Читать книгу The Swiss Alps онлайн

123 страница из 176

Col de Balme is the only obvious crossing point in this westerly ridge. A broad grass saddle at 2204m, it is a justly famous vantage point with a direct view of the Aiguilles Verte, Drus, Charmoz and Blaitière, the graceful snow dome of Mont Blanc with the Chamonix valley below, and the Aiguilles Rouges forming its right-hand wall. Baedeker called it ‘a superb view’, while alpine connoisseur R L G Irving summed it up with the words: ‘if that view does not thrill you you are better away from the Alps.’ It’s a view known to thousands of skiers who throng there in winter, and to the countless trekkers who make the crossing each year whilst tackling either the Tour du Mont Blanc or the Walker’s Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt. On the pass itself stands the solid, gloomy, and privately owned Refuge du Col de Balme, which is manned in summer and has 26 dormitory places (tel 04 50 54 02 33).

The Trient glacier retreating into the upper reaches of the valley

Reached by a good path in little over an hour from the col, another refuge stands on the Swiss flank below the Glacier des Grands at 2113m. Refuge Les Grands has 15 places but no permanent guardian; self-catering facilities are adequate but visitors need to provide their own food (for reservations tel 026 660 65 04). There are no views of Mont Blanc from here, for the hut has its back to the mountains and instead faces the valley’s east wall across the deep trench scoured long ago by the receding Trient glacier. Of a summer’s evening the sun’s glow lingers on the Pointe d’Orny and the rocky needles that spread from it, and the only sounds to be heard are those of running streams and the occasional rattle of a stone falling through a distant gully.