The TMB - Day 8 - June 13th - From Champex ...

I spent the night in Champex with good facilities - hot showers - and electric for charging all my camera batteries!
I met one other TMB walker - from Belgium - at ..

Les Rocailles camp-site, Champex.

With no particular plan of where I was staying the next night, I set-off to take the variente route via Fenêtre D'Arpette ..
The trail climbed through forest at first beside a fast-flowing stream

Soon the gradient eased through the main part of the Val D'Arpette, with good views both up, and down the valley

above : looking back down the valley     &     below : looking ahead up the valley

The easy walking was short-lived as the trail entered a rocky gully and traversed boulder-strewn slopes, with my first sighting of the "window" through low cloud.

Many walkers travelling in the opposite direction were doing the "Walker's Haute Route" from Chamonix to Zermatt; from Mont Blanc to the Matterhorn. See here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haute_Route

Once over the narrow Col at 2665 metres, the view down the Trient valley opened-up

I was above the Glacier du Trient

The descent of the valley was long and steep

Eventually, much further-on, I reached the Chalet du Glacier café. The place was being refurbished ready for the new season and lots of building materials were laying around. I was surprised to find (still deep in the pine forest) that everyone had gone home leaving this fire completely unattended!

I had to make a choice at the café - whether to continue down the valley to Trient, or whether to opt for another variente - which meant climbing back up the valley on the opposite side towards the Refuge Les Grands. I chose the latter and ended-up camping on the first level bit I could find - actually on the forest trail - with a nice soft bed of pine-needles.