We said goodbye to our British and Spanish friends and walked out of the valley to head up a steep rocky path on our way to Italy. Today we climb over 3000 ft to reach the Col de Seine where France borders Italy. This took us through beautiful high mountain pastures and between two glacier peaks. We crossed through more snow and several rivers. After reaching the Col, we proceeded down about 1200 ft to a valley between two glacier formations. Here we arrive at the base of Refugio Elisabetta. I say the base because before you can actually arrive at the refuge, you must climb a few hundred feet to the actual refuge. This is by far the most spectacular location yet as the refuge sits up on a ridge overlooking a beautiful valley to our left, a raging waterfall, and the mountains that we came from in France to our right. Our room overlooks the valley and fortunately we have one of the few private rooms in the entire refuge. You share the toilets and the shower (there is one) for women takes tokens for a few minutes of hot water. The staff, Mauro and Marta are very friendly.
We arrived early because this was the shortest walk so far (5 1/2) hours, so we were able to shower before the masses arrived, and have a wonderful lunch of salami, cheese, bread, and wine of course. We sat at a table in the sun overlooking the valley below and watching all the hikers and bikers go by. We shared our lunch table with a lovely family from the Netherlands. Two 6 foot plus boys, 14 and 16, and their parents. They just rode up for Courmayeur on mountain bikes are were heading back down for the night. We are looking forward to what our dinner will be, and who we will meet tonight.
Had a fantastic meal of homemade pizza, risotto with zucchini, roasted pork, potatoes and green salad. We enjoyed our meal with five Australians and a French couple. Then after dinner we chatted with several people from Israel who also happened to have worked and lived in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek.
After dinner with our new friends Phil and Kath from Australia, we had a nice chat about US politics, and Phil says "is the sun going to ever set so we can go to bed?" And off we all went, happily, to bed.
Tomorrow we are off to Courmayeur tomorrow where we will stay an extra night and rest our shoulders.
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| Arriving at Col de la Seigne 2516m |
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| Refugio Elisabetta in view |
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| Our room. Deb gets the top bunk! Yay more steps! |
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| View from our window to the valley below. That is where our day begins tomorrow. |
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| Much needed and well earned lunch! |
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