I was up at the Cabane du Demècre last week on the Tour des Muverans as well. Today was just a day tour from the parking at l’Erié. I’m not sure I can completely recommend this, the road up is fairly exciting, the lower sections are really steep and the signs at the bottom claim the width is restricted to 1.7m. I reckon that’s about the length of my slalom skis and I’m pretty sure my car is wider than my skis.
In fact, I’ve just checked and my Subaru Forester 1m 78cm wide or 2m if you count the mirrors. So my impression while driving up of the car hanging into space over cliff edges was not far from the truth. The lower bit of the road is surfaced and is about the steepest, there’s a series of bends that required the steering on full lock and the gear box in 1st in low ratio. Higher up the road surface disappears and it’s loose stone and rock debris from winter avalanches. After 16km and 1500m of ascent you arrive at a surprisingly large car park with a fair number of cars.
The reward for all this is a good path traversing the cliffs with amazing views over the valley, Martigny and onto Mont Blanc.
Up in the alpage area there’s some cows grazing (and I’d be curious to know how they got them there) and a small lake before the larger lake at the barrage. From here it’s a 500m climb to the Cabane du Demècre for a drink before a descent, via a geocache, to the car park and another hair raising drive down the mountain.
