125. Just back from Holiday, Part II: The hairiest day...

Following a tricky snowy col descent (see photo) we joined the GR10 and began to walk down through thick forest. We thought it was all over - it was our penultimate day and we were already dreaming about a proper bed, beers and ice-cream. One more night.





But after a very wet and late Spring the rivers were surging and the bridges in the forest were washed away. Off-path I exited through the forest just above this meeting of the two rivers. We appeared to be stuck.


There was one possible exit which was to climb onto the snow / ice that covered the river (the right hand one in the above photo) about a 100 metres upstream from this video above.

It sounds very straight-forward but the snow and ice across the river that formed a bridge was melting and there was a gaping hole in it.

Our tactics were (i) grin and hope and walk quickly across, and (ii) send James first.


We managed it (photos taken from this side looking back over what we had crossed). Quite scary, and we thought it was all over. Surely now ice-cream awaited?

No, the next bridge was down.


We decided at 8pm that that was enough for one day. So we camped where we were and listened to the roaring river all night.

We both dreamed about further tactics to cross this river but in the morning decided against this river, and chose a slightly smaller one leading into it. Sarah meant business - she stripped to her pants (see video).



After this crossing we walked alongside the river for another kilometre and eventually found a bridge that was still intact.

Every time we now see a bridge we consider it a small miracle.

Full version in person (unless this page goes viral).

Comments

  1. Unknown26 June 2013 at 15:42

    Looks like a great adventure! Snow bridge are really scary. How many days were you wild camping?

    ReplyDelete

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