Day 4 Refugio Elisabetta to Courmayeur

We watched the sun rise over the alps and valley that we would be hiking out of this morning.  We rose early as the rifugio was bustling by 6 am.  Those who didn't get hot water last night were eager to get a shower before the long hot hike out.

We enjoyed a quick breakfast of strong coffee, biscuits, bread with nutella and jam.  No yogurt or granola this morning. The Italian's seem to survive on a very light breakfast.  We said goodbye to our Israeli friends, and talked to Kath and Phil (our Austraian friends) about meeting up in Bonatti

The sun rising over the valley below Elisabetta

Thankful for the well marked paths

Leaving Elisabetta

We began our hike by climbing down the rocky jeep path from the rifugio.  The beginning of our journey today was flat and leisurely for about 20 minutes. Then we quickly made a right turn onto our trail which began climbing immediately up to Col Checrouit at 2659m (over 8000 ft).  The uphill hike was beautiful. Winding our way through wildflower filled meadows, snow patches, ski runs, and crossing more creeks. We passed through giant moraine fields from old glaciers, beautiful pine groves that smelled like Christmas.

Each time we rounded a corner we were marveled with the spectacular views of the mountain peaks surrounding us.  At certain points on the trail we were surrounded by mountain peaks. We had perfect views of Aiguille Noire (a high peak that stands alone), The Miage glacier, Mont Chetif, and then finally the entire southern face of Mont Blanc.  This is the best and closest view of Mont Blanc thus far, so close we could almost touch it.

At the Col Checrouit. Great rest stop and restaurant. From here we can see down (way down) to Courmayeur. Now that we've enjoyed this beautiful uphill adventure, it's time to navigate the dreaded down hill. We need to drop over 4000 ft, in less than 2 miles to reach Courmayeur.  The path is ridiculously steep, filled with a multitude of switchbacks and hairpin turns.  We had to navigate several wood and stone steps while dropping down rapidly.  The path was dusty, rocky, and filled with tree roots and stumps.  Needless to say, we quickly forgot the beautiful scenery from the morning uphill climb.  It was a long arduous task, but we made it.

Later in the afternoon, after a long hot shower and putting our feet up, we realized we needed to eat something. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, which seemed like a lifetime ago, so we mustered up enough energy to walk to town. Thankfully town was only 5 minutes away. We ran into one of our Israeli friends and he joined us for a beer.  As we were lamenting over the down hill walk, he said that they paid 15 euro to take the gondola down.  Initially we didn't want to deviate from the hike as we felt that was cheating, however when we do this trip again, we will take the gondola. Money well spent.



Arriving in Courmayeur and passing through the stone village of Dolonne.                        
Tomorrow will be our day off and a much needed day of rest

Day 3 Auberge de la Nova to Refugio Elisabetta

Day 3 Auberge de la Nova to Rifugio Elisabetta

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.

Arriving at Col de la Seigne 2516m

Refugio Elisabetta in view

Our room.  Deb gets the top bunk! Yay more steps!

View from our window to the valley below. That is where our day begins tomorrow. 

Much needed and well earned lunch!

Day 2 Contamines to Auberge de la Nova

Day 2
Starting our morning being woken by cowbells as the cows feed in the pasture in front of our room.  Looking forward to coffee and a hearty breakfast with Fiona and Chris.  Then off for another 7 hours of what we are told is another uphill adventure.

We started with a leisurely 30 minute walk from the Chalet through town. Shortly we entered into a beautiful park area that ran along the river. Then we began a very steep climb out of the wooded area. We encountered lots of water crossings and several snow crossings. We crossed a Roman bridge with a massive waterfall. All in all, today we climbed up from 3000ft up to the peak at 8000 ft (Col du Bonhomme) and then back down to 4500ft in 7 hours! Quite a strenuous day. Thankful to have poles to help with the steep inclines and declines!

Meals in the auberge is a new experience for us, everyone sits together at communal tables, you find your name at a table and the meal is served family style. Met lots of great people tonight at the auberge. Sat with an English couple, a French family, and a gentleman from Barcelona . Had a fantastic meal of beef burgundy with roasted potatoes (exactly what Jeff was hoping for after a long day). Carrot soup to start and a raspberry tart for dessert.

After dinner, we tried to stay awake until the sunset, and barely made it. The auberge wakes early so we fell asleep quickly to rest for our long hike to Italy!

Chalet Chovettaz! Fiona and Chris were amazing.

Saying goodbye to Fiona and Contamines.

And up we  again!

Making our way down to Les Chapieux, slowly.

Our home for the night.  Torture to have to climb up the stairs to our room,
and back down for dinner.

