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You hike today around the eastern end of Les Dents du Midi, a spectacular 3000+m chain of peaks that signals your return to the high Alps. As the crow flies, there are only 8km to do today... but as the trails lie, you'll do almost double the distance, as well as a good deal of altitude, before you crest the rocky pass of Col du Jorat which overlooks your destination for the night: a mountain hotel on the Lac de Salanfé.

The lake is, like many in Switzerland, artificial, created by a 52m high dam built in the 1950's for hydropower. Overall, Switzerland satisfies 60% of its total electricity needs from hydropower, making it one of the "greenest" countries in the world... if you ignore the fact that most of the rest of the electricity they use is imported from French nuclear power stations. Although, given that unlike coal-/oil-/gas-fired power stations nuclear power doesn't significantly contribute to global warming, this may soon be seen as "green" too!

Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, Switzerland is also a great place to hike through....

Route
Head via Les Jeurs (1548m), Chalet à Bagne (1530m), La Sachia (1220m), and Les Orgières (1192m) to Mex (1118m). From there you'll have a long climb to the Col du Jorat (2212m) before a 45 minute descent at the end of the day to the Lac de Salanfé.

Alternatives: none really. If the weather is bad, take a rest day.
Map: ST-272T St. Maurice.

Journal
The House to House blog... stage 44.

Photos
<A couple of representative photos from this stage will be added here after the hike>
In the meantime, click here to go to all of the H2H photos on Flickr.

GPS Track
<To be added during or after hike>

Room and Board Options
Lunch: have a picnic (or two).
Dinner and overnight: the only to place to stay is L'Auberge de Salanfé (+41-(0)27761/1438, 3 doubles, 5 triples, 100 places in bunkrooms).

Getting There and Back
Chindonne: walk north and down to Troistorrents where there is a railway station (for train schedule information, see the SBB).
Lac de Salanfé: take the trail down from below the dam to Van d'en Haut (1391m -- 1.25h, -530m, 2.5km), from which a minibus can take you to Les Marécottes, which has a railway station (for the minibus, call +41-(0)27761/1329).
ViaMichelin Road Map and Driving Directions: centered on Troistorrents, centered on the Lac de Salanfé.

Background Information and Links
Many and various...

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