Martigny to Orsières

After Martigny, the Via Francigena leaves the wider Rhone River Valley and enters the narrow Dranse River Valley. Many pilgrims consider the first 12 kilometers from Martigny to Sembrancher to be the hardest stretch of the entire Via Francigena. I haven’t finished the entire Via Francigena yet, so I can’t say with certainty that it is the most difficult stretch of the entire pilgrimage, but it was definitely the hardest thus far.

The trail is narrow, extremely rocky, and you ascend almost 3,000 feet while also descending over 2,000 feet over that 12 kilometers. It seems to go on forever, and for much of it, it is one carefully placed, awkward step at a time. My frustration with it was compounded by the fact that I was still suffering from the mistake of trying another pair of boots for the first two days out of Lausanne. I thought I needed boots to tackle the Alps, but the boots almost killed me, and although I went back to trail running shoes, my feet hadn’t come close to recovering.

Trail Wisdom: If every time you take a descending step down a trail, your toes feel like someone is pounding them with a mallet, the trail from Martigny to Orsières will make you question all your life decisions.

The trail begins to climb immediately after leaving Martigny, and after some challenging trail along the side of a mountain, it drops down into the valley to cross the Dranse River on a long suspension bridge, which is always an unnerving experience even if you have faith in its strength. Bridges just should’t move around!

I took a rest stop to pull off my shoes after the suspension bridge, and John, the Australian, walked up. We then walked for most of the afternoon together although he was stopping one village short of Orsières. I see now that I must have remained focused on not falling rather than on taking photos on the roughest parts of the trail.

In the village of Les Valettes, we walked by a wonderful display of folk art:

John turned off to his room for the night in Sembrancher, and I carried on to Orsières.

On the last stretch into Orsières, a young British man, walked up on me. He had already walked well over 20 miles for the day, so he was happy to slow his pace to walk with me into Orsières. I learned his name is Ed, and he is walking from Canterbury to Rome. He has lived in London for the past 10 years, where he teaches French and German, but he is in the process of moving to Brighton. We ended up having dinner together in Orsières, where I splurged on a burger that was insanely good. Ed and I have since walked together a couple more times en route to the Great St. Bernard Pass.

In 1800, Napoleon decided to go to the aid of the Army of the Rhine, which had been encircled by the Austrians in Genoa. He chose the shortest route, which was the Great St. Bernard Pass, and he led 40,000 soldiers with artillery through snow and severe cold in the crossing that occurred from May 16 to 18. The route took them from Martigny, Switzerland into the Aosta Valley of Italy, essentially along the route of the Via Francigena. The daring trek allowed him to surprise and defeat the Austrians.

Next up: Orsières to Bourg-Saint-Pierre (the last stop before the Great St. Bernard Pass)