Alps Trip Summer 2022

Written on 2nd September 2022

This article goes into detail about the experiences I gained during my trip to the French Alps. Along with having an incredible time, it taught me a lot, humbled me and also inspired me to take on more physical challenges in my life.

Firstly, the picture you see at the top of the page is real, it’s not photoshopped, it’s not a stock image, it’s a photo I took with my phone, and I think you can agree that it’s pretty surreal. So far I think it’s the best picture I’ve ever taken.

If you’ve read through the All About Me section of my website, you’ll have learnt that scouting has been a big part of my life, with a love for adventure being passed down through multiple generations of my family, and without being said, it was obvious that a 2 week scouting trip to the French Alps was right up my street. And the months of dedicated planning and organisation from District Scout leaders in my area was highly admirable, and lead to many lifetime experiences for the 200+ people that took part.

Without further ado, here is a list of the activities that I participated in during the 10 day programme:

Rock Climbing 🧗‍♂️
White Water Rafting 🚣‍♀️
Canyoning
Mountain Walking
White Water Kayaking 🛶
Raft Building

Culture Trips 🏰
Via Ferrata 🧗‍♀️
Inflatable Aqua Park
Paddle Boarding
Mountain Biking 🚵‍♂️
Camp Services

The Journey

The distance from where I live in England to the campsite we stayed at in the Alps is 595 miles, in a straight line (Figure 1). Me and a group of other around 30 other Explorer Scouts from the area took a 2 day coach trip, leaving home at 5am in the morning and arriving at around 5pm the following evening, getting the ferry from Dover-to-Calais and stopping off for the night in the French city of Dijon, most famously known for it’s mustard. Lot’s of sleeping and lot’s of music made the journey as enjoyable as possible.

Quite memorably in the early hours of the morning, me and a friend took a walk into the town, and we spoke to a homeless man who was incredibly helpful with my French speaking, (I’m half French but by no means fluent in the language). Speaking to this Czech man for a short while we discovered that he spoke 7 languages and through unlucky circumstances, had been living on the streets of Dijon for more than 6 years. Despite spending it on cigarettes, the 10 euros I gave him was fully deserved, and showed the true heart that the man had.

Towards the last hours of the journey, we started to become exposed to the true scale of the Alpine landscape. It was unlike anything I had seen before (Mostly the Scottish Highlands). These were the moments where I realised this trip was going to engrave some serious memories into my past.

Figure 1

Water Activities

Day one, for the group of 14 I was in, consisted of a morning of raft building on one of the local lakes (Figure 2, below). With great views of the surrounding valley it was a great way to start the programme. Split into 2 groups of 7 we crafted our rafts and headed out onto the lake, before both teams’ creations slowly fell apart, nevertheless it was still a funny experience.

For my group, we took part in Canyoning during the morning of day 2. Simply Canyoning is an activity where you traverse down a stream or river on foot, in our case, with wet suits and harnesses, jumping, swimming and sliding to get ourselves down to the bottom of a canyon, where we got the opportunity to jump into natural pools from heights of about 7 or 8 metres. Figure 3 shows a picture of me (In Blue) jumping into one of the pools.

I find glaciers fascinating, and whilst slowly making our way down stream, the immense views of the surroundings were made even more interesting by the fact that the river runs with meltwater from one of the local glaciers. Canyoning is something I really hope I get the opportunity to do again, as it’s so different from all other outdoor activities I’ve taken part in, making it such a unique experience for me. We spent the afternoon of day 2 on an inflatable aqua park on a lake near the campsite. Not much needs to be said about the lake apart from the fact that it’s surrounded by an array of greenery and mountains, most of them fetching at least 2000m in elevation.

Figure 2

Figure 3

White Water Rafting was also something I hadn’t experienced previously, and it’s crazy. Quite simply, 8 people were stuffed onto an inflatable raft (Figure 4) and sent down a white water river, trusting that the trained instructor can keep us afloat. This sounds like my idea of fun. Capsizing about 15 minutes into the activity was probably one of the only times in my life where I felt as though I’d taken my last breath, but looking back on it now, it wasn’t as serious as it felt at the time, and makes up quite a memorable moment for me. Floating down the River Durance with such incredible views isn’t something you get to do every day, and I’d do it again any day.

Figure 4

After White Water Rafting in the morning of day 5, we spent the afternoon on a local lake (Figure 5) on paddle boards and open boat canoes, making it a more chilled out experience but still incredible with the surrounding views of mountains, and crystal clear water.

