DAY 18: Tuesday June 19th - Nevache to Mont Thabor:
Walk:19k, 7hrs, 8°C to 22°C (but mostly 15°C)
Accommodation: Refuge Mont Thabor
Our room has the washing outside
Climbing the Col de Thures
Hopping across icy water
Zig zags are OK with this backdrop
This view is just magic - or did I already say that before??
Can a lady find loo paper in peace!!
Sheer Magic
Pure Magic
Refuge Tre Alpini - Italian
Our 4 American friends who we have played tag with for 2 days
It's marmot country
Last climb - Col de la Vallee Etroit
Home for the night - no shower, no WiFi, but great friends and wine.
Today was a hard one - 2 cols to climb, the first one Col de Thures was a 800 metre climb and the second one, Col de la Vallee Etroite was up 700 metres, with a big down in between. We’re staying in a basic mountain hut with no WiFi, no showers, no hot water - but interesting walkers and a bottle of rough red.
It's a cool morning at 8°C but the manager tells us that’s warm as its normally 0°C in June. Breakfast at 7.30am then ring home from the hallway near the kitchen - the only place with WiFi. We wait around til 8.30am as we are trying to book Refuge Peclet Polset, high in the Vanoise - and they haven't returned my emails. It's good to get the owner/manager to book ahead as we can explain in English what we want and they can book over the phone in French. We're in. That leaves only Modane where there's lots of Hotels.
We leave at 8.30am walking up through pine forests. It's warm – already 22°C and we're drinking lots of icy cold mountain water. The track soon become stony and it’s getting cloudy and cold. We continue to climb towards the Col, can't stop, it's too windy and cold. But we do say a quick Bonjour to many walkers - at least 20 - heading towards us in the traditional direction of the GR5. There’s all shapes, sizes and ages - and big women you’d expect to be slow go sailing past me. it's nice to meet all these people but it also means you have to be careful where you go for a wee stop. Just any old rock won't do any more.
After 3hrs of climbing, we reach the Col where we aimed to have coffee, but it's too cold and windy. We keep walking down the other side and find a grassy patch out of the wind by a stream. It's 11.30am and we’re starving but there's another high Col. So we have a small snack of bread and cheese with coffee.
We start a steep descent into the Vallee Etroite - a beautiful grassy valley with a few houses and 2 refuges - both run by Italians as we’re only 3k from the Italian border in a part of the country that used to belong to Italy. Just 1 2k along the valley floor before we climb again, and we soon see our 4 American friends ahead - they had stopped for lunch at a refuge - Italian sandwiches. We trek this long ascent together, criss-crossing as we each stop for a break. Half way up, we have another coffee stop. It's 2pm but we can't have lunch - Cardinal rule 2 - don't stop before a hill - and there's still 2 hrs of climbing to do. We shelter behind a rock as it's now very windy and cold - the temperature is 14°C. Only 6k to the Refuge.
We move on and catch our friends on a steep slope and play tag again. It's very steep and I'm glad I have my trekking poles to haul me up. After a long climb we reach the Col de la Vallee Etroite. The Refuge Mont Thabor is only 1k off the GR5, but there's a climb to it and we have to cross multiple snow drifts - at least others have crossed before and the snow is compacted. Then the refuge looms in site but the last 100 meters is a sharp climb. There's a sign at the door - "take off your shoes" and another to “toilets and bagno” - whatever that is - toilets, but no shower, just a wash basin with cold water.
Upstairs to the dining room and dorms - 20 beds per room. I take the top bunk so I don't get trampled when Ian visits the loo. No point unpacking, no room. No point changing to clean clothes, no shower. We’re starving – we’d stuck by our rule - no lunch before an uphill climb to Mont Thabor. So its 4pm when we dig out our cheese and stale bread, buy a bottle of rough red and sit down to enjoy a late lunch.
There's snow outside and the temperature is dropping quickly. We go back to our dorm and organise the bunks with our sleeping sheet liners beneath the supplied doona. We get our remaining cheese and ham and hang it in a bag outside - at 0°C, it's colder than a fridge. There's no lights in the bedroom so we sit and chat to the 4 Americans, compare notes and wait for dinner. Hot pea soup, cabbage coleslaw with squares of polenta with small sausages - we all agree it's marmot meat in the sausage - we've seen dozens of them today - then a small slice of cheese and a slab of chocolate brownie. Then there's nothing to do except go to bed. It gets warm very quickly with many bodies in the one room
Sampling local wine and blogging
Weather closing in on Mont Thabor