Not time yet
I don’t know what John Muir had in mind when he wrote “The mountains are calling, I must go”, but I do know that being near the mountains creates in me an urgent will to meet them. I say meet them because it would be pretentious and wrong to pretend I know them. They are for me, like someone, with whom you have an unexplainable attraction, someone with a very complex personality, but someone that you enjoy getting to know better, and the more you discover, the more you want to spend time with Her.
Going through a year without spending at least a week among white blanketed mountains seems impossible for me. I need that feel of crisp air, the delicate sensation of peace created by the cushioned sound of a heavy snow fall and sense of humility that the peaks forces on you. I used to spend most of days on a board going up and down the slopes, but the more the years pass, the more I need to vary the ways I enjoy the mountains, and let them challenge myself. From running as fast as I can to the top, to walk before dawn to enjoy the peaceful view of the sun rising on Mont Blanc while everyone else is still tucked in bed.
This year, the snow conditions are a bit peculiar, the November snow falls have been followed by a rise in temperature bringing some light rain, which transformed the snow into a unpredictable crusty surface when the temperature started to drop again. Clearly not the kind of conditions for endless pow sessions... But this is an even better reason to spend time doing other things, and the forecast predicts good, cold sunny days : perfect for hiking! So I decided to hike across two summits, nothing technically engaging, I know those paths well, but I want to see how fast I can go.
I wake up early, go down to the village to get some amazing bread that they stone bake in a wood fire oven, (as a good expatriated french, eating proper french bread is a guilty pleasure!) and walk back up to the chalet to have a quick breakfast, this forty minute walk is both a good warm up and a great way to whet my appetite. Breakfast swallowed, I through a few snacks, sandwich, water, jacket and my trusty Leica camera in my backpack, slam the door. I can start to hit the trail.
1h02. This is what the large digits of my watch indicates when I reach the first summit, but I don’t look at it much as my gaze is attracted by the open view on the Mont Blanc that the summit offers me. I love this view, the imposing and majestic steadiness of this iconic silhouette. Leaving in a big city where the horizon is most of the time blocked by buildings, being in presence of something so big yet too far to be grasp is an amazing feeling. But no time to spend dreaming, the goal is still to go as fast as possible. So I eat a few nuts, have a sip of water, and engage the decent to reach the path to the second summit. After a steep very icy section, I can get back to my pace. The couple of hikers I walk by are looking at me funny, I can read on their face « where is he rushing to? » , it makes me smile, we exchange a cordial « Bonne journée » , and continue to move toward the final section : a jagged ridge exposed to the strong wind blowing from the east. The white cross marking the summit, appear and disappear as the track goes up and down, but every time I see it, it gets significantly bigger and it pushes me to accelerate.
2h00. Rushing in the final ascent to not go beyond the two hours mark left me out of breath, but here I am. The view on the mountainous mass is even better, the valley on the right side barely receiving any direct sunlight is still covered by frost, and the clear blue sky is enhanced by gentle white cloudy brushstroke, as if it had to highlight the roof of Europe.
The strong wind testing my balance reminds me that my plan is to go back down as soon as possible, but my eyes are bouncing between the panorama of the Mont Blanc and on the left, a refuge, closed in winter, sitting where two peaks meet.
The winter sun creates beautiful long and mysterious shadows, as a way to invite me to explore what is hidden in them. Why not take advantage of being up here to learn a bit more about Her, to discover a curve I’ve never seen before, the rest can wait...
I leave the village in my back, and go straight toward a little barn, only used during summer by local cowboys. I sit, facing Mont Blanc to have a small lunch, enjoying the view, the sun, and the peacefulness of being here alone, watching the only living creatures in sight : prey birds using airstream to rise up in the deep blue sky. But it is now time to go again, I can’t wait to see what the view is like up there. It is hard to keep looking at my feet when the landscape is so attractive, the weather conditions of the past few weeks turned the snow into some wrinkled icy surface, looking more like sand sculpted by the tides and the wind than actual snow.
A few dozen of meters after the refuge, I stop on a small plateau. On my left a tall dark shadowed silhouette, on my right, a tall bright one, and in front of me, a wide open valley. And right in the middle of that, a large white meadow, crowned by three typical Chalets, which seemed to fit into each other like Russian dolls. It is so perfectly layed out that it looks like a painter drew them, adding even a couple of tormented logs to force the eyes to glide towards them. There is no sign of recent human life, the only visible marks comes from the wind shaping the snow, and a few animal footmarks.
In the distance I can see three minuscule silhouettes moving with a slow but constant rhythm along the ridge of the dark shape on my left. A group of ski tourer. I look at them for a moment, when the silence is torn apart by a loud engine sound. In this quiet environment any artificial sound is an assault, but I can only imagine how magical the view must be from above. As the pilots start to engage his descent behind the mountain, I realise that it is for me as well, the time to head back to the civilisation, I look around one last time, to imprint this delicate balance of light and shadows in my memory, and I begin my descent too, wearing a wide smile on my face.
The mountains were calling, and I’m glad I went..
Location : Savoie, France
2019