Figure 5

The most challenging of the water activities was definitely the White Water Kayaking. The morning of this day was again spent on a local lake (Figure 5), practicing our paddling techniques and learning what to do in case of a capsize when on the moving river. A short bus trip took us to the River Durance where we paddled 7km down stream, not only is this more physically demanding than most other activities, you have to be on the ball at all times if you want to stay upright in your boat. Unfortunately there wasn’t much time on this activity to take in the beauty of the surroundings as, similarly to driving a car, you have to pay attention to the route ahead at all times. Because I love a challenge, it made it one of the most enjoyable activities of the trip for me, and it’s definitely something I’ll look to take part in again.

Climbing Activities

Climbing has been of interest to my family for generations, and is something I always enjoy when I get the opportunity to take part in, especially natural rock climbing. The first climbing activity was on a thing called Via Ferrata, Italian for “Iron Path” (Figure 6). Originally and typically found in alpine regions, they are routes made with iron staples and cables which are set into stone, making climbing routes and other attractions more accessible to climbers. I would highly recommend researching the history of Via Ferratas, they have lots of stories from WW1 which are worth looking into. Fast forward to the modern day, they provide fun climbing routes through canyons and along cliff faces, and are accessible for public use in a lot of areas in the alps. For me, Via Ferrata was a surreal experience, traversing along an overhanging rockface, about 20 or 30 metres up from the canyon floor, small in comparison to some of the other routes available, but still a rare opportunity. Having fun climbing with my friends, whilst also understanding the interesting history of the routes made it one of the best experiences of my life. It’s not as popular as top rope climbing or bouldering, but definitely still something to look out for and take part in if you get the chance.

Figure 6

On the last day of the programme, a group of us took part in some traditional top rope rock climbing, on one of the many local climbing spots which overlook the stunning valley. This is always a physically demanding sport and can always be used to put someone to the test. I thoroughly enjoyed the activity because of the physical demand and felt as though I had achieved something every time I finished one of my climbs. I took every opportunity I could to turn my back to the rock face and take in the incredible view of the landscape behind me. From the climbing spot we could see our campsite down below and the immense valley that it is situated in, with the River Durance running through. The rock face we were operating on this day was around 15 metres high, miniscule in comparison to famous climbing routes like El Capitan, but can still be challenging for an amateur climber like myself. I highly recommend taking part in any rock climbing opportunity, down to it’s raw connection with the outdoors and required concentration with what your doing, it’s a good switch off from daily life, as all your thinking about in the moment is where your hands and feet are going, and how not to fall. It can also help build your trust with other people, as you rely on a belayer at the foot of the rock face to safely support you on the way up, and belay responsibly when you’re abseiling. Vice versa when they’re the one scaling the rock face. It’s safe to say that rock climbing is something I’ll definitely be taking part in again.

Culture Trips

As well as many physical activities, we took part in some day trips to local cultural sites such as a Marmot Sanctuary, the Fort of Mont Dauphin, Natural Salt Formations, a Fromagerie and a historic Silver Mine. All of which were chilled out and contrasted nicely against the busy schedule and the physically demanding activities we took part in during the rest of the week.

The Fortified settlement of Mont Dauphin (Figure 7), built by the famous Military Engineer, Vauban between 1694-1700, was an incredible place to visit. We took a guided tour around the settlement and discovered some of it’s history. It was built by order of King Louis XIV to protect the Dauphine and Provence against attack from the Savoy across the border. Most of the buildings are still perfectly maintained, which shows it’s historical importance to the area.

Figure 7

Figure 8

On another of the culture days we visited the Silver Mines of L’Argentiere-La-Bessee. Originally founded in the medieval times, they have been used on and off and have been developed over the years ever since, and play a big part in the Economic history of the local area. On this culture day we also visited one of the areas many Marmot Sanctuaries, quite fitting since they are one of the symbolic animals of the alpine regions. This was a rare opportunity to get up close with some of the local wildlife.

Quite memorably we also visited one of the areas incredible natural salt formations, Fontaine Pétrifiante de Réotier, created over millions of years by highly Calcium concentrated water.

Hillwalking

As with climbing, I come from a background of hillwalkers, most noticeably my Dad has completed multiple Black Mountain Roundabout events, done the 3 peaks challenge (Climbed the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales within 24-hours), and hiked up Volcanoes in New Zealand. Naturally, having a father like this influences me to be inspired by the big pointy things created by movements in the earths crust. Recently though I have taken more fondly to the idea of mountaineering challenges and enjoy watching exploration documentaries, and one day I hope to take on some of the worlds many famous mountaineering challenges.

