Mountain tour. Fer a cheval au bout du monde.
Parc Naturel Sixt — Fer a Cheval - parking De Giffrenant 955m Chalet du Boret 1390m La pierre du Dard 1623m Refuge La Vogealle 1905m Chalet du Boret 1390m Le bout du monde 1222m parking De Giffrenant 955m
To the end of the world
Passy, near Mont-Blanc, is the starting point for a special Alpine hike. Here too, the long winter has clearly left its mark. At the end of June, the wild flower meadows in the valleys are already in full bloom, but higher up the flowers still have to start. An atmospheric report of a day of hiking in the Alps to the end of the world or 'Le bout du monde' in the Parc Naturel Sixt-Fer a Cheval. The name of the destination sounds pretty fatal, but we hope for the best.
Today, June 28, 2013, we situate ourselves all day in a 'horseshoe'. A foreign object in the mountains is a first thought but still — and with some imagination — it is true. The Parc Naturel Sixt-Fer a Cheval is a cirque in the shape of a horseshoe. A cirque is a semi-circular valley formed by the erosion caused by a glacier. Today we are surrounded almost all around by high rocks from which splashing waterfalls thunder.
Start is the parking De Giffrenant at 955 meters altitude. Entrance gate is the free tourist park via a wide gravel road. We're obviously not alone here. The last day of school is apparently the time for many French schoolchildren to get acquainted with nature. Here and there in the trees and shrubs hang plasticized documents and in small groups the children move from one assignment to another. They (and we) are lucky, the sun is also on the party. Through the forest we walk fairly flat over gravel paths and beautifully finished wooden bridges to the Chalet de Prason. Typical plants in this first piece are: common brunel Prunella vulgaris, nettle leaf price Veronica urticifolia, liver flower Hepatica nobilis, yellow deadnettle Galeobdolon luteum and horsetail Equisetum arvensis.
From chalet to chalet
At Chalêt de Prason the heavier work begins. We take the route for 'trained climbers without fear of heights. ' A warning sign at the beginning of this path leaves no doubt. The path is fairly steep and occasionally it becomes scrambling over smooth boulders. The advantage of such a climb — for a herbalist at least — is that you literally have your nose in the flowers. And there are flowers along this adventurous mountain trail: striking lots of white engbloem Vincetoxicum hirundinaria, tormentil Potentilla erecta, yellow solar rose Helianthemum nummularium, white rapunzel Phyteuma spicatum subsp. spicatum, mountaincentauria Montana, bolrapunzel Phyteuma orbiculare, Geranium sanguineum and forest stork's beak Geranium sylvaticum. Where it is moist due to the many waterfalls, we find biflorous violet Viola biflora, common fat leaf Pinguicula vulgaris, Alpine fat leaf Pinguicula alpina and even peat fluff Eriophorum angustifolium.
