Walking this weekend in the Bauges

This weekend we decided to take a quick trip over the the Bauges to go walking below the snowline. This is a stunning area between Annecy and Chambery a large part of which is a national park.

Refuge du Lachat

We picked an easy circular route from Montagny (just above Arith) to the refuge de Creux de Lachat at about 9km and 600m height gain as it should be be pretty snow free by now.

Starting from the carpark above the pretty village of Montagny we set of up a forest trail through woods of mixed deciduous and confiers coming to life after the winter. The fresh green canopy filtering the warm spring sunshine was sublime.

After a couple of kms the gentle track gave out onto a clearing with views of the montagne de bange, Semnoz and la Tournette on the other side of lake Annecy.

The going from here gets quite a bit steeper back into the trees. After about 1.5 hours we reached the summit to be rewarded by a 360 degree panorama, to the south the glaciers of the Tarentaise, west over lac du Bourget and le dent du Chat. To the north Le Semnoz and east to the peaks of the Bauges national park and beyotnd to Mont Blanc. Unfortunately the air was pretty hazy so non of the photos came out that well.

Whilst we were enjoying a well earned butty in the sunshine we noticed one brave (foolish) paraglider pilot get a severe thrashing as he flew into the lee of a fresh northeasterly Bise – it just goes to show there’s always someone who knows nowt!!!!

View towards Roc des Bouefs and Tournette

Refuge du Lachat