Trekking From Chamonix To Zermatt - Walkers Haute Route - Day 5

Day 5 started with normal routine - wake up alarm at 6, started to walk at 8 AM. We expected some physical challenge this day, because our predicted task was to ascent from 750 m asl to about 2300. But we knew, our effort gets rewarded and we weren't disappointed later (here is a spoiler from evening):

But lets start from beginning... The first half a hour we were just walking in high speed to Le Chable. In beginning of this small town we filled our drinking bottles with tap water. My shopping tour a day before was very useful, now we found everything so fast and easy. Le Chable has good grocery store and pharmacy right alongside of trekking route, near the main bridge over the river.

After the end of the town we started the uphill walk. It wasn't steep at the beginning and we walked through many villages:

But eventually our trail changed steeper and villages shrinked:

Fortunately its possible to simplify this challenging day with aid of cable cab and three of us took this option, skipping their vertical ascent between 850 and 2200 meters. Wise decision of them, concidering some next following days...

After last villages we had very nice and wild walk. The trail had different sections of traverses on very steep slope and some sections with stright steep uphill walks. We had to cross many streams:

In some places we even assumed some danger of landslide or rockfall:

The weather was hot as usual and we made many breaks in cool shadows:

As we roamed higher and higher, the views were much better every moment. There was a very nice restaurant in Clambin (easily accessible from Verbier), right next to our trail. We didn't go inside, but if you are not a budget trekker there, it seems to be very nice place to have a lunch with awesome views! You can see this place on my picture here:

There was a nice spot for camping as well after passing the restaurant, but our job wasn't done yet and we continued uphill. This section was mostly in forested area and we didn't see much views, but eventually we reached to the end of treeline. We were surprised by eye contact with Les Ruinettes cab station, the one where our companions were riding before:

And we also saw a famous ski resort Verbier in Switzerland:

Maybe its not easy to notice, but if you look at the next pic carefully, you can see a lake in middle of it, on the bottom of the valley. Yes, that's right, there was our camp this morning, where we started our walk exactly 7,5 hours ago:

One hour and 2,5 km later we arrived to our improvised campsite. We were really lucky to find it by accident. We turned around a last corner on our way and saw cabine du Mont Fort, our planned destination on the distance. The only problem was dark grey hailstorm before it and we decided to wait until this mess is over. I just walked couple of meters uphill there and saw a perfect place for wild camping. I think you'll agree with me after seeing those pics:

And here I am again! Can you see how fulfilled I look after "mission completed"?:

We didn't know it yet, but this really demanding day was just a warming up for our next couple following days...

Thanks for your time and I hope, you enjoyed it! I know, you'll enjoy those next articles of days 6 and 7 much more, just as we liked to hike them! This landscape was almost like other planet ;)