Week at the Knee

This afternoon (Friday) I've mostly been hanging about, writing this blog and sorting out photos. Oh, and eating weird runny French cheese, baguette and pain au chocolat. The guys have gone off to do a big route that requires a 2 or 3 hours glacial approch, an overnight Bivi and then a long day climbing tomorrow. Therefore it's a night chilling on my own, reading and contemplation. Here's a run down of the past few days...

Tuesday:-
Cloud. Had a reply from a physio, might be heading there later in the week. Still having knee pain. Went for a bit of a walk in the woods towards a glacier and def doesn't feel much better.
Found a place doing Helicopter rides, €200 for 30 minutes covering most of the Mont Blanc Massif. Worth it?

Weds:-
Woke to some sunshine, got stuff ready and dropped Sam off bouldering again. Got myself some strong Ibupofen tablets that seemed to help. I decided to make good use of the visibility and lift pass, so headed up the Le Tour lift to get a few shots, then back down and up the Grand Montets lift too, more good shots and a look at the Petit Verte route which looks quite easy and fun.

Arrived back down and decided to head to Chamonix to go up more lifts if possible to get my day's worth of money out of it. However when I got to the Midi station it was rammed, after a bit of diving around and not even finding a parking space I decided to give up and head back to the tent. I got back to find two familiar faces sat in our chairs in the sun. Ally and Alex had finally arrived, so we went and found Sam and had a relaxed afternoon at the boulders.

Thursday:-

A day of contrasts.

Started the day feeling great and rather optimistic. Had a great hot shower, the weather was amazing, less knee pain, and two more friends around. Ally and Alex arrived at our tent fairly early, we got a few bits together and then headed into Chamonix. They both decided to walk up to the Mer De Glace while me and Sam got the tourist-trap Montenvers railway up to the glacier. We got there fairly quickly despite the crowd, and had a walk round. Soon got very pissed off with tourists and the beginnings of knee pain.

When Ally and Alex arrived, we headed across the mountain side toward the mid-station of the Midi cablecar. The plan was to try and find an unattended/empty hut in the trees that could be a possibility of free accomodation, as suggested by a mate of Ally's. Then, those 3 would run down to Cham while I got the lift and we'd meet in town.
I was really enjoying the walk, it felt good to be actually out doing something after a few days of sitting around. The walk was mostly up hill or level, and I was only really getting knee pain when coming down hill. So naturally out of impatience or frustration at my downhill speed, I was hammering it uphill whenever possible.
We stumbled across a half fallen down hut in the trees, but on inspection it didn't appear to be the one Ally's mate had tipped him off about. We messed about there for a bit and then carried on.

Eventually we came to a fork in the path that led on to the lift station or up hill and looping back to the Mer de glace. Up hill we went to try and find this elusive hut. About half way up the snaking up hill path, something didn't feel right. So far walking up hill had been fine and almost fun, but suddenly I was getting very nasty knee pain again to the point where I had to stop and sit down, leaving the guys to carry on while I waited for them to come back in the opposite direction. So I waited just thinking I was being a bit wet, or tired or dehydrated, and tried to ignore this new development by amusing myself via the passing tourist show.
Japanese hikers in full waterproof hiking gear, gloves and sun hats with face veils. Half naked sweating overweight middle-aged italian or french men with family in tow, and the hordes of british walkers geared up to the eyeballs letting out a forced 'Bonjour' or 'Merci' to me when they passed. I've given up replying in French now and say Hello or Hi, or if they are obviously Brits, a very Mancunian 'Alright!'.

The guys returned, and we began back downhill towards the lift station, via the winding uphill path. This is where things got worse. I could barely walk on level ground, bending my knee by just 45 degree seemed to hurt. I was actually enjoying stopping to let the lines of walkers pass by in the opposite direction so I could rest my knee, something I would normally have avoided when possible!

Due to my pace, the guys left me far behind and waited further up the path. When I caught up I decided to walk back to the glacier instead of on to the lift station, as it was the choice between an hour back or anhousr and 20 mins onward. We parted ways and I then had a rather long, slow, painful and embarassing walk back alone, only to be passed by hikers looking surprised at the sight of a climber type limping along a walkers footpath. My reward when I made it? A train full of screaming kids and sweaty tourists.

Back down in Cham, I met the guys for a much needed monster burger at Midnight Express. Unfortunatley this time, the girl serving was a complete arsehole, and despite us being very clear muck up the order and insisted it was our fault. After this, we headed to the mountain guide's office and had a look around. /by now feeling a bit happier and amused at our antics, and escpecially by the sight of Sam almost vomiting in a public space due to a rotten apple in the box he bought.

Later that evening, I managed to get online to find my Dad has been in touch with the BMC on my behalf about my travel insurance and my current situation. They have recommended a hospital in Cham. to visit, and I've yet to clarify all the details and find out what happens next, but there's also a new worry. Unfortunatley, I don't have a European Health Insurance card. Something until now, I'd not really heard of, but was annoyingly assured by Sam 'everyone had'. Maybe this is my own ignorance, bad preperation or just down to lack of european experience, but I was now feeling even more at a loss than earlier in the day.

As for the significance of this, I'm yet to find out, it might be nothing or it might make things expensive.  So now, I'm having serious doubts about whether I should stay in Chamonix, or head home, or do something else if fund allow it. I have 7 seperate days remaining on my lift pass to use as yet, but if I'm going to struggle climbing even easier grades or even hike then there might not be much else to do. It's been a week since I tweaked my knee and now it seems worse than before.

I'm trying to remain optimistic, I can't get angry about things not going to plan, as there wasn't really a plan in the first place, but could this be making things worse? For now, that's a big enough update, it's gone from a quick one into a short story, so enjoy the recent new photos and I'll have some more news on my misfortunes when it comes!