Day 1 Les Houches to Contamines

So we started out in Les Houches  with our destination being Les Contamines.  We were feeling ambitious so we decided to take the variant route which adds 2 hours, 2 kilometers, and 1400 kilometers of climb to our day.  The up side is that we get to hike to the base of a glacier! And we have views that promise to be amazing. We were not disappointed! The glacier was amazing and the views were unsurpassed!
What we didn't know was that we would climb and decend 5 times in an 8 hour period!  The other imperative items that were missing from our book that we followed like a bible were that we BOTH needed hiking poles, and that there were NO meandering paths. We were either climbing at a steep pitch, or decending at an even more ridiculous pitch with rocks on the path! Last item that was not mentioned in our book was that parts of this path were only passable by the use of cables attached to very narrow, wet rocky ridges that were in avalanche zones and had extremely steep (at least 500 foot) drop offs.  Even through all this, we enjoyed spectacular views, a fantastic lunch in the valley below a glacier, and finally when we reached our Chalet Chovettaz where we were greeted by Chris and Fiona with a cold beer, spectacular room, and fabulous meal.  Tomorrow is a new day!

Fun places to grab a quick beverage

Great lunch in a beautiful meadow below a glacier!

Working our way down to the valley

Great Himalayan bridge.

Two days until our departure

As promised, I have laid out all of my gear for the trip.  The tricky part was how to pack 12 days worth of hiking clothes, rain gear, toiletries, etc into a pack that I can manage for the entire 105 miles.  Sadly the items that took up the most room were my toiletries.  Day cream, night cream, sunscreen, eye cream, and a plethora of hair and skin care products.  It takes a lot to keep this old girl going. 

Here are my things laid out, my empty pack, and my full pack.  I only had to remove a few items (not creams of course).  Success!!!

Accomodations

Date	Hotel	Address/Phone	Price/dinner	Cash/Credit
28-Jul	Hotel Le Chamonix	11 Rue de l'hotel de Ville	102E/rm	Credit
		Tel : +33(0)4.50.53.11.07
29-Jul	Hotel Le Chamonix	11, Rue de l'hôtel de Ville	102E/rm	Credit
		Tel : +33(0)4.50.53.11.07
30-Jul	Chalet Chovettaz	30 chemin de la Chovettaz d'en Haut	110E/rm/45E	Credit
		Tel: +33 (0) 4.50.47.73.05
31-Jul	Auberge de La Nova	Les Chapieux	56E/pp/half	Cash
		+33 4 79 89 07 15
1-Aug	Refugio Les Mottets	Vallee De Glaciers	196/room/half	Cash
		+ 33 (0) 479 070 170
2-Aug	Gran Baita	Strada Larzey-Entrèves, 2	152E/rm/break	Credit
		+39 0165 844040
3-Aug	Gran Baita	Courmayeur	152E/rm/break	Credit
4-Aug	Refugio Bonatti	Malatra Val Ferret	60E/pp/half	Cash
		(+39) 165 869055
5-Aug	Hotel Edelweiss	1944 La Fouly-Orsieres	217chf/rm/half	Credit
		0041 (0)27 783 26 21
6-Aug	Belvedere	Relais de campagne CH1938	220sfr/rm/half	Credit
		41 27 783 11 14
7-Aug	Col De La Forclaz	Forclaz 2 1929 Trient	118chf/rm/half	Credit
		027/722.26.88
8-Aug	La Boerne (dorm)	288 Tre Le Champ 1400m	45E/pp/half	Credit
		04 50 54 04 14
9-Aug	Refugio La Flegere (dorm)	On TMB path-Catherine	52E/pp/half	Cash
		+33(0)6.03.58.28.14
		+33(0)4.50.55.85.88 C
10-Aug	Hotel Le Chamonix	11 Rue de l'hotel de Ville	102E/rm	Credit
		Tel : +33(0)4.50.53.11.07

Three weeks from departure

Yesterday,  Jeff and I went to REI to check out packs for our trip.  We have several heavy back packs from our treks to Kibbie lake, but we needed something lighter for our TMB adventure.  We will not be carrying our sleeping gear (ie; tent, stove, sleeping bag) or food, thankfully. 

So the dilemma at this point was, do I need a 32 liter, or 27 liter pack?  Jeff was looking at packs on line, however, I am a touchy feely kind of girl and need to see exactly how much space is inside these packs.  So to end the suspense, I have ordered a 27 liter pack and let's hope that all my 'stuff' will fit.  After 30+ years together, I still don't think Jeff understands how much stuff I really need.  Anyway, this pack should be fine since I do know how to travel light.

This past week I have also spent time reconfirming all of our reservations and putting together a travel doc with all the necessary information on our whereabouts as well as the contact information of all the refuges where will be staying.  Important within this doc as well, is whether or not the refuge accepts credit.  We want to make sure that we have enough cash on hand to pay our bill (I don't like to wash dishes), and there aren't ATM machines in every village.

Next week we will be going over our inventory list to make sure we have everything we need.  Medical supplies are essential as well.  Key items on this list would be benedryl (for bug bites), nu-skin, sudafed and mucinex (since we have all had the dreaded cold we received from the recirculated air on a plane), motrin and other pain relievers, sleeping aids (besides wine), and of course a laxative.  We will also be organizing all our our gear and doing a trial run of packing our packs.  So stay tuned, this should be interesting!