Cabane du Montfort

It's very difficult to know if one is good in altitude or not, since it has nothing to do with fitness, and with each trip the body can react differently.  Famous mountaineers have succumbed to HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) or HACE (high altitude cerebral edema) if they ignored their initial symptoms of altitude sickness and unfortunately, this can be fatal or have long lasting physical consequences.

The only way to supposedly deal with altitude sickness is to acclimatise properly. This involves a lot of time spent at altitude as your red blood cell count adjusts to the altitude in that slow but sure way.


There is the climb high sleep low approach (where you acclimatise by going up a few hundred meters but make sure you sleep at a maximum of 300 meters higher than the last place you slept).  There are some supposed solutions, blood thinning medication and natural remedies: diamox, gingko biloba, coca leaves, continued use of ibuprofen and so on.  Still nothing is better than going to altitude to train and stay in altitude until it's almost time to go on the trip.

But where is there to train that even comes close to the Himalayan heights?  Nothing in Europe near me comes close, I'm afraid. I have no idea how my body will react to heights over 4000 meters, and 6000 meters sounds quite frightening.

But I need to work with what I have so I did the next best thing and went back to Verbier  to walk up and down the mountains and had a little adventure with Cherries (mountain guide extraordinaire) to the cabane du Montfort (she is responsible for all the wonderful photos). It's not exactly 5000 meters (half, to be more precise) but it's better than Richmond Park in London.

We started off in Verbier village and walked up through the trees on the way to restaurant Chez Dany. After Dany, we walked through the routes and ended up in the bottom of a very steep ski run en route to Les Ruinettes, then we cut through Fontanet to get to Les Choux and go down to the right of the lift before ascending the back way to the cabane.  Anyway, we got there.

The problem with snowshoeing or ski touring, there are  skiers who might be out of control or who don't look out for you whilst they bomb down the mountain at speed.  Best to go between pistes to avoid major accidents plus there will be more powder! Going off piste requires avalanche equipment so we had our transponders, shovels and poles with us and if you don't have a sense of direction, like myself, best to go with a guide. It's not difficult to get lost amongst the trees, specially when the cloud comes in.

Looking at these photos, it is a lot steeper than it looks. It is difficult to photograph or video the steepness of these mountains as you walk up them.  There is a reason you can pick up a lot of speed when you ski down....it is not flat terrain!

Looking down at Verbier village where we started.

It's a lot steeper than it looks!

A snow covered mountain full of Christmas trees!

Shiny icy mountains.

There are large pieces of sculptures alongs in the mountains.

Finally, the cabane du Montfort is visible in the mountains. (spot the Swiss flag)

Close to the cabane, hurrah!  Exhausted.

Very pleased to have arrived at the destination after that long walk.

Sunset over the cabane.

The cabane de Montfort is known to be in the high end of the cabanes, as far as food and comfort is concerned.  It is still quite basic if you are expecting a hotel since it is a refuge; dorm type rooms which sleep at least 4 in each room (I counted 12 rooms) wth a bed, pillow and duvet (bring your own sleeping bag liner).  There are shared bathrooms and a shower for 5 swiss francs which lasts 2 minutes.  If you are shampooing your hair, don't forget to get extra tokens for the shower! The food is basic Swiss, with goulash and croute complete a brownie, and staff is limited to one or two people.  There were only another couple of people there overnight so it was very quiet. It is very clean and has working toilets (not outside) and warm so I was very grateful!

Dinner starts with goulash and salad melee.

Then proceeds to croute and a large brownie.  Cold air and exercise makes you ravenous!

Saying goodbye to the cabane the next morning, after a breakfast of muesli, of course!

Lots of powder.

And it was quite snowy!

Back to the village via little Sweden in Verbier.

So, back to London for a week or so and then off to Verbier again to continue my training in altitude.  In the meantime, working hard with the amazing Kunjan, my Nepalese trainer (his father won the Everest marathon several times) at the gym.