Relais d'Arpette - Champex - Sembrancher - Le Chable
- Distance: 14km
- Duration: (with breaks): 6h 00min
- Elevation gain/loss: 200m/1000m
Stages 1-3 of Walker’s Haute route follow exactly the same track as a more popular Tour du Mont Blanc (TMB), so the trail is usually quite packed. Although I must say that the traffic on TMB was much lighter than last year. The pandemic definitely altered plans of some hikers 🙁
Champex is where we left TMB and headed deeper into Switzerland, leaving green TMB stickers behind, which also meant that we’ll have to pay a bit more attention to the trail signs. But first, getting myself new sunglasses!
Today the trail is fairly easy (or it seemed so from the description) as we are not passing any mountain ranges. Rolling hills and cute Swiss mountain villages were our many attractions. For some reason I was not really in a mood to hike and felt already tired half-way through. Maybe I was still tired from the previous day hike or maybe the scorching sun made it difficult (again) as we were exposed to it for most of the hike.
Halfway through we stopped for a cold Cola pause in Sembrancher village. Fun observation: locals speak here a mix of French and Italian. After a refreshing break we continued to Le Châble, again fully in the sun.
Thankfully 1h before Le Châble the trail led to a forest and we got to rest from the heat. It was an interesting path as we passed a sort of construction site and a few times had to double check if we’re on the right track.
Just before Le Châble we ended up walking besides a rather busy road, which was not our intention. Apparently at least a part of the track was following this road (or so we deduced), but we were glad to leave that road after a couple of minutes. As dark clouds were gathering behind the town, we raced to reach our accommodation before the storm.
After a few days of camping, today we are staying in a hotel (B&B La Poste). Ah, the perks of a mattress and a roof above us, especially when it’s storming outside.
This is also the place where we had the best breakfast of the whole trip and the hostess was very friendly and helpful. We definitely had a good rest in this hotel.
Day 4 tips
- There are no camping facilities in Le Châble, so if you wish to stay in a tent, there is a camping close to Les Places, which is also reachable with public transport from Le Châble.