We met in Levisham village shortly before 11. Luckily I was there quite early because we weren’t the only sizable group setting off from there,so we had to share the parking along the side of the main street with a group of mountain bikers. I’d forgotten just how steep the valley is between Lockton and Levisham, definately a job for first gear and I wouldn’t have stood a chance if it was muddy or icy. I bet that village was quiet during the winter snows.

Levisham Village

We left Levisham village at 11:00 am. Heading towards Lockton but cutting off before the steep hill down to head East past Levisham Mill farm to the A170. Our walk down the valley was enlivened by what might have been the local hunt passing by the other way, with one chap on a horse in a red coat and a pack of Hounds, being followed by a group of people in black coats. There was no hurry about them, as if they were just hacking out rather than going at full pace. We also heard the sounds from the local Shoot who we saw meeting up in the valley on our way in.

This is where we went slightly wrong because there is no footpath nor right of way through Mount Pleasant farm, it was changed over five years ago and all the diversion signs have long since gone, the correct route now is to pop up to Lockton and cross the A170 further south and take the footpath East along Green Dale, meeting back up with our the route in Stain Dale.

Bridestones

Bridestones

From there it was a straightforward trip North up to the Bridestones for some lunch, sheltering from the wind before heading East to the edge of the forest and following that path past Newgate foot all the way to Saltergate car park, taking in the views over Hazelhead Moor to Blakey Topping and RAF Fylingdales in the middle distance.

Panda Cows

Up to the North End of Hole of Horcum along Old Wife’s Way before completing the High route circuit of the Hole of Horcum via Seavy Pond and Dundale Rigg back to Levisham and a round of coffees at the Horseshoe Inn, which had a couple of reasonable beers on tap as well. Amusingly, we got back at exactly the same time as the cyclists. Despite the amount of mud we’d accumulated on our boots from the first half of the circuit, they were definately wearing more of the countryside than we were.

Blakey Topping

Hole of Horcum

If you’d prefer somewhere easier to park, then you could start the route at Saltergate and continue Clockwise, taking in a pub lunch in Levisham or possibly the Fox and Rabbit on the main road, before carrying on up to the Bridestones.

A good day out despite the chill wind, but we definately felt each of the 10 miles at the end of it. Next time, I might try calibrating Viewranger to display the distance walked in units of mince pies burned off.

You can get the full details from my Everytrail trip:

Levisham and Bridestones

Day 10 – Cabane de Moiry to Grimentz

13ish km. 1250m descent. No idea about step count ‘cos I forgot the silly pedometer 2850m up a mountain, an appropriate parting of ways methinks, and a fair excuse for why I need a new one to finish the GCC

A reasonable night’s sleep at the Cabane, great place to be. We were nearly the last ones to leave shortly after 8..

The steep descent from the Cabane was still steep the morning after, the bit with the stream running over the smooth rocks was as interesting as the rope and chain assisted sections. Still hugely faster going down when rested than up when shattered..

We paused at the edge of the morraine section to take a photo or two hundred of the reflection of the morning’s sun on the mountains in a small meltwater lake. The icebergs had noticably melted from last night and another one had calved off the snowfield the path traversed.

Looking down at the glacier was made even more impressive by the size of the people we met last night going out to play on it (yet another father dougal moment)

After a quick pause at Parking du Glacier for a brief reality check to make sure that we had indeed managed that climb yesterday, we made short work of the flat walk up to the Barrage. Its cafe seemed ideal to pause in for a cuppa, especially with its combination of sheep skins and picnic chairs.

The postbus emerged from the road tunnel like a roaring, err, bus. A Chinese student stepped off it that Paul met a few days prior so he joined us for a chat. He was mostly taking photos on a 1960s medium format, very impressive, tho I suspect it would be first up against the wall when he wanted to downsize his 20kg pack!

We saw a few more british numberplates, including one minibus, which can’t have been too fun a drive. There was some very odd bugling going on at the barrage, which seemed to disturb everybody equally.

After briefly checking that yes it was a long way down off the side of the dam, we motored along the stream down the valley. We eventually found a butterfly infested piece of shade to see what the Cabane’s team had left in our picnic. A doorstop of a sandwich, couple of chokky bars, an apple and a slightly muddy carrot, it turned out. Om nom nom.

