Day 7 La Fouly to Champex

This afternoon we have been graced by a fantastic thunder, lightening, and rain storm! Always love tom sit and watch these. I have the luxury of enjoying the show from our patio overlooking the Swiss valley we hiked out of today.

Our hike today to Champex was relatively easy in comparison to most of our days. We started today leaving from the little village of La Fouly and worked our way gently up and down along a stream, through pine forests, and meadows. We passed through some quaint Swiss villages, Issert, Moulin, Les Arlaches, and Praz de Fort. Each of these villages were incredibly charming with flower boxes in the windows, and fresh water around every corner ( something we have always loved about Europe). After passing through these villages, the road became a footpath that very quickly ascended as we began our 1500 ft climb to Champex. Again we encountered steep terrain with switchbacks and sharp turns. We were surprised at the climb, as our book didn't indicate that this would be such a strenuous section, fortunately some ares were shaded by pine trees, so the warm weather wasn't too difficult to handle.

Along our path we ran into our friends from Australia, our friends from London, and met a new family from Scotland. After about another hour and a half we came into the village of Champex. Fortunately our hotel was the first we reached and we were thankful to not have to walk too much further. Our hotel, Le Belvedere is run by a lovely German couple, Irene and Gabriel. We met their granddaughter, Betina as well. Betina was running around the front yard playing with a toy airplane. We enjoyed a beer and wine on the patio while our room was being finished, and we promptly showered, unpacked, and walked to the lake to see the rest of the village and meet up with our Australian and British friends.

Leaving La Fouly

Walking through the Swiss country side

Always fresh cold water along the way!

Swiss village of Issert

Working our way up to Champex

Leaving the valley behind

Le Belvedere, our home tonight

Room #4

Champex-Lac

The lake is small but lovely. There were paddle boats and paddle boarders cruising around in the sunshine. There are a few little restaurants on the lake as well. We thought that next time we do the TMB, that maybe we begin and end here, or at least have our day of in Champex.

The clouds have cleared, the show is over. Dinner will be served soon. Just finished dinner, and hands down, Irene is an amazing chef!  Best dinner we have had thus far.  Beautiful salad of greens (grown in the garden below our room), with garlic croutons, walnuts, grapes, and a large round of local soft cheese that was warm and crusted in garlic.  Main dish was a pork chop sauted and covered in locally grown mushrooms ( we actually walked the mushroom path), spinach linguine with parmesan and a grilled chard topped with bacon.

We are tired and will be turning in early tonight since tomorrow looks like another long and challenging day as we make our way to Col de la Forclaz.

Day 5 Courmayeur to Rifugio Bonatti

Day 5 Elisabetta to Rifugio Bonatti

A little rain shower greeted us this morning while we were having breakfast. The sun quickly appear and offered a fabulous fresh day for us to hike. We began walking from our hotel up a rode through a high end ski village called Villair. After about 25 minutes of gentle uphill walking, we found our trail to Rifugio Bonatti. The trail became very steep and rocky as we made our way up to 2000m (6500 ft) directly above our hotel in Courmayeur. After about 1 1/2 hours uphill we came upon the Rifugio Bertone, a nice resting spot after the uphill hike. After Bertone we began a beautiful 'meander' through high alpine meadows filled with windflowers. The views of Mont Blanc were staggering, and the expansive view of the Val Ferret far below was incredible.

Along the way we met a family from Holland with two young girls, out for a two day hike, a couple from South Africa, and saw our friends, Kath and Phil from Australia. After about 4 hours of picturesque hiking, we came upon Rifugio Bonatti. Today's hike was by far our easiest day and we welcomed the less challenging route. As with Elisabetta, Bonatti was quite the climb to reach, but again well worth the climb. It didn't seem like anything could beat Elisabetta, but Bonatti does. The view is incredible! Our room tonight is larger and has a window that overlooks the beautiful mountain range that we viewed during our hike today.

We enjoyed our lunch (sandwiches we made this morning) along with beer and wine at the picnic tables that overlooked the mountains. There were at least 75 people enjoying lunch, the beautiful sunshine, and the incredible views. As we sat waiting for our room to be ready and the showers to become available, we met a gal from Canada, two young guys from Ireland, and a family from Milan.

That night after a less than adequate dinner ( which was very disappointing) we retired at sundown.  About an hour later I noticed a light on the glacier across from us. There were rock/ice climbers camping on a rock just below the glacier!  I spent the next hour wondering how they got up there and where they were heading.  The next morning we could see their speck of a tent perched on the rock.

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A view of Courmayeur below

The shower felt amazing, and it was great to get in before all the people arrive. After our shower, we ventured back out to the tables and met with our Australian and South African friends. We met some English hikers and another Dutch couple as well. Everyone was out enjoying beer, wine, the views, the sunshine, and stories of their day. Its great to hear about parts of the path we have yet to experience, and share our stories of where we have been.

A View of the valley below

Dinner with our friends in Bonatti

Day 6 Bonatti to La Fouly

Goodbye Italy, hello Switzerland!

Day 6 Rifugio Bonatti to La Fouly

As I sit here in in my quiet room, with a private bath (woot) listening to the river raging by, I'm marveling at yet another fabulous day! Looking up from our window in our little Swiss hotel I can see the glacier covered alps and reflect on our long but wonderful day hiking into Switzerland from Italy.

Today started with a quick and less than adequate breakfast. Although Bonatti was a great room and location, their meals were disappointing. Since we knew that our day would be strenuous and challenging, we didn't spend much time lamenting over the lackluster breakfast. We packed up and headed out before 8am. We started with a nice walk out of the Refugio and began to descend to the valley floor about 1000 ft below. Once we walked to the valley, through beautiful wildflower filled meadows, we immediately began our climb up to Refugio Elena, which is another 1100 ft incline within a few kilometers. Elena was a beautiful stop for a quick snack and some water, and then up we go again another 1500 ft to the Fran Col Ferret.

Once we reached the Col, we could see all of the Italian Val Ferret from where we had come, over into the Swiss valley where we were headed, and all the way back to France from where we had been three days earlier! Spectacular!!!

We had lunch in a meadow just below the Col, and then got ready for our walk into Switzerland and the valley 2000 ft below. After 2 1/2 hours of downhill ( many times quite steep), we walked into the Swiss village of La Fouly. We arrived at our hotel, Edelweiss, and were thrilled to find our room with a view of the glaciers and mountains, as well as a raging river below us. Best part is our own bathroom and shower! No tokens needed, and no limit on how much time we can spend in the hot water! Simple luxuries.

The Swiss village of Ferret

We've arrived in La Fouly

Leaving the Refuge La Peule.  Two cups of Sprite were 6 euro!

Enjoying lunch in the meadow below Gran Col Ferret

The Italian Swiss border

We have climbed over 1500 ft thus far

Still going up

Looking back to Italy and the Val Ferret

On our way to Elena.

Climbing continues

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.