Vanoise National Park (8-9 June 2022) - Finale
Vanoise National Park = No. 8 (The last one in France)
How did I end up visiting Vanoise National Park?
Ever since the visit to the Pyrenees National Park in May 2021, I have set a goal to visit all the 8 national parks in France during my MBA study. I didn't really know, what the goal will lead to, but having a goal is still better than having none.
During the return to Paris to attend the MBA convocation, I squeezed in this trip into the planning.
I have read a lot about Vanoise, a park less famous than Pyrenees, but not less capivating. Trails marking may not be as good as Pyrenees's one too. This could also mean, most of the sites remain unspoiled, stay low in the radar of mankind.
Haotian, among the earliest persons that I spoke to when I first joined the business school, and the first person that co-planned the Pyrenees trip with me a year ago, decided to join this very meaningful hike. On top of Haotian, Husam (a friend and collegue from Sudan) decided to be part of this scenic mountain hike team.
The planning
The trip was planned way back in April, before the end of the MBA study. I knew I always want to make it, as it was the final national park in France that I haven't visited. Calling it the "Commencement Hike", in conjunction with the graduation ceremony that we had after the hike, I shared the file with only a few people and at the end, Haotian and Husam decided to be part of this great experience.
The surprises before the trip
To add more spices to the trip, my flight to Paris came with multiple surprises.
Knowing that I need to retrieve my luggage fast and I need to rush to the TGV train station at Chares De Gaulles airport (terminal 2) to connect to my train to Lyon, I reminded the Malaysian Airline staff to put on several stickers (priority).
The first leg from Kuala Lumpur was delayed by close to an hour. That left me with only 35 minutes to connect to my second leg in Doha Hamad airport.
The connection time was the shortest I have ever experienced. But why not make it a pre-hike warming up? I ran as fast as I could, and made it to the B3 gate to connect to the 2nd leg Flight from Doha to Paris. At the gate, I asked the counter to confirm if they have loaded my luggages. With a smile, the counter lady confirmed "Yes sir, we are loading them right now. You hear the walkie talkie conversation right?".
Upon arriving at the CDG T2, I rushed to the baggage collection hall. And shortly after, I heard an announcement "Attention to Tiong Soon, Bakar, Nora.........etc, please proceed to customer service counter". I was so happy to hear that announcement, thinking that the Malaysian Airline went extra miles to ensure the bags are delivered through special lane to me. That excitement was shortlived. "Sir, I am sorry to inform that your bags couldn't run as fast as you can, and they were left behind in Doha".
Now, i was left with little choice but to devise a new plan to proceed with my journey. And so I decided to proceed and not staying back to wait. I knew I can still proceed with this hiking tour by spending some money to buy the essential gears on my way to the park.
And I left to Lyon. At Lyon train station, I found Decathlon. I bought my essential hiking gears and a set of clothing, and got myself ready for the trip.
The highlights of the trip
I met up with Hoatian in Lyon. After having a quick lunch, we picked up our car and started our journey. It was a pleasant 2.5 hours drive.
First hike (8th June) - Termignon White Lake
We started our first hike on the same day (8th June), le lac blanc de termignon, i.e. the Termignon White Lake hike.
It was an easy hike, took us 1 hour to reach the Refuge ad the Lake. There was not many signages, a potential risk to the hikers going missing along the trail.
We reached the refuge and the lake in about 1 hour. While descending to our departure point, we lost our way. Thankfullly, we heard the herd of sheeps that we saw when we were ascending. That became our navigation guide to return to our starting point.
Second Hike (9 June) - Glacier du Grand Means Hike
Save the best for the last. Glacier du Grand Means hike is among the most highly rated (9.6/10) trail in Vanoise.
Thinking that we should be able to complete the trail in 7 hours max, we only left our accommodation at 10am, after having our breakfast that was bought from the Carrefour Express at Bonneval Sur Arc.
I would not take credit for this plan, as my planning was entirely based on the information I got from the 10adventures website as follow:-
https://www.10adventures.com/hikes/vanoise/glacier-du-grand-mean/
Unknowingly, we have taken the more difficult route both ways. As a reward, our trail was filled with scenie views throughout.
There was a section where we needed to scale up / down by using a cable. (hey, I thought it was rated as Easy Green Hike in the website? This doesn't look easy)
Before scaling to the refuge, we decided to explore the region across the bridge. That was the way to go to the big Glacier Lake. We didn't have much time left, and decided to drop the Glacier lake from the plan.
Instead, I took a dip (leg dip) in the icy cold river. I knew from my sport coach that ice treatment is good for a swollen foot/leg. And I had swollen feet after hiking for 5 hours, so why not taking a dip?
We went further up, viewing the gigantic water fall from the top, and experienced a light snow.
After recording the gigantic water fall, we took the path to the Refuge des Evettes. On the way to the refuge, we crossed path with a herd of Ibeks.
