Walker's Haute Route: Day 4

Day 4: Les Chables – cable car to Verbier – cable to Les Ruinettes – Cabane de Mont Fort – Col Termin – Col de Louvie – Col de Prafleuri - Cabane de Prafleuri

Because Brian and I were short on the number of days recommended to do the entire hike (darn vacation time), we decided the previous night to take the cable car from Les Chables up to Verbier, and then take another cable from Verbier to Les Ruinettes. From there we decided to begin our hike to Prafeuri, as there was no way we would be able to hike all the way from Les Chables to Cabane de Prafleuri in one day. Jeremy was quite appalled to hear this. He told us in a panic of knowing he would be losing his hiking partners that he thought we were making a mistake not to hike the entire trail. And then when that didn’t work, he tried to convince us that we could hike the whole way from Les Chables to Prafleuri in one day. I might be crazy, but I’m not stupid. There was no way he was convincing me on this one. And there was no way of convincing Jeremy that he could take the cable car up with us and skip part of the hike. At first Jeremy seemed distraught that his original plan was not to hike all the way to Cabane de Prafleuri, because it was such a very long way. But apparently when he was not convincing us otherwise, he somehow convinced himself that he could indeed hike all the way from Les Chables to the Cabane de Prafleuri in one day, and that he would see us there that night. Oh. Goodness.

So we parted ways that morning. Brian and I indeed took the cable car up to Verbier, and it was a beautiful ride to the top. I was glad we decided on the cable car, as the hike up the mountain was steep and mostly in the trees anyway. It was wonderful to have the break and get a beautiful view at the same time. Verbier was a stunning ski town – I would love to come back and plan a ski trip there! When we got to Verbier, we jumped off the cable car, only to be told to get back on to go to continue on up to Les Ruinettes. Twist my arm!

When we got to the top, we started our hike to Cabane de Mont Fort and took a short break there, before hiking on to Col Termin, Col de Louvie, Col de Prafleuri, and finally Cabane de Prafleuir. I’ll let the pictures do the talking this day – I can honestly say that this was my favorite day of the entire hike. We were walking above 12,000 ft the entire day on exposed ridge, going over three passes. It was one of the most gorgeous days of hiking I have ever done. I could do that hike over and over and over again and never get tired of it.

We arrived at Cabane de Prafleuri around 3pm – at this point in the trip it was the first cabin in the Alps that we stayed at, versus a hostel or hotel in one of the villages. We were showed to a dorm room of about 25 beds nestled side by side, instead of the typical bunk bed scenario. Bed for the night? $33 swiss francs. The bare butt of a strange German snuggled up against you?

Priceless. You get the idea.

I promptly bought some (read: four) chocolate bars to eat, and then plopped down for a nap. And if you’re wondering if Jeremy made it to Cabane de Prafleuri, wonder no more. Because about an hour later, as I was napping, I heard someone come in the dorm room and an unmistaken voice ask the woman if an “American couple named Sarah and Brian had checked in.” I woke up and said I was glad he’d made it and asked him how his walk went.

“Oh bloody hell!” was how he started his response.

Apparently it was quite difficult, to put it mildly. I couldn’t help but laugh as Jeremy cussed on and on about how tough and exhausting his day was, and I knew better than to think that Brian and I could have done that and still ended the day a married couple. But I was quite impressed at his determination.

That night we all had dinner downstairs in the common room of the cabin with about 50 other hikers. Dinner was a wonderful 4 course meal of soup, salad, chicken curry and rice, potatoes, and dessert. We sat at a table with another American couple from Seattle who looked to be in their late twenties as well. We learned that Brynn worked for Boeing, and Nelson was an architect, and they were also on vacation to hike the Walker’s Haute Route – or at least an abbreviated version, as they had the same lack of vacation issue as we did. However, my solution was to cram the hike together in an impossibly demanding itinerary, and their solution was to bus some sections and skip others. Brynn scolded me saying that that “this is vacation” and gave me a crazy look – but I quickly corrected her and said it was an adventure, not a vacation!

A woman from England also sat at our table – so she and Jeremy talked about where they were from and other English things that the rest of us didn’t have in common with them. Unfortunately for this English woman, her hiking companion could not handle the hike, so she had to leave her in the last village and go on without her, and she was trying to figure out now what to do about her companion - if she should continue on with the rest of the hike or whatnot. I wholeheartedly chimed in that she should definitely continue on with the hike – it’s what her friend would want her to do. Because if she stopped, her friend would feel bad that she was the cause of her not being able to complete this much anticipated adventure they planned together. And then Jeremy used this opportunity to pose the question of why so many men hike alone, but you rarely see women hiking alone. Brynn brought up the obvious issue of safety, but Jeremy quickly slapped that down like she was crazy and implied that was a silly concern. I believe this alienated Brynn, because shortly after that she poked her nose in a book and ignored the rest of the conversation at the table. Nelson, however, was having a great time conversing with the others, and it became apparent that Brynn, like myself, had planned this entire vacation, and Nelson’s only concerns, just like Brian, were where he’d be getting his next beer. I was quite humored.

Shortly after dinner, it came to our attention that there were signs that the water was not potable, and we would have to purchase drinking water from the hut – 1 liter for $10.

Are you kidding me?

There was no way I was paying $30 to fill up my water bladder. However, I should not have been surprised by this. Because it was also $5 francs for a shower…for 2 minutes. Everyone in that place went to bed stinky that night. And the overhead light in the dorm rooms? You pay for that in the price for your bed, right? Oh no, no, no silly hikers! There was a coin slot next to the light, and if you wanted light in the room, someone had to pay for it. I don’t even know how much it cost, but do you think any of the 40 people in that room put coins in the slot for the light? Nope. We all used our head lamps, or if you were like me and lost your head lamp somehow on Day 1 of the hike, you simply stumbled around in the dark.

But back to the water issue at hand. Fortunately Brian, being the smart, albeit paranoid, hiker he now is, actually packed the water filter. So instead of paying for water, we simply had a pumping party in the bathroom with our new friends. While pumping water, always looking to make a buck Brian was jabbering away about how we could be making hundreds of dollars pumping water for fellow hikers that night. But even I couldn’t bring myself to charge people for drinking water out of the facet, for goodness sake. And truth be told – I don’t think there was a damn thing wrong with that water. And with our experience of being foreign travelers on vacation, and not to mention the outrageousness of the overhead light situation, I’m sure it was a scam.

Lights went out for the night after that - oh wait, there were never any lights on anyway.