Day 4 - July 1, 2024 (Italy; to Refuge Elena, 10 km, +704 m, -631 m)

It's a good thing someone set an alarm for breakfast at 7:00 am, because I was right out. Breakfast was the minimal style we remembered from our previous time in France: Bread, Melba toast, and jam, as well as the option of a large bowl of rich hot chocolate rather than tea or coffee. 

We ate quickly and set out under overcast skies, but it soon turned into sun, with glorious views of mountains (Les Grandes Jorasses) and the rolling green pastures of Arminal, Malatra, and Arnuva, where the milk from the grazing cows are used to make Fontina cheese. We had our picnic lunch at Refuge Walter Bonatti, with lovely views of a glacier and bucolic cows grazing nearby. 

After lunch the day's hiking seemed increasingly laborious, (less steep, unrelenting up than the day before, but much more distance) but we persevered (little did we know that we would come to regard this as one of the easy days!). As we neared our hut for the night (Refuge Elena), we finally had rain, although it was just a gentle shower - most of the time I was fine with just my hat and no rain jacket hood. 

This night's hut was bigger and more modern than the previous - the bathrooms/showers were nicely set up (but the large dormitory would prove to be very hot and noisy overnight). Dinner at 7:00 pm was filling: Spaghetti with tomato sauce, turkey with peas, ham and fried polenta, and lemon/blueberry tarts for desert. Miles happily got a large slice of watermelon, in substitution for his egg allergy.

The sun comes out

Snack break - we eat our gorp that travelled with us from home (pretzels, pepitas, peanuts, Smarties, jujubes, and caramel corn) - Karim declared it our "hamster food"

Picture perfect background of Les Grandes Jorasses

The horses observed us go by

Miles hiking - his quick-dry yellow pants always made him easy to pick out in the landscape

Beautiful pink rhododendrons framed the valley view

Striking blue ice of Frèboudze Glacier from Refuge Bonatti

Our lunchtime neighbours at Refuge Walter Bonatti

Miles measures our progress

Miles prepares to take a turn leading a donkey

Mark spent much of the day helping to lead a donkey - at one point the donkeys needed an alternate route, bushwhacking through some fields rather than the steep up and down of the forest path

Us humans crossed the bridge, but Sébastien told us the donkeys would not cross it, and would instead ford the river

The water raged downhill rapidly, and, frankly, seemed impossible to imagine fording

The donkeys took quite a bit of persuasion, but Sébastien led them each across successfully

Looking downriver it seemed more peaceful

Mark would have to duck under to fit in the doorway of this old stone ruin

Patches of unmelted snow on our way up to Refuge Elena

The view from Refuge Elena was spectacular, but it was too windy to stay outside long to enjoy

The other boys were envious of Miles' large slice of watermelon for desert






































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 9 - July 6, 2024 (France; to Chamonix, 6 km, +100 m, -600 m)

Image
Breakfast was yogurt, cereal, bread, and jam. Then we had a relatively short, although steep, climb to the Nature Reserve Chalet of Des Aiguilles Rouges . There were interesting, interactive exhibits about the local environment, which everyone enjoyed. It started to rain as we hiked back, but we had our picnic lunch (couscous, sausage, cheese, bread, and apples) under the shelter of the overhanging patio that we'd enjoyed the day before, so we stayed dry. Our taxi arrived to take us from Tour to Chamonix - the driver kindly offered to drop us off right at our hotel when we heard we weren't taking the bus to Courmayeur with the others. We said our good-byes to everyone, then returned to the Hotel Folies Douces, where our suitcase with clean clothing awaited, and our room was ready early. Unfortunately, it continued to be quite rainy, so no chance to take the Aguille du Midi gondola, and the final departure for the Monenvers glacier had already passed at 3:00 pm. But, it gave us ...
Read more

Day 6 - July 3, 2024 (Switzerland; to Gîte Arpette, 17 km, +600 m, -700 m)

Image
Breakfast was bread, cheese, homemade jam, yogurt from the gîte's cows, and cereal. We set off on a long, but gentle descent to the village of La Fouly so that Sébastien could restock with groceries for our daily picnics, then further descent through a park with lush forests and rapid rivers and cascades. It is amusing walking with the donkeys, as they are like celebrities - so many hikers would stop to take photos and videos of them (we never saw another group hiking with donkeys on our whole trip). We had lunch at a picnic area playground with a zipline - the boys competed to see who could rebound the farthest. Mark started launching them, which really upped the game. But eventually we had to start hiking again, as today was our longest stretch to cover (although not the steepest elevation changes at least). We continued through a village (I think it was Praz-de-Fort) that had some houses built into and around large boulders that must have been deposited by past glacial action. T...
Read more

Day 8 - July 5, 2024 (Switzerland-France, to Chalet Alpin du Tour; 6 km, +900 m, -600 m)

Image
The morning was spent going up, up, and up - 900 m, our longest one-day and single stretch ascent, which is like walking up the CN Tower twice in a row! It was steeper and forested at the outset, then more gradual, sunny and hot (25 Celsius), but with a cool breeze. I was lagging behind very slow as we neared the summit of the Col de Balme mountain pass (the border between Switzerland and France), questioning why I had chosen this as my 50th birthday wish, but I made it, and it was worth it.   We picnicked on the grass at the summit, by the border between Switzerland and France, looking back over our path from Switzerland, and the Refuge du Col de Balme hut. There was a steep, snowy hillside that the kids slid down before we departed - Miles regretted not having more time to sled.  Then we crossed the border. The view of Mont Blanc was incredible - it was a dazzling, sunny day. We then had a long descent to Chalet Alpin du Tour , out last stay of the hike. At one point, one of...
Read more