During the afternoon of day 1 of the camp, me and 6 others from my local Explorer group took a trip up to a viewing point behind the local village of St-Crepin. Starting from 900m above sea level (The height of the campsite) we hiked up a path which took us to around 1360m. For reference, this is higher than any place in the UK, but unusually it didn’t feel like this. At that point, it was the highest I’d ever been, and we’d only been walking for about an hour and a quarter. In Figure 9 below you’ll see a team photo from the day, with a group of boys who are now a deep part of my history. This was the first of many incredible experiences from this trip.

Figure 9

The other 2 hillwalking days from this trip hold such precedence to me and I think I’d find it hard to tell you about them without writing a whole article.

The first of these days, me and 2 other boys dedicated a whole afternoon to a 20km hike into the mountains, reaching altitudes of just above 2000m, although we weren’t able to summit the mountain we aimed for due a set of sheer rock faces and our lack of ropes, clips and experience. (Views from this walk seen in Figure 10 below). All was going well, but unfortunately, during our descent down the mountain, one of the team members fell very ill, throwing up, we think from indigestion, and he was un-able to continue down to the campsite in the valley. We called for help, help came, and our team member recovered quickly. But this wasn’t the most eventful part. Whilst waiting for help from other members down at the campsite, we were approached by a young French man, clearly in distress, trying to get hold of emergency services. Using some of my limited French vocabulary and his limited English vocabulary, we were able to communicate enough for him to tell me that his girlfriend was stuck at the top of a mountain. Basically, there had been an error with their ropes whilst descending from a climbing session on a sheer rock face, which ended up in a stranded young woman at the top of a set of 1000ft cliffs. Approaching dusk, the light was disappearing, but luckily the remaining battery power left on my phone meant we could call for a helicopter rescue for this young woman. At the time, quite scary, but in hindsight, very interesting and educational. Essentially what I learnt was that even if you are prepared for something, is doesn’t mean things can’t still go wrong.

The second of these days was a hike and ascent to 3043m. To say the absolute least, this experiences was ……… well ……… how do I put it? ………. I don’t know, but I will give you these 3 words:

Awe
Perspective
Unforgettable

Alpine Meadow (Figure 10)

The view from 3043m (Figure 11)

Other Activities (Day 3)

The activities I talk about in this section don’t fit into the water or hillwalking categories, but are still equally incredible. The first of the two is Mountain Biking which we did in the morning of day 3.

I’ve been riding bikes since about the age of 3 and I have had an on and off passion for them to this day. I’ve ridden a fair distance off-road before, but never anything as challenging as I did in the Alps. A group of 9 explorer scouts and two leaders took part in this day of Mountain biking, and including me there were only 3 explorers and 1 leader who stayed upright for the whole journey through the mountains. The bikes we were using that day were electric assistance bikes, and gladly so as the incline was relentless. Without a doubt we covered more distance and reached higher elevation than we would have achieved with regular MTB’s, this accordingly meant we were exposed to some highly credit worthy views for most of the day.

During the afternoon of the day, we visited one of the ski resorts in the area, and took ski lifts to reach a Café on top of the 2800m summit. The views from this height are immense, and at this altitude it wasn’t just my valley I could see, there were multiple land formations in every direction, valleys, rivers, snow caps, glaciers, forests and much much more. The picture in Figure 12 is one I took from the summit and doesn’t give a full sense of scale to what I could see. Being twice as high as any point in the UK isn’t something that’s easy to put into words and is something only properly understood when experienced first hand.

Figure 12

After hot chocolate in the Café, we headed back down on ski lifts to the centre of the ski resort where we had the opportunity to go on a Luge/Alpine Coaster, something that doesn’t usually come to mind when you mention Ski Resort, but undoubtedly still a very fun experience.

Other Honourable Moments!

Two of the other incredible experiences from this trip were spontaneous and again provided some of the nicest moments of my life so far. They aren’t things which have happened on this scale for me before and I cherish these moments.

One of these moments was a thunder and lightning storm which happened midway through the camp. The high winds nearly blew away the kitchen tent and the heavy rain flooded many other peoples tents, luckily I managed to stay dry. What was incredible about this night though was the intense booming of thunder flooding the valley, and some of the biggest and brightest bolts of lightning I’ve ever seen. Two photos of the storm can be seen in Figures 13 and 14, but quite obviously you don’t gather the true sense of scale through just a photo.

Figure 13

Figure 14

For me, most night times of the camp were taken up by stargazing. It’s something I probably don’t do enough of, as it’s so relaxing but so deeply fascinating. The majority of sitting out at night was done with a small group of people who I’d previously not spoken to a great deal, and people who surprised me when they started to explain their interest for the night sky. The conversations you can have under the stars often become those that are talked about for years to come. In my experience the night sky has an unmatched ability to unite people of similar interests, and become a place of asylum from the outside world with it’s silence and deep nothingness. Below in Figure 15 is an incredible photo of the sky that someone on camp managed to capture.

