Ben had found a via ferrata nearby with a zip-line and we've been wanting to try one of those for a while.
We had to skip the zip-line in Les Orres due to thunder, but now we had good weather.
We packed the gear and headed off setting the GPS to the right coordinates. First down towards Saint Jean de Maurienne, the town below La Toussuire. After a while of slow driving through serpentine mountain landscapes there was a "road closed" sign a few km further down the road. We figured better go check it out. It turns out it was our road that was closed, so new GPS route and off we went in another direction. After a while we were back in Saint Jean de Maurienne again? I thought, that's weird, we're heading back up? So I checked the GPS route and to my surprise it was sending us in a weird GPS circle!! A CIRCLE! I exploded in laughter and was half choking and crying as Ben, in frustration plotted a new route for us.
Seriously, I think I used up all the breakfast energy there.
So we drove on, this time going around the other way to get to the via ferrata. Down to a larger road, right next to the freeway, then back up a winding serpentine, up, up, up, right turns, left turns, right turns, left turns. And then.... another sign saying "road closed"! Argh! Sooo we'd been driving for more than an hour and had gotten NOWHERE! Ha hahahah!
Ok, now so we tried to find an alternative ferrata in the vicinity as this one so obviously tried to stay unreachable.The cell phone service was really bad up in that mountain so we started to head down. Comically enough, though, we only made it a couple of minutes down the road until we stumbled upon a sign for a via ferrata. Not the one we were looking for, but one we had overlooked on the way up.
So, in the valley Villards, close to St Colomban we stopped by Via ferrata de La Chal. It's a fairly new via ferrata and has a fun variety and a fascinating view off the rock face (and of the rock face). In the bottom there is a practice area for initiation to this type of climbing.
The ascent to the start was short, but a steep uphill walk along a trail. Unlike many other via ferrata, this one starts off hard core from the first step. The beginning is a vertical rock climb. I realized quite quickly I hadn't had enough to eat since our long haul yesterday. I didn't feel energetic enough for burst moves or static elements. But what the duck, the body is always capable of some extra if needed, so we kept on going.
The first part of the ferrata I was lead. Ben was checking all my moves and offered some fruit after the first straight ascent. That was good, because I was actually getting hungry.
He had had a huge dinner last night as well as large breakfast, so he was psyched.
After the next break Ben took the lead. At one point we reached a quite horrific climb up along a thin, traversing, overhang crack. There were long, slick handholds and the feet were supposed to go into the crack. The first half went fairly ok, although it was quite strenuous and we had to keep our weight as close to the wall as possible in order to spare the arms. The second part was really slippery so the previous method didn't work. We couldn't get our boots to stay put, they just kept sliding so we had to use arm strength to somehow jostle ourselves up and ahead. I got quite warm and felt my arms glide down the metal bar as I was trying to sweat myself upward. It was quite a jumble for a moment and hopefully no one saw us up on the flat mountain wall (in plain sight) like a fumbling lump of climbers half panicking. Both of us had some sweat on our brows when we finally got passed that point. I had to just stand still and breath for a while and Ben gave me his second banana that I devoured in an instant. Quite an athletic stunt. 
The rest of the ferrata was more regular kind of climbing, luckily. When we finally hit the top I downed my water in a straight gulp. We enjoyed the view from the top for a minute before heading back down again.
As we set out to drive back to La Toussuire Ben suddenly said, "Its weird, it feels like I've driven here before... all the roads look the same" I was a bit dumbfounded. Was he joking? "You did, we came up this way". . . he's face... I've been laughing the rest of the evening.
It was still quite early in the evening. Only somewhere after 5 PM. So we went grocery shopping and decided to make REAL food today. Turkey with tomato sauce, rice and veggies. Yummie. Next we ended the evening off with a movie.
(I'm still laughing)...
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