CONQUERING the Chasm of France’s Via Ferrata du Parc Thermal

You're probably thinking what if one of these steps breaks off? This thing's jiggling like me after a three-day Ben and Jerry's binge. So I've just arrived outside Mont Blanc in Chamonix here in the heart of the French Alps and right behind me is this is a hot springs resort or something and they have a via ferrata, the via ferrata Parc du Thermal. It's supposed to be a beautiful via ferrata along this gorge here with waterfalls and a Nepalese bridge which you know we already have experience with those but they're supposed to be real difficult so we're going to see we're going to see what this looks like. I don't know a whole lot about this via ferrata but it's uh it's 5 15 doesn't get dark till about 8 30 9 o'clock plenty of daylight it's only supposed to take about an hour but let's go check out the via ferrata du Parc Thermal. So I'm guessing that the the hot springs resort here must make use of a natural hot springs. Not sure if this river is the hot springs or if they divert it somewhere higher up but I'm gonna have to come back and soak in those hot springs because look at that view of the Alps. Beautiful. Bonjour. If you've never heard of a via ferrata before it's basically rock climbing with a bunch more safety precautions. You don't need to be a competent rock climber because you just clip in all these cables. Via ferrata means iron way in Italian and they were invented during now I can't remember if it was world war one or world war two they were invented during one of the world wars to get troops across the mountains without having to teach them how to rock climb so you always have one clip clipped in at all times. Here we go going way up there. Basically if you can climb a ladder you can do a via ferrata. I mean it's a little different but not by much. So far it really reminds me of a wild wire Wanaka in New Zealand because you're right next to these beautiful waterfalls. This is absolutely gorgeous. Okay so there is the first first escape route. It's a good technique to bring your your lanyard with you as you climb so you don't have to reach back for it. Going up there. I don't understand. Do you speak English? A little bit. Okay me too a little bit French. First time? Okay no problem no problem. Okay this part this part is tough this is the toughest part yeah it's okay it's good yeah so these lanyards are one time use only in the sense that if you fall you can't repack it there's like 15 foot of material in here to save you from breaking your neck or or dying but once that comes out you gotta shell out the money for another one of these so the goal is not to fall because you still could you know impale yourself on one of these steps or you still could get hurt you just won't die so it's good to bring a safety tether backup beaner you can clip on and load and rest like especially if you get like a log jam like I got right now oh boy oh yeah oh yeah beautiful yeah starting to think that jeans were not the right attire oh yeah look at that beautiful this is hard you waiting for them oh you're going out there how much harder does it get sorry do you know have you done this before yeah a little bit harder yeah a little bit okay if you like hanging off a cliff right before the sunset oh this thing's cool man this thing is cool man look at that look at me wobbly that is really wobbly a little jiggle in my wiggle right now this is another cruisy day in France Pont Nepali oh it's the Nepali bridge we meet again Nepali bridge here we go walking on the bridge Nepali bridge oh yeah look at that they always say don't look down have you ever heard that like don't look down but if you don't look down then you're gonna miss this awesome view so I say of course look down whoa holy crap whoa it's getting super wobbly man I did not expect it to be this wobbly all right I changed up my hand position to pull it towards me underhand holy cow this thing is so friggin wobbly all right well I have to be fair to the Nepali bridges that I've been on they all felt a lot safer than this although I wasn't like uh clipped in when I was on those so you'd think that would make me feel safer but you know this thing jiggling like a mofo this thing's jiggling like me after a three-day Ben and Jerry's binge oh it gets so hot I just want to jump in that water over there oh my god this is look at how much it's shaking wow I think there's holy cow this feels unmanageable the amount that it's moving all right well I'm in the middle now so it's gonna be the shakiest it's gonna be one hand at a time wow this is this is crazy this is crazy man if your arms aren't gassed before this point your forearms will certainly be gassed after this holy cow holy cow this thing is jiggling like there's no tomorrow man if you like we are for routers and jiggling on one single wire oh my god this is ******* crazy how jiggly this is if you like jiggling on one wire like a stupid tourist then you must come to Park Duther Mahal wow this is nuts so jiggly wow this was totally unexpected they call this Nepali bridge this bridge felt sketchier than any Nepali bridge I've ever been on that thing was so scary and I was clipped in real jiggly out in the middle crazy I've got to be getting close hopefully we get another good view of the waterfalls oh okay that's a tricky move holy cow oh that was tricky okay okay okay Park Duther Mahal got some moves you got some moves not just climbing a ladder not just climbing a ladder anymore yeah let's make the rock wet let's add that little x factor in there you know come on you made it this far might as well do it with muddy feet kick it up a notch oh yeah look at that wow oh beautiful wow that was way better than I expected it to be I'm actually tired it took me two hours to do it and I think it said it only supposed to take like an hour hour and a half something like that obviously those guys ahead of me slowed me down a little bit but they ended up bailing everyone that was in front of me ended up bailing through one of those bailout side points but man there's definitely some tricky moves on there and I was glad to have long arms to reach them also glad to have that extra beaner tether to to take a break absolutely if you do this you're going to need something to take a break whether it's just a single beaner or another like a static or dynamic tether safety tether cow's tails we call them something to take a break I was taking a lot of breaks that's why it took me two hours but I wouldn't recommend doing it in jeans no not recommended also bring some water which I neglected to do although I have a bunch back in the car two liters back in the car I'm gonna house those this is this blew me away not just with its beauty because it was beautiful but also I think it technically might be the most difficult via ferrata I've done up until this point now I think this is the fifth via ferrata I've done fifth or sixth something like that and certainly some tricky moves some swings and wide grabs and some wide step a little bit of stemming but overall awesome definitely you find yourself near Chamonix France check out the via ferrata I had my own gear I'm not sure I didn't see any place that rents gear here but I'm sure there probably is a place in town or something like that but getting your own gear is the way to go that way you can travel the world and do awesome stuff like this plenty more coming from France but in the meantime get out there find your adventure and be infamous infamous