Thus fuelled we powered off downhill some more, a long steady descent that was mostly sheltered by the valley walls or trees. We were asked how far to the barrage a couple of times by day trippers, we must have looked like we knew what we were doing or something..

Without much more ado, Bendolla and then Grimentz hoved into view, the end was in sight! A few things looked different, but the old village still looks as photogenic as ever. And finally Hotel Moiry, doing a busy lunchtime service on their terrace and our home for the next 4 nights.

Perfect time to notice just how much sun I’ve caught in odd places, find a salt lick to compensate for how white some of my gear has got and doze on the balcony. Not in that order. Zzzz.

Unexpectedly the pizzeria was closed, so we had some fancy salads with wild flowers and a major cheese fix (on toast, I hasten to add)

Day 9 – Evolene to Cabane de Moiry

2040m of up, 520m down. just over 20km of along.

eeish. How did we survive that one? great end to a tough day.

It was our hardest day so far, longer and more challenging than even the approach to Louvie, tho less technical. I credit Paul’s stash of Haribo winegums for keeping my mind working on that last scramble.. We compared our route to Kev’s and his estimation was low, even taking into account our bus hop from Les Hauderes to La Forclaz. We measured it with string to even out the kinks and had us giggling in disbelief.

We managed our early start, leaving the hotel bang on 730, including a detour to take on water from the village fountain that should have been plenty to catch the 739 bus up the hill slightly. Or it would have been if it was a Saturday so we’d missed the 728 bus by a couple of mins after misreading the timetable. Oopsy do. Rather than sit around for a couple of hours, we walked back up the valley to Les Hauderes in ideal cool, fresh conditions. The 4km took us about an hour so we had a bit of a wait in Les H.

Joined the popular postbus up the valley as far as La Forclaz, the morning was made by 2 Australians struggling a bit and wanting a return to ‘as far as you go’.

Our chosen route zig zagged upwards very nicely through a couple of hamlets and forests, it added miles to the flat distance but was hugely more satisfying than barging directly up the side like everyone else was. There wasn’t much in the time either.

The final slog from 2580 to Col Du Tsate was seriously unpleasant, the crow soaring overhead on the thermals might as well have been a vulture. It probably took us an hour to do the last 300m scramble up to a well earned lunch just before 2pm.

We met a British couple, she ran a trekking business and was seeing about gluing some of days together, with a goal of C-Z in 11 days. E.g. pulling Cab de Prafleuri through to Les Hauderes in one 11 hr day. It was interesting to see how light the professionals travelled (and how fast they walked!)

The descent into Val de Moiry was much easier than the way up, there was even evidence of people sledging down in the snow! We were rewarded with a growing view of the Lake, the Glacier and the surrounding mountains, not to mention playing the ‘spot the hut’ game on the far side of the valley.

Paused at the busy Parking du Glacier for a tea and a cereal bar before focussing our depleted self preservation instincts on the climb upwards. The Buvette (drinks and snacks vendor) had a couple of signs up. The first was ‘we sell ice creams’. The second was ‘we’re sorry, we can’t sell ice creams because an avalanche took out our generator’.

The last leg was only another 1hr 25 sign time, how hard can it be?

…

The route was a steady 100m climb up to a ridge of glacial morraine, easy underfoot until then. If you’re not happy with striding edge, I’d advise against looking down there, a couple of bits were quite narrow, though we didn’t notice it at the time.

It finished with a seasonal snow field traverse, a bit of a scramble and a steep zigzag path to get us up the last 300m to a tremendously welcome sight, the Cabane and its only just opened, copper clad, extension. The view from there over the glacier is just breathtaking, which is one of the reasons that half the wall is window.

Being right at the head of the valley means you’re surrounded by mountains, the horizon is overhead and all jaggedy and interesting.

Long and varied day with many successes and a lot of pain, not sure why this triumph ended on a huge high rather than the low of last time, perhaps only being exhausted rather than ill helped.

Nowhere in uk could we have done that, 2.5 snowdons maybe?

really good evening at the cabane, good crowd to chat to. Mountaintime def in obeyance: Dinner at 7. Breakfast 6 till half 7 with most of it gone when we surfaced at 7. Every bench full, a good craic on. Met one army bloke from north of catterick, training to be mountain instructor, a scary level of fitness and ability in that crowd, military scale of brewing up

Met another london bloke who seemed to be doing shuttle runs between chamonix and zermatt!