Figure 15

Inspiration sparked by the trip

Partnered with an already established passion for the outdoors, and a burning desire for new challenges, this trip inspired me to go out of my way more often, to take part in activities like the ones I did, specially Kayaking, Climbing and Hillwalking. Because of this trip I’m now looking into new outdoor challenges for myself, such as following my Dad’s footsteps with the 3 Peaks challenge or potentially taking on more difficult River formations to kayak down.

Experiences like this are something that don’t come round often, if ever, and have such a profound impact on my life, and because of this, I tried to take as much as I could from the trip and make memories which many other people in the world don’t get the opportunity to do. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities I’m given, and this trip was no exception.

I hope that by reading this you’ll also be inspired to take on more outdoor adventures and to reach further out of your comfort zone to the places where all good experiences are situated.

What did I learn from this trip?

Experiences and challenges like this are only to be enjoyed and learned from, and I’m always an advocate of the lessons that can be learnt from the things that I, and other people do. To name just a few, this trip taught me countless things about myself, the people around me, new skills, and alpine culture. Lessons which I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life, and can hopefully teach others when given the opportunity. Here you’ll read about some of the things which became much more prominent to me on this trip.

In short, one of the big lessons I learnt was that life isn’t all about money, and that things don’t have to be luxurious or expensive to be fun, or to give you a thrill. Undoubtedly, this is where scouting comes in, as it offers young people the opportunity to take part in certain activities at a fraction of the cost that they otherwise would. This trip was at the cheap end of a normal 2 week trip to the French Alps, and despite this, was still one of the best experiences of my life so far. I guess the stories of my experiences on this trip could play a part in the argument that money doesn’t buy happiness, although in some respects it probably does. In my world, I don’t believe that money buys happiness, I’m more an advocate of the fact that the journey to financial success is what brings more happiness. I’ve not a very materialistic person, and neither of my parents are either, I assume this allowed me to enjoy the trip more, as rather than thinking about the brand of my shoes or the price of my phone, I was making the most of the rare opportunities that were put in front of me.

I consider myself to be fairly able bodied, and I proved this to myself on the trip, by outperforming my expectations on many different activities, no more so than hillwalking, where I walked 21 km with 1500m of ascent and still felt as though I could do more. I also learnt about many new techniques of climbing, different climbing knots, new paddling strokes and techniques to jump from high places into water.

This trip taught me that humans are capable of much more than we believe ourselves to be. We can go further, climb higher and achieve more than ever before, but only when we take on new challenges and go to places which which take us outside our comfort zone. One thing I noticed was how surprised certain people around me were when they completed new or bigger challenges than what they’re used to. It showed me that lots of people are too often stuck in their comfort zone, with no urge to leave, or challenge themselves to reach their full potential. I prize myself in always wanting more, not in material terms, but always wanting to achieve bigger goals, to try new things and to take myself where I feel most uncomfortable, in order to develop myself as a person.

Leading on from this, it became prominent to me how destructive our comfort zone can be when we let it take control of us. This is something I read about in a book called “Unlock It” By Dan Lok, who said “Magic happens outside your comfort zone”. Many things such are Growth, Freedom, Achievement, Respect, Confidence and Fulfilment are rarely found inside our comfort zone. In the case of this trip, the most incredible views came after hours of uncomfortable and physically challenging climbing, the biggest thrills and happiness came after taking on white water rapids which I felt sceptical about at first and some of the biggest senses of achievement came as a result of overcoming some of the most difficult and enduring climbing routes I’ve ever been exposed. This is a lessons which I have been exposed to previously and can be learnt about infinitely in any walk of life. Whether you create a successful business after years of hard work, or get a date with your dream partner after finally plucking up the courage to ask them out.

If I asked you to make a list of all the things you want or want to achieve in life, you would have to go outside your comfort zone in order to achieve 90% of them, but it’s definitely worth it.

As well as the other lessons from the trip, I brushed up on my French speaking skills. Coming partly from a French family, I should ideally have French dialed down as a second language, but that’s not the case. Naturally by being in France for 2 weeks, I was forced to use the language if I wanted to get by when visiting shops, speaking to tour guides and conversing with the locals., and was probably one of the only times in my life where I’ve been happy with how I’d communicated in a foreign language.

There are many more smaller occurrences from this trip which I’d love to talk about, but without writing a book, it’s simply not possible.

Thank you to my parents for this opportunity and thank you to the organisers and leaders on the trip.