After the considerable advice I was given for my tent dilema (still unsolved atm!) I hoped I could get some more advice. I am planning on doing the gr5 section from lake geneva to les houches/chamonix in late september (starting 21/09), and I am planning on wild camping during (most) of the trip.
Has anybody got any experience of what conditions I am likely to encounter during this part of the season? My two sleeping bag choices are my small and light 2/3 season down bag (weighs 600g) combined with liner, or a 3/4 season TNF pyxis synthetic bag?
Obviously, the extra warmth of the synthetic bag is negated by its large pack size and heavy weight (ca 1500g), but will a 2/3 season down bag with a silk liner cut it in late september? Since I'm planning wild camping it will be at fairly high altitudes.
I've had every type of weather chucked at me on that stretch of the GR5... hot and sunny... cold and wet... thunderstorm... sudden snowfall... and you can't really plan anything in advance when the weather is going to be as varied as that! You'll have to search well in some places to find a secluded wild camping spot. In my experience, there's always someone wandering around from early until late, and on the short stage in Switzerland, wild camping is completely banned. I took my lightest sleeping bag with me on the GR5 (one that's not even rated for backpacking use) and found it perfectly adequate when I pitched the tent, though much of the time I just took the easy option of a refuge bed.
Can I just ask..are you the same Paddy Dillon who's cicerone guide on the gr5 I'm currently reading?!
I had the impression that wild camping was allowed as long as you bivouaced i.e. dusk till dawn? The main reason I plan on wild camping is that so late in to the season I am not confident any refuges will be open, and do not want to be stuck anywhere without any sleeping gear.
The camping situation in the Alps is not that simple. There are strict reserves, such as the one covering the Brevent, where it's not allowed at all. While some refuges will allow camping nearby, others quite definitely won't. Although you won't be going any further south this time, the situation between national parks varies. In the Vanoise, wild camping is forbidden, while in the Mercantour, a simple bivouac is allowed between 7pm and 7am. If you're intending to do 'proper' wild camping, where you'll be tucked out of sight somewhere and no-one will be able to find you, then I don't think that's a problem.
It's true that the refuges start closing around the time you're doing your trek, but there will still be plenty of accommodation in the villages. You might be able to do a sort of 'mix and match' thing... using accommodation in villages, then discreetly pitch in the wilds when villages are few and far between.
Hmmm...Seems like this may need some proper planning! Thanks for the advice Paddy, can I ask if you've ever wild camped in the section I'm planning to do? You say that wild camping is allowed near some refuges - I'm assuming this only applies when the refuge itself is open, and is at the discretion of the keeper?
Sorry to be asking so many questions, my original plan of walking and pitching were I pleased seems to have gone out of the window!
Yes I've wild-camped discreetly in places on that stretch where I'm not supposed to. I've also bivvied discreetly in old buildings where I'm not supposed to on that stretch, summer and winter, when the weather has been a bit too nasty to be out in a tent. When it comes to pitching outside refuges, most of them don't allow it, and I did once witness a very nasty exchange between a refuge guardian and a Belgian couple, to what I understood was a very polite and reasonable enquiry about the possibility of pitching a tent nearby. (Don't worry, it wasn't on the stretch you're thinking about!) When the chips are down and all other options are closed to me, I'll pitch wherever I want, but I'll always do it in a way that I won't be observed, and there'll be no evidence that I was ever there the next day, which is what wild-camping is really all about. Even when I was staying in refuges, I was aware of other folk who intended camping somewhere without permission, and I have to say that they were very good about it, since whenever I met them again, they'd had no problem. I came across a couple of very good wild campers... one a French woman... the other a German woman... and they'd taken the whole thing to new extremes. To put it bluntly, not only did they pitch wherever they wanted, but one of them was pretty cute about sneaking into refuges and gites for a shower, while I strongly suspect the other one wasn't averse to a little bit of shop-lifting to keep costs down! Ah well... takes all types!
