Sunday 24th August: Sunny and beautiful - 10°C all day
Alagna to Albergo del Ponte: 17.3k: 9.00am to 5.00pm: 8hrs
Bye bye Indren Hus
Last look at pretty Alagna
Beautiful sunshine, who cares where we go
Magnificent Alps, no snow in August
Uphill slog begins
Half way up there's a pretty chalet
It looks high and daunting
Yes it is high and steep
Coffee break after 1300metre climb
How nice is this view
Still another 500 metres to go
Friendly Ibex at the top
Lunch at the Col d'Olen 2887m
Col d'Olen at 2887 metres
Heater makes a great drying rack
Highlight of the day was all day! Beautiful sunshine, high mountain passes - Col de Forric at 2432 metres, Col d'Olen at 2887 metres, and our lovely home for the night Albergo del Ponte high in the mountains at 2338 metres. What more could we want on a trekking holiday? But poor old Hillary was wrong again though not so disastrous today. It was supposed to be a short walk of 12 up and over the Col d'Olen, but it was 17.3k. No problem as it was a magnificent day and not a 30k day. So all is good.
We had a sleep in this morning. It's Sunday and supposed to be a short day of 12k. Breakfast was nice but not wonderful - crusty Italian style bread and jam. We don't leave until 9am. Climbing out of the village along narrow winding footpaths, there's lots of Sunday day trippers. It's a really steep climb up through the forrest for the first 1300 metres to the first pass, the Col de Foric. We have a short coffee break half way up. It takes us almost 4hrs of hard slog. Frans Tour Group is already at this Col. Hi and bye again. Time for a quick snack of crusty bread and a lump of cheese. There's still another 500 metres to go to the second col.
The path up to the Col d'Olen is steep and rocky but the weather is just beautiful and sunny. This will be our first Col for a week with blue skies and sun. There's stlll a lot of people going up ad down. It's Sunday, and every man and his dog is out. We haven't seen so many dogs climbing mountains anywhere in France or Switzerland before. But this Italy and anything goes. Not far from the top, there's a group of hikers being entertained by a huge Ibex standing just a few meters away. It's horns are huge.
Finally at 3.30pm we're at the top and sure enough it's Fran's group again. Hi and bye. They leave and we sit down to a salad lunch - we've been carting these green leaves, cheese and dry meat around for 3 days with not a spare moment to eat a proper lunch. We're a bit piggy eating the salad with our fingers as we perch on an unstable rock in a corner of the Col. All gone! We savour the moment as the views across the Alps back into Switzerland are stupendous. There's lot a lot of snow on the Alps being late August.
Time to meander down through the barren rocks sprinkled with ski poles and an overhead gondola silently whisping above. But we know it's only another hour down and a 500 metre drop. Peanuts compared to the 1600 metre down hill drop yesterday. Our hotel, Albergo del Ponte, is at the bottom of the gondola and we arrive at 5pm. It's still 10°C and will get very cold at this altitude of almost 2400 metres tonight. Our room is warm and cosy with central heating. A good chance to do all our washing and hang it over the heaters. It's almost dry as we wander downstairs to the lounge room which has WiFi and blog while we have a drink and a few chips.
Dinner is at 7.30 - it's a 5 course real mountain meal - breadsticks, salad, entre of selected Italian foods, main meal of italian sausages, polenta, mushroom and deer (bambi he tells us in broken English) the pears soaked in wine and topped with cream. We leave like stuffed pigs, initially thinking that the entre was the main meal and eating too much before the main meal arrives. The heaters in the room are on full bore now, and our washing is almost dry.
Time to jump into bed with a few maps and plan the day. Tomorrow is a bit off the beaten track - a variant of the Tour de Monte Rosa that will take us further into Italy and along the Great Walser Route.
Snow on the nearby alps