Pretty far Goenne in the French Alps

[uk-scrambler]

This was a hike with no plan other than to head up in the rain and keep going until the weather forced me back down. I had a vague idea that I wanted to head up towards Mandallaz and Aiguille de Manigod (a way I've never been before). But in the end, when the threat of a storm failed to materialise, I decided to head towards La Goenne - a seldom visited smaller peak of 2174 m that looks across Lac du Charvin at its considerably bigger and more popular brother Mont Charvin (2409 m).

IGN 3531 Megeve (Near Annecy). The route I took in yellow. All quite conventional apart from the detour to the col between La Rouelle and La Goenne.

Southern part of the Aravis Chain, the day before the hike. L-R: Aiguille de Manigod (2024 m; centre of photo), Tete de l'Aulp (2129 m), La Rouelle (2082 m), La Goenne (2174 m), Mont Charvin (2409 m).

After running a few errands in the morning I headed up from the car park at Sous l'Aiguille after my parents and nephew who had gone up that way to spot marmots and chamoix. I met them whilst they were on the way down. The weather was awful - but apparently good for chamoix, who were out in numbers. I decided to push on for a bit, at least until the storm that was forecast made itself known. My usual companion for munro and alpine peak bagging (my son Luca) sat this one out to get some GCSE revision in. In the end, I got lucky with the weather. The storm never came and, eventually, the sun even decided to come out.

A bit of weather. Same view of the southern part of the Aravis chain. Not much to see this morning.

From the car park. Quite a march to get through the forest and above the tree-line.

Very wet. I thought I might head off towards the path that goes behind Aiguille de Manigod.

My eventual target (that I failed to achieve). I attacked it from the wrong side.

Chamoix herd

I waited under the trees for the worst of the rain (very heavy) to ease off then put my head down and continued up as quickly as I could. It was quite late in the afternoon and I wanted to get as high as I could before heading back down for tea. I missed the way I intended to go (off to the right towards Mandallaz) because I was focussing on trying to stop the rain from running off my hood and down the back of my neck. Sod it - I decided to keep going on the path I was on and see if I could make a detour towards la Goenne. One day I want to traverse the entire southern Aravis ridge - and this would be a sneak preview of a section I don't know much about.

Original plan was to turn left. I stopped to take this photo, but still somehow managed to miss the turn.

La Goenne (left); Mont Charvin (right)

The weather dried up a bit as I pushed up past the farm that sits high up on the alpages below Lac du Charvin. There was no one else around on these upper sections today. It was obvious from right back down in the valley that the quantity of snow on the peaks this year is very low. It seems to vary hugely from year to year at this time of the season. This was the lowest I've ever seen. Therefore I thought there was good opportunity to have a look at some of the higher points that have not been accessible in previous years.

Signage at the farm. No one at the farm yet (probably still a bit early in the year).

Further up towards Lac du Charvin I found that there was a flat meadow between La Rouelle and La Goenne. I decided to head off that way, thinking that I would reach the col between the two peaks, enjoy the view, and then scramble up the north face of La Goenne. From where I was standing it seemed like it couldn't be all that difficult.

Flat point between La Rouelle and La Goenne.

There is a pleasant basin between these two minor peaks, filled with meadow flowers, and the odd marmot scuttling about. I made my way around the left hand edge, aiming for the grassy ridge at the back. It ended up being a lot more than I bargained for. What looked like a gentle slope from distance quickly became much steeper than what I was comfortable with. After all the rain the grass was extremely slippy and I had to do a lot of the traverse on all fours. There was no real danger because the drop towards the basin was not too far and it had a good coverage of grass. At last I reached the ridge and the view across to Mont Blanc massif (mostly obscured by cloud). I was fascinated to look at the ridge line to the north across the Aravis chain towards L'Etale - mostly grassy slopes until the sharp rocky edges of the L'Etale arete.

View back the way I had come.

View from the col towards Mont Blanc

View along the Aravis ridge - grassier than I'd thought (until L'Etale).

The sun came out, which pleased me greatly. But I realised that whilst my position on the col afforded wonderful views, it was now quite difficult to identify best way to go. My initial idea, to scramble up la Goenne north face, was not going to happen. From this side the peak presents a great wall of vertical rock that was clearly not anything like a 'normal' way up. I remained for some time looking in awe at this section of the ridge, and the 'pass of the bears' ridge up the left hand side of Charvin beyond. I did not want to go back the way I'd come because of the slipperiness of the grass so I decided to slide down into the basin and take a sheep path that runs diagonally under the face of la Goenne. I got wet and muddy.

The ridge towards La Goenne (not to be attempted from this side!) and the 'pass of the bears' to Charvin beyond. Wow.

Route I ended up taking from the col. Sheep path under the face of la Goenne.

Once I got onto the sheep path I had a very wet arse, back and hands. The path was good, but you never quite know with sheep paths if they are just going to lead to nothing. I remembered reading that this path leads to another path on the other side of the rocky bluff that leads down from la Goenne summit. I was glad to find that this was indeed the case. After an exposed but easy scramble I was on the other side of la Goenne heading towards Lac du Charvin.

View along the sheep path under la Goenne peak.

View back down towards Manigod and Thones

Cave on la Goenne

A short scramble to cross onto the other side of la Goenne

Looking back on the col between la Rouelle and la Goenne. Mont Blanc behind.

Slippy grassy ridge.

It was getting late so I decided I needed to descend to the path that leads up to Lac du Charvin and head back down to the car park. When I got onto the other side of La Goenne I found I was at a higher altitude than I'd thought. I was on a ridge much higher above the lake than I'd realised. There is a straightforward climb up to la Goenne summit from here (definitely the way to do it... not from the north!). However, I was running short of time so I made my way down to the lake which seemed to be the quickest way to get on the path back down the valley.

La Goenne (2174 m) left; Mont Charvin (2409 m) right.

Lac du Charvin

Mont Charvin from above the lake.

The way back down was straightforward by the conventional route. I enjoyed looking out at the views of the mountainsides that had been obscured by cloud and rain on the way up.

View over Orsiere, Sulens, La Tournette.

Alpine wildlife.

Overall a nice spur of the moment walk. Got very lucky with the weather. Made some silly errors (thinking I could take on la Goenne from the north), had a great time.