Aiguilles rouges : Lac Blanc

Here I am again with the second episode of our series on trips to the nature. As I start hitting the keys on the keyboard my memories plays back at fast speed, and my fingers try to keep up with them. It feels like i recall each single moment of this trip from the beginning to the end.

It was last summer two days after my birthday which we planned quite spontaneously to pack and go to the mountains in Chamonix. Daniel was lucky to find a blah blah car which was coming from Paris and would pick us up in Geneva, With a lot of french punctuality we needed to wait for about 2 hours.
Anyways, all stored as good memories :-)

So, we spent the night in Argentiere where we started our trekking trip to Lac Blanc.

Mont-blanc massif, the view from Lac Blanc refuge

Although the hike started on steep terrain, and the sun was chasing us, we experienced indescribable heart-filled moments; all pure beauty and joy. The joy of a little baby chamois jumping up and down playing with her mum and the beauty of this privileged space; all whispering same message 'I am watching you'

So we kept on hiking up and up until reaching a very gorgeously marin colored lake called Les lacs des Cheserys (1,891m). Surprisingly, People were roping up a slackline from one side to the other. Yes, people do slackline across this lake and that is a reason for its fame. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture from this lake.

So, we did a little bit of scrambling and arrived at Lac Blanc where we had planned to put up the tent and spend the night.

We more or less accomplished the goal of the day but still needed to find a place to set up the tent and stuff. As a matter of fact, Daniel is a little bit picky in this respect, but in a good way; he does not like a crowd where he wants to enjoy the mother nature. That is why it took us a bit more time to find the best cozy place where it was only the mountains and us. We finished all the setting up, reserved our spot and headed to the lac blanc refuge (2,352m) where we could get a warm tea.

Once we got the tea and went to the hut's balcony, we experienced the stunning twilight with the ever changing colors on the side of the Chamonix valley, where Mont-Blanc resides. It was a gorgeous sky. This is the view from the hut. I clearly recall, on that day there were many people with professional cameras for capturing this unique moment. And we with our smartphones. The Perseid meteor shower were at our sight. The cold weather encouraged us to head back to the tent.

We grabbed the sleeping bags and went up close to a hill to have a relaxing moment watching the sky. Of all these great moments I have been sharing so far, there is one that would never leave my memory!! The time that I was getting ready for a quiet night sleep in the mountains, I quickly put my head out of the tent while i was lying down, and spotted the impressive sky, fully decorated with stars and falling stars!!!

In the morning we started early enough to approach one of the summits around . However, as I was a beginner and the routes were quite covered by snow, we did not reach the summit and scrambled down and had the chance to slide down back to the lake. Once we were back to Lac Blanc, we started heading back to Chamonix. My senses were telling me, 'hey get prepared for the scrambling down and the famous shortcuts' :- ) Hitched back to Geneva from the parking of the ski lift.

It was all great fun!!!

And wait, here is our ascent route painted in violet in the map.