| viharnik13. 07. 2010 20:08:08 |
On the last day of my stay in Val d'Isère, I took the opportunity to check out the modern ski resort of Tignes, which is reachable in 40 min. A nice wide road leads up there; before that, we drive over viaducts and tunnels along Lake Lac du Chevril. At the end of the lake, the road turns left onto a concrete dam, over which we drive. Later the path does some serpentines, overcomes 300 m alt., and we're already at the doorstep of the modern town. Locals from Val d'Isère say it's not as nice as theirs, and I quite agree with them. The surroundings also don't offer as many hiking options as the town of Val d'Isère itself. If I'm already here, it wouldn't be silly to skip such a visit. Up top, they have a lake where French athletes often run around it. Further on, just grassy areas meant mainly for winter joys. I sit on a bench, chat with a Frenchman in barely understandable English for him, and head to the next destination, to the opposite bank. From the lake, I drive up the mountain road to the Le Saut parking at 2300 m. Here is also the normal approach to Grande Sassière 3747 m via the ridge path. Up there in 5-6 hrs. But I head for a shorter tour along the slightly ascending valley towards the big and beautiful lake Lac de la Sassière 2465 m. Lower down, there's also an HE built into the rock for generating el. energy. This path is visited by lots of tourists since it's accessible to everyone. The surrounding mountains rise quite high into the sky from here. I did the tour one-way again in under an hour; otherwise, 1h30min because the valley is pretty long and at the start you don't see its end. Up top, I also sit on a scenic rock and stare at the glaciers of La Tsanteleine 3602 m. After the hike back, I was satisfied that in four days I had been to and seen different valleys of these beautiful places. For next year, I already know I must take skis with me too and tackle the peaks which I got to know this year in a relatively informational way. But the end wasn't yet, since on the way back I drove over Europe's highest pass, Col de l'Iseran 2770 m, whose post follows tomorrow.
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
|
|