Mont Rosset Walk/Run 2448m.
Friday 6 July 2102
Our first day in the chalet in the little perched hamlet of Montmery. We get up early and start looking at guidebooks and maps. Decide to walk up Mont Rosset, or at least go in that direction and see what happens. We walk along the road to Valezan, the nearest village, which is very old and traditional and goes a surprisingly long way up the hill. Lovely old wooden chalets with wood stores up under the large eaves. We take the GR5 up to the refuge de Balme, which is closed for refurbishment, and then swing West for Mont Rosset.
There is a large field of snow as we approach the col, and the ground is brown and bare of vegetation, showing that much more snow has only just melted. The snow is not too steep, so we are fine in our running shoes. We have brought mini crampons just in case, but we don’t need them. Outside of the snow, on the newly revealed bare ground, where there has been more light for longer, there are abundant flower fields with butterflies and many small and precious alpine varieties.
From the col the mountain looked austere and difficult, steep sheer rock and lose shale, but as we round the corner to the south, we see grass and meadows, and this is where the path to the summit goes. At the summit is a wooden sign with a strange name gouged into it. Don’t know if it is a local dialect name for the summit. As we descend a large rainstorm arrives and wets us through. The GR5 at this point seems to have various branches, and here we loose our way in the heavy rain and run over the same 1 kilometer stretch of track 3 times, trying to work out where we were in the downpour and lightning. We jog down beside the big track once we find out where we are.
We get back at about 8, when everyone is already eating, and it is great to be able to just sit straight to down to a meal cooked by friends.
not at home 
Spectacular scenery!
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