Some mountains remain in your imagination long before your feet finally touch their paths. For me, the Dent du Chat was one of them. I had wanted to climb it for the longest time. Its distinctive tooth-shaped summit is difficult to ignore when travelling around Lac du Bourget. It rises above the lake as though keeping watch over the towns, villages and water below. Yet whenever I mentioned wanting to hike it, the responses were almost always the same, “It is very steep.” You need to be careful.” “The final climb is not easy.” The warnings did not make me want to abandon the idea. If anything, they made the…