Val d'Isère to Bessans: E2 Day 185

A long, wet day in which I crossed the Col de l'Iseran, which at 2770 metres is the highest point on the GR5 and the E2.

As I headed off from the campsite I wondered why a group of people had gathered together near the entrance. A hooting van announced the reason, a bread delivery! I had already walked into town for my breakfast, making a real mess at a Salon du Thé. My croissant crumbled over the table, and my attempts to clean up only served to move them to the floor...

So began my long climb up to the Col d'Iseran, mainly over grassland beside where a ski lift was being rebuilt. A few mountain bikers raced down the mountain otherwise I was alone. Possibly prospective hikers had seen the rain and thunderstorms forecast for today. These materialized when I was half way up. Fortunately it was cold so I did not overheat while encased in waterproofs. Although there was much rain, and thunder rolled around the mountains, there was little lightening, the electricity no doubt discharging in the high mountains around me. 

Col de l'Iseran.

A road crosses the Col and when I finally reached the top I found plenty of people on motorcycles, having driven up the winding road. Later I saw a convoy of several Porsche sports cars heading up to the pass, making suitably rorty noises. I felt quietly pleased to have reached the top through my own efforts. Although the rain seems to have kept cyclists away today, the Col is known for being a particularly difficult stage on the Tour de France cycle race in some years. Nearby was a chapel, built at about the same time as the road in 1937. Dedicated to "Notre Dame de Toute Prudence", who advises care in the mountains. There was also a stone cairn or pyramid, built by the King of Savoy in the 18th century to help guide travellers.

The path dropped steeply from the Col with patches of snow. After crossing the Pont de la Neige (a bridge), the path dropped below the level of the road on a track cut into a cliff of crumbling rock. A stainless steel chain was attached to the rock for you to hold onto. I took care not look down to the raging water below.

Path below the Pont de la Neige.

The Col was a watershed. The river to its south grew rapidly. Fed by streams flowing down the mountainside, it formed some impressive cascades. After the path became a little more level among overgrown, floriferous meadows, there was a junction. A board with a map showed the route. There was a right turn marked although no GR5 waymark or direction sign. However the map agreed with my GPS so I started on the track up another hillside. I missed a turning onto a small unsigned path to my left and was forced to retrace a few steps. Relying on the pink line defining the route on the screen of my GPS, I continued on the thin path as it contoured the steep mountainside, gaining height intermittently and often steeply. Crossing into an area containing sheep, bounded by an electric fence, the muddy, little path became covered with slippery sheep droppings. The lack of red and white waymarks, and any recent human footprints  made me worry that I was following an old route, and that the GR5 had been diverted, maybe as the path had been washed away. My unease increased as the path developed a tilt, as if trying to tip me down the mountainside, at times over an outcrop of rocks. My confidence slightly increased when, faced with large streams of foaming water tearing down the hillside, two planks had been placed across the flow. There were several of these crude bridges. Although the planks were wobbly, and it was unsettling to look down at water rising in white waves over the rocks below, at least they showed people were expected to come this way.

Crude bridge.

Finally a sign appeared, yellow with black lettering of the type used in the area for footpaths. It pointed towards Bessans, fortunately where I was headed, but made no reference to the GR5. As the slopes became a little less steep, the rain stopped and a weak sun shone. There were abandoned stone buildings scattered beside the path. Once many people must have been employed to bring flocks of sheep or herds of cows up the mountainside in summer. In one valley, backed by a waterfall and darkly coloured rock, the Alpinage du Vallon still seemed to be in use. After the Alpinage I joined a gravel vehicle track. Initially it rose but later went into a series of many twisting curves as it dropped steeply, down towards Bessans. The GR5 left at one of the many bends and finally reached the river and the valley base.

Abandoned building on the empty mountainside.

Briefly leaving the GR5 I crossed a bridge into the village of Bessans to pick up some provisions for tea from the Boulangerie. I sat in the square for a while sipping a "café long" watching people chatting in groups or having a drink outside a bar. However my campsite was still two kilometres away, so I walked quickly down the riverside track as the rain resumed. Fortunately the campsite has a small common room, a more congenial place to sit, and eat my tea, rather than in my wet tent. I struggled for a while trying to find somewhere to stay for the night after next. All the possible refuges seem to have filled their allocation of bivouac spaces, as well as their beds.