We are up at 06:15 this morning. Although it gets cold outside at this elevation at night, our room is always warm. The walls are paper thin though as you can hear almost every word of the couple talking--and snoring beside us. Lots of door slamming both at night and in the morning so that causes some stress. The rule is to turn off the lights in your room when it is not occupied. Electricity is powered by solar panels. Our bed is comfortable and we have a window facing southeast.
Group hiking is the expectation. There are two options today. One smaller group will diverge eventually and climb/hike to the summit of Franalp peak at 2508 metres elevation. The other group will stay at Tumbledown Lake 2030 metres. If you know me, there is only one option and that is the longer and steeper hike. Lana's legs are both sore, but her right knee is not seriously damaged. She is unsure in the morning if she will hike.
An observation is there is no signage on the trails. Easy to get lost, but there is a decent trail map provided by the chalet. The three guides are young women. All are friendly, informative, patient and interesting. The guides communicate with the chalet and each other using a radio walkie talkie. Water bottles are filled with tap water and you can drink out of the streams. Refilling your water bottle is easy.
Early departure today at 08:00 given this hike will be longer than previous days by quite a lot. For the longer hike we all go through the Swiss Meadows and then diverge. Once returning to the river at the foot of the knoll it is another 250 metres elevation gain to the chalet.
It is crepes for breakfast! Orange juice, biscuit and a slice of melon. Very delicious. I had a good chat with Eric about bears in the area.
List of the fourteen (14) guests:
Group of Leslie, Carol (sisters) and their friend Bob
Dave and Laurel from Kelowna
Dave and Linda from Kelowna
Laura and Alex from North Vancouver
Barry and Bonita from Vancouver (Marpole area)
Irene from Vancouver (Kits area)
As you can see many of the woman's names begin with L. There are two Daves.
Rumour is the outside temperature this morning was 3 degrees Celsius, but it feels warm to me outside. I did not need anything more than my t-shirt for the hike today and my customary shorts. This will be our longest and steepest elevation climbs to date. Hike down to the stream below and then back up along alpine meadows by traversing westward across the slope. Very beautiful on this side of the stream as we are northwest of the chalet.
As you can see there is snow at these elevations as they are partly covered during the day and it is cold during the nights. Pretty steep downward slope here.
Above Tumbledown Lake with the group of hikers that will ascend to the top of
Franalp peak at 2508 metres. Looking from here up it is pretty intimidating given the elevation gain of about 500 metres straight up. The first person is our guide Tate. Irene, Leslie and Dave are my hiking mates.
On the hike up towards the peak but looking back towards the lake below. Lots of wild flowers and good view of the steepness.
This is a wooden marker close to the peak that is an old mining claim post.
From the peak of Franalp looking eastward.
Glaciers below Franalp. As you can see pretty dry and barren country at this elevation.
Another view towards the northeast capturing the incredible rock/geology of this area.
Yup, at the peak and to the right of me is a steep sudden drop of 100s of metres. My legs are shaking given my fear of heights.
My agent wanted a pic of me without my baseball cap.
At the summit!
It took approximately 2 hours and 50+ minutes to reach the peak from the chalet. Lots of shale/loose rock so not the easiest hike/climb. Tate ensured we took a good route as towards the top there are no markings. Lots of snow patches as well. The fun part was coming down from the peak we slid on our hiking boots in the snow patches and tried not to crash. One of the greatest parts to getting to the summit was no damn flies! There was a slight breeze as well up top.
Red algae in the snow patches. This occurs quite often in the snow patches in this part of the country. It can be called watermelon snow. From Google: "a phenomenon caused by Chlamydomonas nivalis, a species of green algae containing a secondary red carotenoid pigment (astaxanthin) in addition to chlorophyll."
Another picture of the beautiful wild flowers growing on the alpine slopes. So many colours and types of flowers. I did not attempt to learn their names.
On the hike back a picture towards the mountains showing how these gigantic glaciers carve right down to the bedrock. One excellent hiking outcome is that walking on the bedrock is easy and for some reason the rock is somewhat sticky.
Hiking back through the alpine meadows and traversing the steep slope back to being swarmed by damn flies and some mosquitos. We decided to snack above Tumbledown Lake and doing our best against the flies. Very beautiful in the lower meadow with the flowers and shrubs. Still sunny and warm weather. We are still above the tree line. During our hike we saw another fat marmont scrambling along the rocks. These animals are pretty rotund! I believe they hibernate so they are getting ready for a long sleep.
Returned to the bridge above Carnes Creek which runs from the Durrand Glacier. Huge volume of water. Since the chalet was founded in 1985 the glacier has subsided an incredible distance. Twin Falls are located here and blast a lot of water down the gorge. For the uphill hike to the chalet we choose the 'middle' route which is slightly longer, but more gentle. I wanted the shorter and steeper hike! ;-)
HIKE STATS: 12.40 kms 1110 metres elevation gain 5 hours 30 min hiking time
about 25,000 steps
Our group of four hikers and guide returned to the chalet around 2:30 pm so we were gone for about 6 1/2 hours. Pretty tired from the elevation gain and descents which work against the quad muscles.
Lana in the dining room eating her lunch. She went for a two hour hike on her own earlier. She stated she almost got lost but doubled back on the trail and walked past Marmont Lake.
Delicious snack of a type of pizza pie with fennel confit and cheese. Plus another dense cake that was yummy. Decided to opt for a cold Strongbow Apple Cider from the fridge. Chatted in the reading room with Barry and then Eric. Pretty quiet in the main dining room as I think many of the hikers are napping? I update the journal and chat.
We took a bottle of BC Pinot Gris and it worked well with the delicious vegetarian Thai Curry--sweet potatoes, carrots, lentils and chick peas! Lana gave me her cheesecake! Another beautiful sunset tonight. Everybody pretty tired tonight so by 8:30 pm everyone is in their rooms. Lana and I played two games of cribbage (we each win one game) and then she played one of her video games on her iPhone. We don't have to get up early tomorrow morning as there is a lighter day of hiking planned.
With the slow internet there is zero chance of me doing any blogging while up at the chalet. No problem as I take good notes and ensure our photos will be loaded in order.
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