Tuesday 4 August - At Camping d'Arsine in the shadow of La Meije

M1 was up and about earlyish. The day was absolutely clear and fresh with all the clouds long gone. What he hadn't banked on was the drop in temperature under the clearing night skies. 4 deg C showing on the van guage but ground frost outside. Even with three layers of clothing he had to abandon his bike ride up the Lauteret after a mile as his hands were so cold he couldn't change gear or brake properly. Back to the van to warm up but slowly the sun's influence from a good direction for our valley brought the temperature up to 12 deg C and after an hour or so another attempt could be made. He rode the top 7km of the Lauteret (2057m) which was OK at about 5% and kept pace with other riders easily enough. After a pause to take in the views at the Col, there was no other decision than to ride up the Galibier. This was serious stuff at 5 to 8% but steady progress was made even overtaking a couple of cyclists (though overtaken by one very fit, lean looking chap). M1 got to just below 2400m before turning round in order to get back to base at a reasonable time. Descent was factored by the traffic and by the strain on the hands from near constant braking but it was great fun. Back to a scrambled egg breakfast cooked by M2 then a turn round for a walk up the valley of La Romanche. The routes here are well sign posted. We were surprised at how many people were out on the mountain but then we recognised that we were witness to the great French outdoor adventure: families of old and young out there doing it at their own pace and in their own way and often pretty high up - sometimes with donkeys or pack horses. Such a brilliant experience for youngsters so that they get familiar with trekking at an early age.

We chose the least busy pathway up some quite sporty climbs before arriving at a sort of hidden valley which was quite long and flat. All the time, we are being reminded of our geography lessons at school: glacial erosion, moraines, boulder fields, hanging valleys and we experiencing all these wonderful phenomena at first hand. We pursued a route past the sources of la Romanche taking the track that would have led on to le Refuge Adele Plonchard at 3169m. We got to about 2300m with a grandstand view of the huge moraine field and had our lunch while watching a few folk searching the moraine - for what? They looked like midgets below us but helped us appreciate the scale and size of the moraine. We turned for home which was eventually reached after about 5 hours of walking. Hot and exhausted, had another meal 'Chez EMU' after a couple of very welcome beers at the camp site refuge restaurant.