Just over a week ago, I set off to do this walk, but the car park at La Forclaz was full. So I vowed to return another day when the holiday makers had returned home. Today the skies were completely blue and perfect for showing off those snow-capped mountains. My plan was to walk as far up the valley as I could, until I reached the point where no man or woman had stepped before.
The road from La Forclaz to Ferpècle is closed at this time of year and I was pleased to see that many people had already flattened what little snow there was and the going up to the small reservoir was very easy. From that point there was a small 30cm/1 foot deep trench where people had continued. I detoured to the wooden bridge over the river and took a panoramic photo of Mont Miné with the sun hidden behind, creating a sort of halo effect.
It wasn’t long before I reached the ‘end’ where the footprints stopped. I took a few more steps, took a photo to prove that I had gone the furthest and started to walk back. I’d hardly taken ten steps when I noticed a guy almost jogging towards me. He passed by and went at least 30 to 40 metres beyond where I’d been. He didn’t pause for very long, before returning and passing me again as I continued back to the small waterfall, where I sat down to eat my lunch. I considered going back and going further still, but figured that would be a bit childish.
Having polished off my lunch and taken a few more pictures, I started to make my way back. Throughout the walk, I had heard the crunch, crunch, crunch of my boots in the crisp snow. So I decided to take a video, so that you could hear the sound, while also seeing some of the marvellous views. And then it happened… The back of the camera said “No memory card. Cannot record video”!!! Oooops! Silly Mike had left the SD card in the Trail cam. Not one photo of my walk. Doh!
Well, there’s always tomorrow, I thought. (Thankfully the forecast is for equally blue skies). I was about 3/4s of the way back to the car when I remembered that I had my phone in my pocket. So here’s a ‘taster’ of what you can expect in my next post…
Alittlebitoutoffocus 
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