Finally, we reached the Refuge des Evettes. The refuge is powered by a mini solar power farm next to it.
(I didn't make this grafiti. The TES is part of the official marking of Evettes)
The panaromic view of the mountain range from the terrace is breathtaking.
After having our late lunch at the Refuge terrace, we descended to our starting point. The way down took about 3.5 hours, as we went to a wrong way, that led us to the dead end of a very sloppy cliff. We had to return back to the marking of refuge and figured out the way that we took earlier.
By the time we reached our car, it was already 7pm.
An 8.5hours hike, tiring, but very satisfying.
My transports, accommodation, and F&B
Transport – We rented a manual transmission 5 seater through carjet.com . It was a good deal, for 2 days with full insurance coverage, we paid €93.63
Accommodation – We opted to stay within Val-cenis area, within the national parks.
- Chemin du Châtel, Val-Cenis, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes 73500, France, Listing: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/52836722?source_impression_id=p3_1655574418_KZKoMkkC5B9GOBUn
- For 2 nights stay, we paid €95.28
F&B – On the first day, we had our dinner at a Kebab Shop near Modane station. We had our dinner after picking Husam from the train station. For second day breakfast and lunch, we bought our food and drink supply from the Carrefour Express. The second day dinner, we drove to Turin and had our dinner in an Italian Restaurant. For a full 48 hours trip, we spent around €60/ person on the meal.
My 3 Plus and 2 Minus:-3 things I like about this trip:
- The view from the Refuge des Evettes terrace: Lakes, and mountain range that are sparsely covered in snow. This is by far, one of the most beautiful view I had in all the 8 national parks of France.
- The totally unspoiled nature, and the several herd of Ibeks. I have seen Ibeks in Chamonix and Mercantour too. But this time, the herd is pretty huge, and we saw at least 4 herds of them.
- A bit of climbing, assisted by the steel cable. It is a new experience, compared with just ascending and descending by walking.
- Allow me to add in another one, to do justice to the airbnb house owner. We got a very good deal in a village of Val-cenis. The view from this newly refurbished house is unreal. The location of the house is strategic, yet we only paid Euro 95 for 2 nights stay in this 3-room fully equipped house. Perhaps it is a off-peak season in this area where people normally come for skiing.
2 thing I would do differently if I can turn back the clock:
- Vanoise park signages and markings are quite lacking. It was only after returning to our starting point that we realized we actually took the more challenging route going and returning. This was despite the fact that the 10adventures website has explained in detail which way to take. We enjoyed the view though. The only danger was when we came to the edge of sharp slope when scaling down the mountain. We were stuck there for a few minutes, and finally decided to be safe than sorry. We scaled up to again and followed the route that we took earlier. Lesson learnt: read carefully and bring along a marker to mark the trail.
- In the 10adventures website, there are several important info. First, the elevation change is about 590-830m depending on whether you are to reach the refuge (refuge des evettes), or the main lake. Second, the difficulty level is marked as Green (considerably easy hike). Third, the total hiking duration is 6-7 hours. These key information seems to be not in coherent with each other. Yet, we had this confirmity bias, we conveniently ignored the elevation change and the duration, and took the Green difficulty rating as our only reference. It turned out that the hike was a moderately difficult hike, and we took 8.5 hours to complete the hike even though we gave up the idea of hiking up to the main lake. Lesson learnt: when you are presented with conflicting info, be conservative and not optimistic.
Surprise learnings of the trip
- The mis-connection of my luggage could have spoit my trip. Imagine you are going to catch a train 1.5 hour after landing at the airport, and you are told that your luggages did not make it to the plane. Instead of crying over it, I moved on quickly, recalling a message that I once shared with a very important person "A problem that can be solved by money is not a problem". This advise came flowing into my mind at that moment i was told my luggage were still in Doha. I continued my journey by train to Lyon, and bought the essential gears in Decathlon besides Lyon train station, before gettting my rental car to start the drive to Vanoise. Remember, if you can solve a problem by money, it is not a problem. Don't burden your mind unnecessary, thinking that most events are problems and not just events.
- Never I would have expected, that moment when i stood on the terrace of Refuge des Evettes, I had mixed feelings. I thought I would just be happy I have finally visited all 8 France National Parks as a non-French, you know that thought of "Been there, done that". But no, I wasn't just feeling happy. I felt sad, I felt sad that a beautiful journey (of leaving footprint in all the 8 national parks) has almost come to an end. That emotion was way more intense than the physical pain at both my knees. While standing at the edge of the terrace overlooking the beautiful mountain range and trying to overcome my emotion, my hiking buddy came putting his hand over my shoulder, "let's plan the next one, and we should do this every year". At that very moment, I realized "The end of a journey means the start of another one".
13 months, 100km trails, 3000m elevation change, and unbearable pain at the knees after every hike... I thought I should record this down, to cherish this moment of the most scenic panoramic view of the final France National Park hike - Vanoise
