneath the baking sun.
We had actually been a little nervous about this day due to the sheer height of the Brevent and the knowledge that the route near the top was over a lot of boulders and included fixed ladders above sheer drops, so we felt very grateful to have had the best weather of our trip so far with cloudless skies. It took around 4 hours of walking to first descend 500m to the foot of the climb then the 1000m continuous uphill to the summit, weighed down by 5 litres of water (just in case), but it was a stunning ascent with wonderful views. Yet the top was the highlight. Even the hundreds of people we found there watching an outdoor music performance, having arrived by cable car (why didn't we think of that?) didn't detract from the view. I was also very grateful to the restaurant for losing me to use their toilet as I started to have accidents near the summit and an outdoor irrigation was definitely not an option on such a busy route. I'd last irrigated the night before in the wild just before climbing into the tent and had been hoping to make it to the end of the day, which is also why I had been eating and drinking very little, but that's the way its going on this trip - unpredictable.
The descent was perhaps the most challenging part simply due to the sheer length of the descent, almost a full vertical mile and we did run out of water just before the bottom, so the town of Les Houches was a very welcome sight. As was the organic supermarket we found there! Fresh soy yogurt and frozen fruit to coll down was just what we needed before a night on the campsite.
For more pictures of our adventure click here for our Google album
Well done!!! I could never do that, would have to go by cable car, I am sure... Great pictures too!
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