TRAVEL

Riding Strangers’ Cars From Zinal To Chamonix

On mountains and roads in the Alps — and what really matters

Boiling water for tea and watching the sunrise at Col du Pigne. Photo of the author by William Giffiths, used with permission.

We woke up an hour and a bit before sunrise and quickly got started with breakfast. Old bread, some pretty good jam, and a few pieces of cheese.

Setting off, we crossed 3000m of altitude as we headed up the Col du Pigne and from there watched the sun rise over the Alps.

It was the fourth and last day of our hike, so we started making our way down slowly, with frequent pauses to take in the views. After all, we woke up early and weren’t going to be walking as much as we did in the previous days. We even took a nap by a waterfall we found on the way.

Will taking a nap with a view. Photo by Yakko Majuri.

At last we arrived in Zinal and sat down to have a beer and discuss where to sleep the night.

After an hour trying to decide what to do, we settled for a pretty ambitious plan: hitchhike all the way to Chamonix, making sure to arrive before Carrefour (a grocery store) closed.

The biggest problem we had was that it was Saturday, and French stores close on Sundays. As we’d be camping in Chamonix…